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Finally, some wonderful news to report! The Sick New World “music” festival scheduled for April 12, 2025 at the Las Vegas Festival Grounds has been canceled.

The reason? “Unforeseen circumstances,” which is industry speak for “Draaaama!”

The 2024 installment of the Sick New World rock and metal festival was very successful, if by “very successful” one means “inflicting permanent cochlear damage on a large number of victims simultaneously.”

The organizers of Sick New World posted the cancellation notice on the event’s social media pages.

On the bright side, sad trombone rentals are at an all-time high. //t.co/cQyUKqn1Ko

— Vital Vegas (@VitalVegas) November 29, 2024

We’ll transcribe the message in case you deleted Twitter and have moved to Bluesky, whatever that might actually be.

Sick New World said, “It is with great disappointment that we announce that Sick New World will no longer take place in Las Vegas on April 12, 2025. Despite our best efforts, we’ve encountered unforeseen circumstances that we are unable to overcome for next year’s show. We extend our heartfelt thanks to the all the dedicated SNW fans who had made plans to join us for another cultural celebration of hard rock, goth, alternative and heavy music. Please stay tuned for further and future information regarding Sick New World. Tickets purchased directly from Front Gate Tickets will be automatically refunded to the original method of payment in as little as 30 days.”

The Sick New World 2025 line-up was ambitious. The bands included Metallica, Linkin Park, Queens of the Stone Age, Evanescence and a number of other acts we would not see even if the bands shot chicken parm into the crowd from chicken parm cannons throughout their performances.

As is our way, we’re here to recklessly speculate about why the festival was canceled so abruptly.

Why was the Sick New World 2025 music festival canceled?

First guess: Phil Ruffin, owner of Circus Circus and adjacent Las Vegas Festival Grounds, has been shopping Circus Circus, which makes us think he’s reluctant to make firm commitments into 2025 in case a buyer is circling and such fixed arrangements could complicate or delay a potential sale.

Second guess: Ruffin is a tough and demanding negotiator. Did unreasonable demands make Sick New World queasy? Remember, when the A’s were considering putting a ballpark on the festival grounds site, Ruffin reportedly wanted concession sales and parking fees.

Rumor is Ruffin may have also asked for parking revenue. Another deal breaker. //t.co/E4AiFv2R4M

— Vital Vegas (@VitalVegas) April 30, 2023

Third, and the most reality-based: Sick New World didn’t have its shit together. That can mean a lot of things in the festival world. Most often, it means ticket sales weren’t meeting expectations. Despite the popularity of the bands in the line-up, general admission tickets were set at $472, with VIP tickets in the $1,800 range.

Also, the line-up was a smidge too ambitious. Some of the headliners involved cost a fortune (Metallica and Linkin Park were reportedly getting $5 million each, and that’s just two of 50 acts), and if ticket sales were lower than expected (rumors are just one third of the 60,000 capacity were sold), the numbers simply didn’t pencil out. Basically, the event would need to sell out completely to make money, and early results didn’t point in that direction.

The promoter, Live Nation, got cold feet (consulted with the accounting department) and pulled the plug.

Live Nation canceled a Latin music festival in L.A., Besame Mucho, just a few days ago. The reason sounds familiar: “Circumstances beyond their control.”

The music festival realm has become increasingly unpredictable and volatile.

The line-up determines ticket sales and revenue and clinching big names costs a lot. With shrinking margins, hosting music festivals has become a gamble.

Some have said 2024 is the year the music festival died.

Not-so-fun fact for music fans: More than 60 music festivals have been canceled in 2024 in the U.K.

Vegas-adjacent: For the first time in more than a decade, the Burning Man festival failed to sell out in 2024.

This year’s mutant offspring of the formerly-great Life is Beautiful festival in Las Vegas was underwhelming.

The recent Neon City Festival held in downtown Las Vegas during F1 reportedly lost $600,000 in its inaugural effort.

Ironically, live music is thriving. The aforementioned Live Nation reported record revenue in 2023 ($23 billion), an increase of 36% over 2022. Those Ticketmaster fees really add up.

