Life Is Pretty Good

The festival is founded by Rehan 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 and Vampire Weekend. 

The festival also featured 30 celebrity chefs, 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.