The cars are reuniting this year at Downtown Las Vegas Events Center. Same for the white stripes.
But note the lowercase treatment there, music fans. Live entertainment is bowing out, revenue-producing asphalt territory returning, to the downtown Las Vegas parcel.
The last show on the DLVEC schedule is Canadian DJ Excision’s back-to-back appearance show April 24-25. To be added: The May 14, pre-Electric Daisy Carnival event the kick-off to EDC at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Then the turnover process will commence.
Shifting gears, Circa, the D and Golden Gate co-owner Derek Stevens will operate the city block as a parking facility.
The move was forced by money. Hard to make a buck on an outdoor, live-entertainment parcel anywhere in Las Vegas. But paid parking? Cha-ching.
“The revenue potential of parking is greater than live entertainment, which is a tough damn business,” Circa Vice President of Operations Jeff Victor said Saturday (in a phone chat at halftime of the Jags-Bills AFC Wild Card Playoff game, specifically). “Entertainment is perilous, and add to that it’s an outdoor venue. It’s just tough to make money.”
Victor offered no timeline of when the stage and stands will be completely disassembled, and the artificial turf pulled up. The block was a parking lot when Stevens took it over in 2015. Victor moved over from his post as president of Fremont Street Experience in November of that year.
Stevens’ company owns five parking lots downtown. A company statement allowed that growth in the region creates inevitable demand for accessible parking. The reality, folks tooling around downtown seeking parking would far rather have the extra lot than another Van’s Warped Tour or Reggae Rise Up festival.
DLVEC was host to a host of memorable events. We caught the classic-rock band Kansas at the venue; hung with the late Colts owner Robert Irsay in his free, all-star rock show and pop-up museum event; and watched Vegas Golden Knights playoff games with both Mayors Goodman. Deadmau5 performed a historic show in May 2021 during the pandemic reopening.
In November, we took in the rollicking Two Friends set during the second Neon City Fest, a free event with a huge two-day attendance (not yet announced). That show can still return. In December, we celebrated with 6,000 Santa-suited celebrants at the Opportunity Village Great Santa Run. The future of that endeavor is still up in the air.
The last scheduled DLVEC watch party is the Feb. 8 Biggest Game Bash 2026 on Super Bowl Sunday. The property will remain available to occasional big-ticket events, even as Victor speaks of DLVEC in past-tense.
“The variety of what we we had there was was wonderful. We had concerts and festivals and food festivals and beer festivals,” Victor said. “We even had people snow-skiing out there (the November 2016 Las Vegas Downtown Throwdown). We’re all very, very proud of what we achieved out there.”
Thompson’s Vegas memories
Linda Thompson shared some yarns at a Q&A prior to “1973 Live! — Aloha From Westgate” at Wednesday at the the hotel’s International Bar. Thompson, the famed former Miss Tennessee and later married to Bruce Jenner and David Foster, was Elvis Presley’s girlfriend at the time.
Thompson remembered the night Elvis and his lead confidant, Joe Esposito, spent a rare night playing blackjack at then-Las Vegas Hilton.
“One was playing $100 a hand, the other was playing $5,” Thompson told the crowd, then asked to guess who was the big-bet player.
“Joe was playing $100 a hand,” Thompson said, “and Elvis was playing $5, and Elvis was paying Joe’s salary.”
Your VegasVille Moment
Lynette Chappel, Siegfried & Roy’s “Evil Queen,” hung with actress Jessica Madsen (Cressida Cowper in “Bridgerton” on Netflix). Chappel introduced us at IBar, just after Thompson’s event.
There is a Chappel-Madsen connection: Madsen portrays Chappel in the upcoming S&R miniseries “Wild Things,” based on the podcast of the same name. The crew will be filming on location in Las Vegas, then in Berlin. The eight-installment series is working toward a June premiere.
The casting is as adventurous as an S&R show, with Jude Law as Siegfried, Andrew Garfield as Roy, Justin Theroux as Steve Wynn, Brett Gelman as Bernie Yuman.
’Hacks’ to return
The Emmy Award-winning, true-to-Las Vegas spirit “Hacks” is coming to an end after its fifth season. As posted the @btslv.vegas Instagram account, the HBO series be filming several scenes in Las Vegas this month. So if you see someone who looks like Jean Smart as star comic Debora Vance, it’s likely her.
John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. Contact him at [email protected]. Follow @johnnykats on X, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.