Festivals are a different beast, however.

Will other music festivals in Las Vegas be aborted? Have we ever mentioned we phrase things in the form of a question when we have no idea about something because we are not a fortune-teller?

Anyway, Sick New World 2025 is out. If you planned to attend, get your money back and spend it on something meaningful, like inventing a cannon to shoot nature’s perfect food into the mouths of music fans and thank you for your service.

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Yes, it’s too soon to be thinking about New Year’s Eve.

Still, Fremont Street Experience shared its New Year’s Eve line-up, so just bookmark this story until you feel like hearing about New Year’s Eve.

We’ll wait.

This year’s NYE party will feature live performances by Flo Rida, LoCash, Bow Wow, 3OH!3, Dylan Marlowe, Trick Daddy and Mike Jones.

While that line-up may or may not knock your socks off, we’re sharing the news for a couple of reasons, one awkward, one not.

First, the not awkward reason: Fremont Street Experience’s NYE party is freaking cheap. Early bird pricing is $50. It bumps up closer to the event, but even then it’s really cheap compared to anything on The Strip on New Year’s Eve.

The other reason we’re highlighting this line-up is it features a lot of diversity, in fact, it’s the most diverse line-up in the history of Fremont Street Experience’s New Year’s Eve celebration. By a lot.

Here’s how the genres shake out: Flo Rida (hip-hop/rap), LoCash (country), Bow Wow (hip-hop), 3OH!3 (hip-hop/rap, pronounced “three-oh-three”), Dylan Marlowe (country), Trick Daddy (hip-hop/rap), Mike Jones (hip-hop/rap).

Ring in the new year at the 𝗢𝗙𝗙𝗜𝗖𝗜𝗔𝗟 𝗡𝗬𝗘 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗟𝗮𝘀 𝗩𝗲𝗴𝗮𝘀 with The Time of Your Life Festival feat performances from @official_flo @LOCASHmusic @smoss @3OH3 @_dylanmarlowe @305MAYOR & @Mr_Mike_Jones

//t.co/t7AjnHaU8T pic.twitter.com/1uFonFFhUy

— Fremont Street Exp (@FSELV) October 23, 2024

Full disclosure: We worked at Fremont Street Experience in digital marketing for six years and have been visiting the venue for more than two decades.

For many years, Fremont Street Experience took heat for the lack of diversity in its bookings. There were a lot of reasons for that lack of diversity, but mostly it had to do with a perception certain artists drew crowds that could be problematic, but more significantly, the belief seemed to be those guests weren’t the best casino customers.

Fremont Street Experience is the marketing arm of the casinos along Fremont Street. The organization’s job is to bring folks downtown who will patronize the casinos.

This year’s line-up is a dramatic departure from the usual band line-up at Fremont Street Experience, New Year’s Eve or otherwise.

For example, you’re not going to find hip-hop or rap artists among the venue’s collection of house bands. Ditto Tejano or banda, despite the fact Latino-friendly dance parties spontaneously happen on Fremont Street nightly thanks to street performers with amps.

Anyway, nobody talks about all this, as it is, in fact, awkward. But it’s worth mentioning, because something’s obviously changed. (And not just because the folks booking talent have changed, although, that’s the case. They were following guidance from the casinos and higher-ups.)

We trust concerns, warranted or not, are mitigated by the fact the acts involved aren’t exactly current or edgy, so they’re likely to draw a more mature crowd. The NYE party at Fremont Street isn’t like the venue’s other free concerts, it’s a controlled footprint and ticketed event.

The NYE party has the most security of any Fremont Street Experience event, and can include metal detectors, bag searches and I.D. checks (that’s mostly done at casino doors). Anyone without a NYE wristband is given the boot. Yes, Fremont Street is a public street, but not on NYE. It’s considered a private event, so no buskers (a big selling point).

The issue of race and culture in entertainment isn’t just limited to Fremont Street Experience, of course. This sensitive subject shapes a lot of decisions in Las Vegas. It’s a whole thing.

