Day 2: Life Is Beautiful offers food for thought, and actual food

Festival-goers fed their minds and stomachs Saturday at Life Is Beautiful in downtown Las Vegas.

The second day of the annual festival kicked off Saturday in downtown Las Vegas, bringing in larger crowds than the first day. Packs of attendees were so thick in some spots, there was barely elbow room.

Although music is a signature attraction at Life Is Beautiful, the Ideas venue offered intellectual diversion. A festival release said the venue showcased “great thinkers and stimulating the minds of festivalgoers.”

Las Vegas resident Danie Smith, 18, was wandering around and when she noticed the Ideas sign and decided to explore its offerings.

She watched Jen Kramer, who was named 2016 Female Magician of the year by the International Magicians Society, use a young man from the crowd to assist her in one trick. She stood back to back with him and had him open a book to a random page.

The assistant picked Page 70, and she, who said she’d memorized the book, had to say how many paragraphs the page contained.

Unbeknownst to him, she had the book, too.

The crowd laughed at the deception. Of course, she “guessed” the paragraph count correctly.

Meanwhile, Cal Fussman, a New York Times best-selling author, writer, consultant and speaker, discussed the power of questions. Questions, he said, should focus on the heart and the head.

He described interviewing prizefighter Muhammad Ali and asking him not about his fights but about life lessons from his father.

“I hope that when you all leave today, you’ll ask a question that you never thought of asking,” Fussman said. “It’ll change somebody’s life.”

Doug Isa, who heard about the Ideas venue from a podcast, enjoyed what he heard from Fussman.

“It’s interesting to think about asking questions and where they can lead you to,” the Irvine, California, resident said.

After Fussman’s listeners digested his wisdom, they were hungry. Many rushed to the Troubadour Culinary Village for fare including Hawaiian, Latin American, vegan, seafood, barbecue and Indian.

“The food is awesome,” Cassandra Robinson, 24, of Las Vegas said as she ate shaved ice. “It’s super top-notch. I feel like they pulled out all the stops.”

Las Vegas resident Zach Amos, 20, said, “(The food is) expensive, but really good and worth the money.”

Las Vegas resident Katie Perry, 18, said, “They have a bunch of stuff you wouldn’t expect to see at a festival. It’s more ethnicities with the food, not just the American hamburger or a hot dog.”

Contact Raven Jackson at rjackson@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0283. Follow @ravenmjackson on Twitter.