I’ve seen Cliff Atkinson sport an assortment of designer suits over the years. But Saturday was the first time I’ve caught him in an airbrushed T-shirt, spelling out “CLIFF.”
More imaginative than using a name tag, Atkinson’s custom T matched the dress code at the Fremont Street Experience, which hosted “90s House Party” on Saturday.
More than 3,000 turned out specifically for the free, themed event. An overall crowd of 10,000 took over The Canopy, where powerhouse Vegas cover band ’90s Station opened and alt-rockers Deep Blue Something headlined.
Atkinson has recently been appointed FSE’s president and chief executive officer. The move allows him a more casual approach in fashion. An airbrushed T-shirt from a street vendor might not have been the best choice in his days at Mandarin Oriental.
But no matter the attire, Atkinson’s focus on hospitality is unchanged, 45 days into his new post.
“The most important thing is that there’s free entertainment, every night of the week,” Atkinson said in a chat next to the Main Street Stage, prior to ’90s Station’s performance. “So our message is always on.”
The message at FSE is, we’re never off.
“When you’re coming in for a Monday or Tuesday night during a convention, or you’re coming for a big weekend, everything starts and stops here,” Atkinson says. “We’re always on, and most importantly it’s always free.”
Atkinson is a fount of ideas, with several initiatives in progress when he abruptly left Virgin Hotels Las Vegas in December. His imprint at Fremont Street will be felt in longer hours for live entertainment, starting a bit earlier and running a bit later in the summer.
Look for more themed events, more avenues for no-cover events. “I love free entertainment” is Atkinson’s drop-down motto. “More, more, more.”
And, a “First Friday Originals” series has premiered, showcasing Las Vegas bands performing all-original music. This opens the opportunity for bands to play their own music for thousands of visitors under The Canopy.
“When you have three stages going all the time, you get so much live entertainment,” Atkinson says. “So (Friday) night, I’m walking through, and you have an EDM DJ, you have a country band, and you have a hard rock band playing originals.”
The Downtown Rocks series is coming back in May, to be announced within a couple of weeks. The Friday night shows also pack The Canopy.
Naturally, free entertainment sometimes leads to a free-for-all on FSE, especially in the late-night/early morning hours. Atkinson has met with city of Las Vegas marshals, Metro Police and Mayor Shelly Berkley about buttressing security on the promenade (maybe we can go consecutive days without social media posting video of a donnybrook at FSE).
Asked if that meant increasing security presence or reassigning officers, Atkinson says, “All of the above.”
He had visited the Fremont Street Experience as it was under construction in November 1995. He knows the history of the project, and its current position as a value-driven entertainment destination.
“What I find really interesting, 5 percent of the hotel inventory in town is downtown, but about 50 percent of all of our visitors, 23-24 million people, come under this canopy,” Atkinson says. “There are a lot of reasons for that. There are more things to do down here, there’s more value — value is more important than ever. People have been singing it from the rooftops.”
Also singing it from the FSE stages. As if finishing a set as the night’s opening act, Atkinson closes this show to get his ’90s party on.
VegasVille doubleheader
Saturday was an only in Vegas twin bill, FSE first, then a trip to Sphere to catch Illenium’s finale of his “Odyssey” residency. The throughline is your mind is blown in both shows. There was pop-up star power at Sphere as Ellie Goulding joined the DJ superstar on “Don’t Want Your Love.”
We also walked out of The Venetian behind the night’s special guest, Tape B, who opened with a bone-jarring, bass-driven set. The artist who wowed about 17,000 fans at Sphere moved largely unnoticed as he left the resort. But the man is all smiles. He loves his job.
Flav’s pitch
Flavor Flav’s world tour continued Sunday as he threw out the first pitch at Fenway Park prior to the Red Sox-Padres tilt. He called from the mound of MLB’s oldest active ballpark, “Yeaah, booooy! Fenway Park!”
As if by destiny, Flav also ran into Jordan Raney of the U.S. Olympic water polo team at the game.
Cool Hang Alert
Classic rock outfit Atomic Radio returns to Rush Lounge at the Golden Nugget at 9 p.m.-1 a.m. Thursday. Vocalist Cassie Stone leads this powerhouse collective of Eden Stollman, Sean Koos and Jeff Tetrault. No cover, 21-and-over, go to goldennugget.com for intel.
John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. Contact him at [email protected]. Follow @johnnykats on X, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source neon.reviewjournal.com ’