Anyway, props to Fremont Street Experience for changing things up for New Year’s Eve and possibly beyond.

We’ll let you in on another little insider secret: When it comes to ticket sales for Fremont Street Experience on New Year’s Eve, the entertainment line-up doesn’t make any difference at all. Big acts, cover bands, the ticket sales are about the same (within 5-10%) every year.

It’s not really about the bands, it’s about the party.

Access to the warmth of casinos along Fremont is easy on New Year’s Eve, and Plaza is expected to do a fireworks show along with the virtual one on the Fremont Street Experience light show canopy.

You can find an FAQ and the schedule for who’s playing which stage on New Year’s Eve on the official Fremont Street Experience site.

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The post Fremont Street Experience Shares Line-Up for NYE Party appeared first on Vital Vegas.

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If you love music festival drama, we’ve got you.

First, The All-American Rejects bailed on a popular music festival, When We Were Young (Oct. 19-21, 2024), presumably due to “a management change” in the festival. Now, we hear the band has been picked up by a new Las Vegas festival, Neon City Festival (Nov. 22-24, 2024).

Note: For the purposes of this story, we are going to pretend we know who The All-American Rejects are. Just play along.

Here’s the quick version.

The All-American Rejects are an American rock band known for their blend of pop-punk and emo with hits like “Swing, Swing” and “Gives You Hell.” The band consists of Tyson Ritter (lead vocals), Nick Wheeler (lead guitar), Mike Kennerty (rhythm guitar) and Chris Gaylor (drums).

The Rejects were scheduled to play at When We Were Young, but suddenly dropped out for reasons that were fairly cryptic.

Basically, festival organizers wanted The Rejects to play their entire self-titled album, “All-American Rejects,” and the band wanted to play their greatest hits. So, The Rejects basically said, “You’re not the boss of us,” and bailed.

Fans were disappointed. The upstart Neon City Festival saw an opportunity and seized it.

The Neon City Festival hasn’t officially confirmed the booking of The Rejects, but when has that ever stopped us from sharing scoop?

The Neon City Festival has already had some drama. It originally announced rapper Macklemore as a headliner, but dropped him like a hot potato after some ill-considered anti-American dumbassery at a concert in Seattle, in addition to his dabbling in blatant antisemitism.

Macklemore’s cancelation left a gap in the Neon City Festival line-up and freed up a reported $400,000 to find alternative acts.

Downtown’s Neon City Festival was born from the crucible of the financial trainwreck of last year’s F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix. While the race benefited a handful of casinos, the vast majority were hammered by the event.

To prevent a wholesale mutiny by downtown casinos, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority donated $1 million to the Neon City Festival which originated with Derek Stevens, owner of Circa, but is a rare collaboration between all the casinos downtown, even those that are not part of the Fremont Street Experience.

The Neon City Festival will also fill a void left by the Life is Beautiful music festival. In September 2024, the new owners of the festival, Rolling Stone, cobbled together a half-assed attempt at a festival, Life is Beautiful: A Big Beautiful Block Party, but it was by many accounts a dud.

The Neon City Festival’s dates sit right atop F1’s events, and will provide visitors who have no interest in F1 (hint: most of them) a free event with dozens of bands and no price gouging. It’s downtown, after all.

The final and complete line-up for the Neon City Festival is expected by the end of Oct. 2024. Our fingers are still crossed for the Thompson Twins.

Update (10/22/24): The Neon City Festival has announced its culinary offerings. See more.

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Downtown’s Neon City Festival has announced its initial line-up of acts, featuring Alison Wonderland, Neon Trees, Russell Dickerson, Seven Lions and a smidge of musical festival drama involving Macklemore.

The inaugural Neon City Festival happens Nov. 22-24, 2024, right on top of the F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix, entirely by design.

To-date, the festival has announced 23 acts, with the biggest selling point being the fact the festival is free.

First, the glorious drama.

