Life is Pretty Good

After a year of planning the music, food, art and learning festival, the event took place without a hitch in Las Vegas Oct. 26-27.

Life is Beautiful Festival is founded by Choudhry – Aurelian Marketing Group CEO and former director of entertainment for the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas – and was promoted by Another Planet Entertainment.

The event was in partnership with the Downtown Project – a revitalization effort for the “other” part of Vegas – the downtown area known for its older casinos and reasonably priced table games.

It spanned 15 blocks and included performances by acts like The Killers, Kings of Leon, Vampire Weekend, Beck, Imagine Dragons and Alabama Shakes.

The festival also featured 30 celebrity chefs, mini sets from Cirque du Soleil, lectures by people like Zappos’ Tony Hsieh and a visit by Kanye West, in town for his own concert.

It left, in its wake, permanent murals and art projects.

“It was an all-consuming, difficult project that turned out to be spectacular,” Another Planet’s Gregg Perloff told Pollstar.

For one thing, the festival didn’t close any businesses, which operated as usual inside the 15 blocks. But as for the usual first-year festival glitches, there were few, according to Perloff.

The parking and shuttle buses operated well, and security, catering and other components did their jobs.

“It was really exciting,” he said. “If you go on the app for Life is Beautiful you’ll see a lot of things that occurred. There was a sense of discovery. You might have gone to see The Killers or Kings of Leon and discovered a world-class chef or these huge murals, the art installations, which will hopefully last for 20, 30 years. The color that was added to that part of town is really incredible.

“There was an empty motel and each room was taken over by a different artist. There was a whole garden and lawn area put together. And this was operated while the downtown businesses were open inside our footprint.”

Perloff estimated a crowd of about 60,000; predictions were for 50,000. Meanwhile, Another Planet received plenty of compliments from managers and agents.

One was Kirk Sommer of WME, who offered his thoughts to Pollstar.
 
“How could you not love a festival that kicks off with a 250 pound Tuna?” Sommer said. “It’s Mardi Gras meets meets Burning Man meets food festival with a touch of Coachella.  Aside from minor wind issues, it was a good first year. They have potential and it will be exciting to see it develop. Downtown Las Vegas is a very interesting place and only becoming more interesting.”
 
Will it return next year? “We certainly hope to,” Perloff said.