When your parents decide to go to Las Vegas, they make plans to go to a casino and a show, something really exciting like Céline Dion’s residency. When your grandparents go to Las Vegas they go to a casino, a show, and an all-you-can-eat early bird buffet. When young people go to Las Vegas, they hit a club. Everything else is just a distraction.
That’s because in 2016 clubbing has become an integral part of the Las Vegas experience for young people. Avicii is set to play his last shows ever before his early retirement at the Encore Beach Club Las Vegas and XS, while other nearby clubs regularly attract the biggest names in EDM.
And because the club scene has become such a major attraction, even rivaling the Strip itself, it’s set off a new arms race among ticket agencies, the big clubs, promoters, and the best DJs Las Vegas has to offer.
Las Vegas Weekly recently took a closer look at this arms race, which pits places like XS Nightclub against Encore Beach Club Las Vegas for talent, celebrity VIPs, and visitors. Elsewhere, EDM fans and promoters are worrying that the EDM bubble is about to pop.
“If that correction has begun, Vegas is staying a few steps ahead,” writes Las Vegas Weekly reporter Brock Radke. “Sensory-overloading megaclubs and high-dollar DJs remain the name of the game, but a closer look reveals a strategic shift. The architects of nightlife are diversifying, offering a wider range of specific experiences while maintaining those that are still bringing lines of revelers. Clubs are getting smaller but the scene is getting bigger. Live music is exploding while those upper-tier DJs are thriving.”
Behind the success of the Las Vegas DJs and club scene you’ll find people like Pauly Freedman, an industry veteran who’s been working with Wynn nightclubs like Encore Beach Club Las Vegas, Surrender Las Vegas, and the city’s newest club Intrigue, set to open at the end of April.
So while some people in the industry are fretting about the future of EDM clubs, festivals, and album sales, the Las Vegas scene is thriving.