On Sep. 19, 2024, Neon City Festival announced its initial slate of acts, including rapper Macklemore.

On Sep. 22, 2024, it was reported Macklemore said some pretty stupid things at a show in Seattle, including leading the crowd in a “Fuck America” chant.

The organizers of the Neon City Festival were as blindsided by Macklemore’s behavior as we were. We should know as we were the first one to forward them that NY Post link, before which they were unaware of the incident. It seems Neon City Festival organizers also had no idea about Macklemore’s history of anti-Semitic dumbassery.

The performer’s heart might be in the right place (everyone sympathizes with the plight of civilians in Middle East conflict zones), but the individuals involved with the new downtown festival were having none of it and pulled the plug on Macklemore’s appearance.

Circa owner Derek Stevens is super patriotic, for starters, and stands whenever the National Anthem comes on before sporting events in his sportsbook. The owner of El Cortez, Kenny Epstein, is Jewish, as is the CEO of Plaza, Jonathan Jossel. No way this was going to fly.

Macklemore’s cancelation was handled swiftly and decisively with a simple statement, “Due to unforeseen circumstances, Macklemore will no longer be performing at Neon City Festival (NCF). We are excited to announce new artists joining the NCF lineup shortly.”

To put it in pop culture terms, Macklemore was the Coca Cola Spiced of the first Neon City Festival.

Which brings us back to the Neon City Festival line-up!

Here are all the acts, copied and pasted from the news release so it appears we actually spent some time writing this story. We took out the stylistic affectations and Oxford commas.

408 – The Orlando DIY act features a prolific blend of pop-punk and modern pop, hip hop and EDM from members Mark Faroudi, Nick Hanus, Nick Roque and Jake Cerretani.

Adelita’s Way – This American rock band was formed in Las Vegas in 2006 and their debut single “Invincible” broke them into the mainstream scene. The group consists of Rick Dejesus, Trevor Safford and Andrew Cushing.

Alison Wonderland – Alison Wonderland is known for wearing her heart on her sleeve. Her songwriting is visceral and raw, often feeling like entries from her own diary, twisting the familiar burns of heartache into empowering anthems for festival crowds to sing along to.

American Mile – Formed in 2018, American Mile has been carving their name into the roots of southern rock and country music around North America. Their powerful sound has garnered them important shows in front of thousands at festivals and stages.

Beauty School Dropout – Los Angeles-based Beauty School Dropout emerged as a rising force in 2022. The band is comprised of three talented musicians—Colie Hutzer, Beepus and Bardo—and boasts a nod from A&R legend Mark Hoppus of Blink-182 and the backing of Verswire label.

Bubba Sparxxx – The rapper is known for his Billboard-charted hit songs “Ugly” and “Ms. New Booty.” For the record, this was the only performer leaked prior to the official line-up announcement. We’ll take it.

Free Neon City Festival (Nov. 22-24) will announce its line-up on Sep. 19. They’re doing a good job of keeping this quiet, unfortunately—we’ve heard Bubba Sparxxx, but that’s it. @neoncityfestlv

— Vital Vegas (@VitalVegas) September 16, 2024

Cassadee Pope – Cassadee Pope is known for her work in the seminal pop-punk band Hey Monday. She’s also the season three winner of “The Voice” and a Platinum-selling (“Wasting All These Tears”) artist and Grammy-nominated (“Think of You,” a duet with Chris Young) singer/songwriter.

Charlotte Sands – Influenced by a mix of acoustic storytelling and powerful pop-rock performances, Sands has remained a fully independent artist, all while charting on Top 40 radio for over 15 weeks in the United States.

Ekoh – The multifaceted musical force hailing from Las Vegas, Ekoh has etched his distinctive mark on the industry by skillfully blending hip hop, rock and alternative genres.

Elijah – Fresh off the viral success from his single, “Harder to Lie,” Elijah has perfected his signature hook-driven choruses, caught somewhere between active rock and pop. His song “Virus” quickly became one of the most played tracks on SiriusXM’s Octane, reaching a peak at #10.

