Extreme Thing set to return to Desert Breeze Park

One of the nation’s largest sports and music festivals is returning to Las Vegas.

The 17th annual Extreme Thing is scheduled from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. March 30 at Desert Breeze Park, 8275 Spring Mountain Road. The event will feature live music with a lineup of more than 20 bands playing on four stages, including headliner New Found Glory. There will also be professional wrestling by Adrenaline Unleashed, BMX dirt track riding, amateur skateboarding, BMX contests and more.

Tickets are $17 at ticketmaster.com or $20 the day of the festival. Free parking is available in the dirt lots adjacent to the park. For more information, visit extremething.com.

Brian Saliba, special events supervisor for Clark County Parks and Recreation, recommended carpooling to the event and bringing sunscreen. Visitors are allowed to bring one unopened bottle of water, too. Food and beverages will be available for purchase on-site, and ATMs will be available.

Attendance at last year’s Extreme Thing was more than 22,000. The event originally was held at the Whitney Community Center but moved to Desert Breeze in 2001 after Whitney temporarily closed for maintenance. Attendance at the 2001 event was about 5,000, Saliba said.

“It was nothing like today,” Saliba said. “There was a total of seven bands on one stage.”

A new addition to the festival is 110-foot zipline, which will cost extra.

Other than that, Saliba said the rest of the event will be “pretty status quo.”

“If you’re a fan of Extreme Thing, we won’t disappoint,” Saliba said. “... With the sports aspect, you won’t see any other event in town like this. Nobody does a pro BMX dirt jump to this caliber.”

Ricardo Laguna, a 2000 Eldorado High School graduate, is hosting the Pro BMX Dirt Challenge and expects to have about 50 riders from around the world compete for the $5,000 top prize.

Laguna moved to Las Vegas with his family when he was 13 and did not speak English. He saw some neighborhood kids riding BMX at the Nellis Meadows Park near Cheyenne Avenue and Nellis Boulevard.

“Mom bought him a super low-end bike a year later,” Laguna said. “It kind of became a career.”

Laguna began hosting the event in 2003, and until this year it served as a qualifier for the X Games, which pulled the BMX dirt competition for this year’s games. Laguna changes the track each year and said this year’s riders will see a trial-style layout with smaller jumps than last year.

“There’s just so much for the whole family,” Laguna said. “... You have action sports, wrestling, live music, tons of people, swag, food and Las Vegas weather. ... Whether you’re single, married, kids, no kids, it’s the perfect event to check out. You get every bang out of your buck with this show.”

Contact View education reporter Jeff Mosier at jmosier@viewnews.com or 702-224-5524.