Las Vegas Strip Casinos Plan July 4 Fireworks Shows, Declaring ‘Vegas is Back’

Posted on: June 6, 2021, 03:38h. 

Last updated on: June 30, 2021, 08:53h.

Larry Henry Read More
Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Gaming Business, Legislation, Politics, Regulation.

Seven resorts on the Las Vegas Strip have been added to the list of hotel-casinos planning to celebrate Independence Day with fireworks shows.

Las Vegas fireword
Fireworks explode over Las Vegas, with the Bellagio water feature in the foreground on Strip. Several resorts are planning July 4 fireworks this year. (Image: Conde Nast Traveler)

In announcing the seven-casino fireworks show on its Instagram page, the Clark County government declared, “Vegas is back!” Las Vegas is in Clark County. The largest resorts on the Strip are outside city limits, under the county’s jurisdiction.

The casinos participating in the July 4 show at 11 pm are The Strat, Resorts World Las Vegas, Treasure Island, Caesars Palace, Aria, The Venetian, and Planet Hollywood. The Strat is the only one of these located inside Las Vegas city limits. 

Resorts World, which was built on the site of the now-demolished Stardust Casino, is set to open June 24.

Kate Wik of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority said the public’s pent-up demand to visit Las Vegas “is real,” according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

“We have been waiting for this moment to announce that, once again, your ‘Only Vegas’ experience is waiting,” said Wik, the agency’s chief marketing officer.

Las Vegas Recovery

For months after the March 2020 onset of the coronavirus pandemic, Las Vegas’ tourism-dependent casino economy was in steep decline. Beginning in March, casinos were closed for 11 weeks. 

Even after casinos were allowed to reopen in June, the economy sputtered. McCarran International Airport saw a decline of millions of passengers during the pandemic. At one point last year, Las Vegas had an employment rate of at 34.2 percent, the highest in the nation for any metropolitan area with a population over 1 million, according to the Wall Street Journal. As recently as April, Las Vegas had the second-highest jobless rate, trailing only Los Angeles.

However, with the recent national rollout of COVID-19 vaccines and stimulus checks, the Southern Nevada economy has begun to rebound. For two straight months this spring, the Las Vegas Valley saw more than 2 million visitors. The airport also experienced increases in passenger totals.

Tourism officials are hopeful the World of Concrete convention starting on Monday will further jump-start the economy. Conventions are considered vital to filling up the massive hotel towers in Las Vegas, especially during the slower middle of the week.

In attempting to lure conventions back to the city, the LVCVA has touted its nearly $1 billion West Hall expansion at the Convention Center and the underground Tesla people-mover by Elon Musk’s The Boring Co.

Other Fireworks Shows

The fireworks shows on the Strip are part of an Independence Day celebration beginning in early July at other hotel-casinos in the Las Vegas Valley.

Station Casinos is launching fireworks from July 1-4 at some of its properties through the area, beginning July 1 at 9 pm from the off-Strip Palace Station. The company is celebrating its 45th anniversary. 

In downtown Las Vegas, the Plaza Hotel and Casino is celebrating Independence Day and the property’s 50th anniversary by shooting fireworks from its hotel towers during the first week of July.