Filter – Richard Patrick’s career is a vision of multifaceted creativity, which he has delivered throughout his 30-plus years producing music professionally through his band Filter, various collaborations, side projects, super groups, scoring films and writing for soundtracks.

Kaleido – Straight out of Detroit, Kaleido is fronted by Christina Chriss and the group is rounded out by Joey Fava (drums), Cody Morales (bass) and Drew Johnston (guitar). Together, they seamlessly stir hard rock, punk, metal, alternative and pop into a combustible and catchy signature style.

Krewella – Krewella is the boundless electronic duo comprised of sisters Jahan and Yasmine Yousaf. Born in Houston, their multicultural background influences their art. Always experimental, they’ve carved out their own niche in EDM.

Kruse Brothers – Phoenix-based duo The Kruse Brothers, Chandler and Miles Kruse, are transforming country music with their blend of diverse influences and musical styles. Originally rooted in classical music, the brothers bring a unique sound to the genre, infusing it with elements of blues and rock.

Lit – Lit is considered one of the preeminent bands to have come out of the post-grunge era of the late 90’s. They helped define an entire generation of SoCal power punk with hard-charging hits like “My Own Worst Enemy,” “Miserable,” “Zip-Lock” and “Lipstick & Bruises.”

Lovelytheband – Lovelytheband is a Los Angeles-based alternative rock group. Their debut single “Broken” made Billboard history as the longest charting alternative rock song in history (charting for 76 weeks and reaching number one on multiple charts). The song has recently been certified triple platinum.

Luniz – Luniz is a rap duo out of Oakland consisting of Yukmouth and Numskull, two friends who have known each other since junior high. Their debut album, Operation Stackola, was released in 1995 and knocked Michael Jackson’s “HIStory” off the top of the R&B charts on the strength of the hit single “I Got 5 on It.”

Mr. Carmack – Carmack finds inspiration from a range of sources, from his friends and fellow musicians in production cliques, Team Supreme and Soulection, to his travels and numerous sold-out tours of five continents over the past two years. This includes sharing stages with folks like Hudson Mohawke, Just Blaze, Cashmere Cat and alleged revenge porn enthusiast Diplo.

Mystery Skulls – Luis Dubuc was looking for a change of pace when he started his dance/electro-soul act, Mystery Skulls, in 2011. Fans were quickly enchanted by the upbeat, groovy sounds Mystery Skulls was producing. The result is an impressive discography that has amassed over 100 million streams.

Neon Trees – Since debuting in 2010, Neon Trees have cemented themselves as a dynamic, engaging band who has consistently put in the work for over a decade. Led by Tyler Glenn, they have performed at major festivals like Coachella, Bonnaroo, Life Is Beautiful and Bottle Rock and opened for My Chemical Romance, Maroon 5 and Taylor Swift as well as headlined sold-out tours of their own.

No Proof – No Proof is a rock, heavy rock and blues rock band from southern Utah. The band consists of Sarah Jane, Locklin Hammett, Hunter Harrison, Dave The Dreaded (Anderson) and Michael Westrich.

Pertinence – Pertinence is a musical artist known for his hip hop hits “Drop the Beater” and “Bobby Boucher.”

Restless Road – Made up of three different but complementary voices, country band Restless Road (Zach Beeken, Garrett Nichols and Colton Pack) is “one of the most intriguing and exciting acts of the year” (Wide Open Country).

  Russell Dickerson – After bursting onto the scene, this Tennessee native quickly stood out from the pack as he released four consecutive career-starting singles that reached #1 on the Billboard Country Airplay chart. Since then, Dickerson has earned platinum or better status on singles including “Yours,” “Blue Tacoma,” “Every Little Thing,” “Love You Like I Used To” and “She Likes It” (ft. Jake Scott). Just last year, he clocked his fifth No. One with “God Gave Me A Girl.” This year, he released “Good Day To Have A Great Day,” followed by his latest single “Bones.”

