Ready palates? Festivals coming

Los Angeles-based marketing company Barcelona and its CEO, Alan Semsar, may soon become staples of the Las Vegas events scene, that is, if Semsar has anything to say about the matter.

In July, Semsar's company produced the Las Vegas Chocolate Festival & Pastry Show that attracted 2,000 out-of-town visitors to The Venetian and Palazzo. Given the event's popularity, he decided to focus his sights on the city.

This weekend, he hopes to replicate his summer success with two events: the Sin City Beer Fest on Friday and the Las Vegas Wine and Food Festival on Saturday.

The food and wine festival, to run from 9 p.m.-midnight at Red Rock Resort, sold most of its 2,000 tickets priced at $75 more than a month before the event and Semsar said 95 percent of the buyers are locals. The beer festival, to be held from 6 to 10 p.m. at the Rumor Hotel, has a capacity of 500, and Semsar's expecting most of those attendees to be tourists. Tickets are $85.

This is the first time The Siegel Group, which owns Rumor, has worked with Semsar, but so far so good.

"We're already sold out this weekend. It's not 100 percent because of the festival, it's just a busy weekend, but the Sin City Beer Festival did contribute," Siegel Group Senior Vice President Michael Crandall said.

Asked about the economic impact for the hotel this weekend, Crandall said, "Whenever you have 400 to 500 people inside your hotel, it's always a good thing."

If all goes well this weekend, and the events continue to sell out, Semsar plans to host a one-year series of events in Las Vegas.

The reason? Las Vegas' overabundance of large ballrooms, hotels and well, people. Semsar said he's wanted to host an event in Las Vegas for a while, because of the city's plethora of "big, available spaces." The marketer has been hosting events in Los Angeles for seven years and will continue to do so, but said he wants to add Sin City to his rotation.

"In L.A. they do extremely well, they're just not on the same scope," Semsar said. "Las Vegas is like a dream."

So, the first week of December - he didn't have an exact date yet - Barcelona is set to host another chocolate-themed event in Las Vegas, this one at Crystals. Then, on Dec. 6, he hopes to produce an event at the Mandarin Oriental based around Matt Goss, although that one isn't yet confirmed totally either. But, once his next events are a sure thing, expect them to be named after some variation on Las Vegas.

"We're naming everything after the city," Semsar said.

With every event Semsar also gives money back to local charities. At the chocolate fest, he donated to St. Jude Children's Hospital. Proceeds from this weekend are earmarked for the James Beard Foundation and the Andre Agassi Foundation for Education.

Semsar also plans eventually to incorporate in Nevada, to make his union with the city more official.

"Our money's going to be here," he said.

Although he couldn't be specific, Semsar said the cost to produce special events runs around "a couple hundred thousand dollars."

Contact reporter Laura Carroll at
lcarroll@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4588.