Fremont Street Experience New Year’s Eve: No Live Music, But Fireworks Atop Las Vegas Plaza Casino

Posted on: December 25, 2020, 01:34h. 

Last updated on: December 25, 2020, 10:38h.

Larry Henry Read More

Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Gaming Business, Legislation, Politics, Regulation.

The Fremont Street Experience in Las Vegas will not feature any live music or entertainment this year on New Year’s Eve. But a downtown casino will put on a fireworks show.

On its website, the Fremont Street Experience announced that New Year’s Eve revelers will be charged a $25 security fee for a wristband to enter the site. Only people age 21 and over will be allowed to enter. Masks are required, and entry begins at 6 pm with a clear-bag policy in place.

“Fremont Street Experience’s security measures will include bag checks, ID scans, screening through metal detectors, and COVID assessment,” the website states. 

The Fremont Street Experience is a five-block entertainment district in downtown Las Vegas. It includes a pedestrian mall covered by a lighted canopy displaying video shows. Fremont Street, lined on both sides with casinos, is known as Glitter Gulch.

Fremont Street and the Las Vegas Strip south of downtown usually are where crowds gather for New Year’s Eve celebrations, including fireworks. Because of COVID-19 restrictions, the annual event on the Strip is being conducted virtually on Dec. 31. 

A user identified as kgiuly18 wrote, “Making the best of a bad situation. Well planned. Good job.”

But heather_parker– wrote, “What does 25.00 get you with no bands or entertainment??”

Plaza Fireworks 

Though there will be no official entertainment at the Fremont Street Experience, the Plaza Hotel and Casino is planning to launch fireworks from its south tower on New Year’s Eve.

The Plaza is on Main Street at the western end of Fremont Street. It is located where the now-demolished passenger train station once stood.

In September, Plaza CEO Jonathan Jossel and Circa Resort CEO Derek Stevens stood at an upper level at the then-unopened Circa, watching a brief fireworks display at the Plaza. Stevens posted a video of the fireworks show on his Twitter account.

Circa is an adults-only new resort at Fremont and Main streets across from the Plaza. Circa held a grand opening for its gaming areas on Oct. 28. After Christmas, it is making hotel rooms available for the first time.

On New Year’s Eve, Circa is scheduled to host a “Countdown To New Year’s Eve” special to air in Las Vegas on KLAS-TV, beginning at 8:59 pm. Other CBS affiliates in the West are scheduled to broadcast the show.

El Cortez Carpet

Later in the day on Jan. 1, the El Cortez Hotel and Casino in downtown Las Vegas is selling sections of  floral carpeting that had been on the gaming floor since 2007. The carpeting was removed this fall during renovations. 

The floral carpeting has nostalgic appeal to collectors who value items from Las Vegas hotel-casinos that have been in operation for decades. The El Cortez first opened in 1941. In the mid-1940s, gangster Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel and other underworld figures briefly owned the El Cortez.