Seven Lions – Catching his break after winning a Beatport remix contest in 2012 with his dubstep-focused version of Above & Beyond’s, “You Got to Go,” Seven Lions (born Jeff Montalvo) garnered support from the likes of Anjunabeats, Casablanca Records, OWSLA, Viper Recordings, Republic Records and Monstercat.

Twista – The American rapper is well known for his chopper style of rapping and holds the title for fastest English-speaking rapper.

Vampires Everywhere – Vampires Everywhere is an American metalcore band based in Las Vegas and started by Michael Orlando, later known as Michael Vampire.

On the bright side, we’ve heard of Lit!

Oh, and free festivals are still free, so stop your whining.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) threw the festival a million bucks to help avoid a full-blown mutiny from downtown casinos related to lost revenue from last year’s F1 debacle, but that’s a lot of talent for a million bucks. We suspect Derek Stevens is sinking a substantial amount of his own money into this festival. He’s a gambler, after all.

Music festivals don’t tend to make money in their first few years of existence. Some never make money.

The slapped-together Life is Beautiful: A Big Beautiful Block Party (Sep. 27-28, 2024) is getting some pretty underwhelming buzz given the low attendance and hit-or-miss performances. Festivals are risky bets.

The Neon City Festival is an attempt to bring visitors to Las Vegas during a slow period, made worse by F1 disruptions on The Strip. They aren’t calling it the “FU F1 Festival,” but we are, because we don’t live by society’s rules.

The Neon City Festival is described as a “first-of-its-kind music, art and culinary event is free for all ages and will feature local food and beverage vendors, art shows and fireworks.”

Don’t get us started on the whole “all ages” thing. No event is perfect.

From what we can tell, the intention is for this festival to take up where Life is Beautiful ended (it was sold to Rolling Stone, and they have no clue about the festival’s original intent or its importance to downtown) and to endure far beyond F1’s presence in Las Vegas.

Given the financial constraints and short timeline, the first Neon City Festival is shaping up to be a good time and a unique experiment.

It’s not just the first time all the downtown casinos have collaborated (including Plaza, Strat, Downtown Grand and El Cortez, not members of the Fremont Street Experience collective), there’s a good chance it will deliver an overall greater benefit to Las Vegas than F1 (if you calculate all the financial losses of the vast majority of casinos and other businesses).

F1 and other officials have cherry-picked metrics showing an economic benefit to Las Vegas that tries to justify the Grand Prix’s take-over of The Strip for months (including blocking the iconic Bellagio fountains, see below), but that’s not how facts work. You can’t tout the benefits without calculating the damage. It’s like saying the Titanic gave passengers an incomparable experience for four incredible days! First class suites on the Titanic went for the equivalent of $130,000 in today’s dollars, much higher than the average on other luxury vessels of the time! Several companies are suing F1 for their losses, myriad others are quietly grumbling behind the scenes.

Fun fact: The F1 grandstand in front of Bellagio is constructed of copper wiring, catalytic converters and Sudafed.

— Vital Vegas (@VitalVegas) October 1, 2024

Of course, the goal of the Neon City Festival is to drive revenue to the founders (downtown casinos), but it feels like more than that. Communities are built around cultural events where commerce might be the driver, but everyone can benefit from coming together and vibing to the universal language of music. Music festivals are a shared emotional experience, a vehicle for connection, a place to dance like nobody has an iPhone.

We can all benefit from more ways to socially bond in this ever-batshittier world. The Neon City Festival could very well end up being that.

Update (11/11/24): Here’s the schedule for the Neon City Festival.

Set times for #NeonCityFestival are LIVE! 🔥💜

Who’s on your must-see list? 👀 pic.twitter.com/BDSh7fQIwM

— Neon City Festival (@neoncityfestlv) November 11, 2024

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The post Neon City Festival Announces Line-Up, Macklemore Shown the Door appeared first on Vital Vegas.

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Four Queens in downtown Las Vegas is bringing back its popular Silver Strike slots and we’ve got the exclusive details. The 12 cherished slot machines will once again be available for play on Sep. 19, 2024.