EDITORIAL: Life Is Beautiful festival a smashing success for downtown

Dan Reynolds, the frontman for Las Vegas’ own Imagine Dragons, had this to say during the rapidly rising rock band’s rousing headlining act on the first day of the Life Is Beautiful festival downtown: “I can’t tell you how much this means to us.”

Downtown hotels, businesses and festival vendors would surely echo that sentiment. The festival’s debut on Oct. 26 and 27 — which along with Imagine Dragons also featured the hometown Killers (who sadly sound like they are about to break up), Beck and Kings of Leon, along with a host of other talented bands on multiple stages — generally went off without a hitch and drew widespread praise. The music, arts and food fest was yet another booster shot for the revitalization of downtown Las Vegas, on the same weekend as the much-publicized opening of the Downtown Grand.

Review-Journal reporter Jason Bracelin aptly noted Mr. Reynolds’ unbridled happiness. “I feel like it marks the beginning of a brand new Las Vegas,” Mr. Reynolds said of the two-day festival.

Indeed. As reported by the Review-Journal’s Norm Clarke on Wednesday, the festival didn’t draw capacity crowds, but the turnout was more than respectable, with Imagine Dragons and the Killers not surprisingly attracting especially large numbers. There were just enough people to feed the positive vibe befitting the festival’s name, but not too many to make it difficult to get around or cause unduly long wait times in vendors’ lines.

“You didn’t have to wait for anything,” said Dayvid Figler, a downtown activist and author. “The culinary tent was a home run. All of the vendors had come to impress, and they didn’t fail us.”

The key to any downtown revival is getting people to come. Events such as Life Is Beautiful help introduce — or even re-introduce — people to the downtown area, something El Cortez executive vice president Alex Epstein confirmed to Mr. Clarke. “We certainly had a record for a completely new demographic. They (organizers) followed through. They delivered. It was transformative.”

And it was relatively trouble-free, too, with Ms. Epstein noting there were no significant problems or incidents.

That said, events of this magnitude are sure to cause some headaches, and the Life Is Beautiful festival was no exception. The event closed off 15 blocks, and many who live and work downtown were inconvenienced, perhaps unreasonably so. Jefferson Lee, in a letter to the editor, stated that local residents began running into problems as early as Oct. 23, three days before the festival, and that areas were still blocked off on Oct. 28, a day after it ended. “Once again, local political representatives and social organizers showed no respect or consideration for those who live and work in the downtown area,” Mr. Lee wrote.

To be sure, as the festival goes forward, as much consideration as possible should be given to downtown residents and workers. Organizers should find ways to streamline ingress and egress for those people, and keep the inconvenience as limited as is reasonably possible for such a large-scale event.

But there’s no denying that overwhelmingly, this festival made life more beautiful for downtown Las Vegas. Kudos to event founder and CEO Rehan Choudhry, and all those who made it happen.