Experience the surprises of Fremont Street — PHOTOS

By Jeff Scheid Las Vegas Review-Journal

10 years ago

Crowds gather to watch buskers at the Fremont Street Experience in downtown Las Vegas. Costumed characters and other performers line the street in hopes of receiving trips from tourists. (Jeff Scheid/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

Women dressed in colorful showgirl costumes, at right, mingle with a visitor to the Fremont Street Experience. The city is considering an ordinance proposal that would control where buskers can perform along the busy pedestrian walkway. (Jeff Scheid/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

The scene along the Fremont Street Experience is reflected in a decorative element at the downtown attraction. (Jeff Scheid/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

Memo Jay, dressed in an Elmo outfit, hugs a boy at the Fremont Street Experience while a Cookie Monster character watches. (Jeff Scheid/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

Buskers Jennie, left, and Nino, who declined to give last names, make ornamental pieces for a donation under the Fremont Street Experience canopy in downtown Las Vegas. (Jeff Scheid/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

EL Cortez hotel-casino personnel detain a man outside the casino. (Jeff Scheid/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

Buddy Big Mountain operates his puppet named Tony Chase Porcupine on the Fremont Street Experience. (Jeff Scheid/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

Misty Sins, her stage name, performs on the Fremont Street Experience. She has working on Fremont Street for the past 4 years to make money to pay for massage school. (Jeff Scheid/Las Vegas Review Journal)

Peruvian Christian Orellana performs on the Fremont Street Experience. (Jeff Scheid/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

On nearly any given night, the Fremont Street Experience is lined with people in costumes or scantily clad hoping visitors to the downtown attraction will give them tips. Other buskers may be singing or making crafts.

A young couple pushing a stroller gawks at Tommy Gallant, who is dressed only in a neon bright Borat-style swimming suit. For the past three months, he says he has averaged about $60 a night. Other buskers are more family-friendly as superheroes and the Cookie Monster. And no glitzy Las Vegas attraction is complete without women dressed as showgirls.

Las Vegas leaders are drawing up new rules that would create “performance zones.” The new draft ordinance would create three dozen 6-foot-diameter circles scattered along the five-block area of the Fremont Street Experience. Performers would have to rotate out of the circles every two hours.

As soon as Sept. 2, the City Council is expected to take up the measure, weighing First Amendment rights against complaints from casino patrons about lewd and aggressive behavior by buskers.