Fall Culture Guide 2023: Family and Festivals

If you want to know what Duck Duck Shed references, you’ll have to track down the heralded book Learning From Las Vegas (totally worth it, too). But for our purposes here, the curiously named festival — comprising several separately ticketed events — will sprawl out to various parts of the city in celebration of its architecture, design, and culture. From Debbie Reynolds and the lore of Downtown to the use of light in casinos and a tour led by architects — the beautifying and enriching of Las Vegas will be the baseline theme of this relatively new cultural institution.

Forty years ago, the city’s first Pride celebration mainly consisted of seminars and lectures at UNLV (and, yes, some afterparties at the local gay bars). Now, it’s a full weekender with one of the nation’s few LGBTQ nighttime parades (beginning at 4th Street downtown) and a Saturday festival (at Craig Ranch Regional Park) — meant to both unite and celebrate one of the most dynamic queer communities anywhere.

Forty years ago, the city’s first Pride celebration mainly consisted of seminars and lectures at UNLV (and, yes, some afterparties at the local gay bars). Now, it’s a full weekender with one of the nation’s few LGBTQ nighttime parades (beginning at 4th Street downtown) and a Saturday festival (at Craig Ranch Regional Park) — meant to both unite and celebrate one of the most dynamic queer communities anywhere.

Ever see a Super Summer Theatre musical in the majestic environs of the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area? Imagine catching a few flicks in the same setting. That’s one of the major perks of attending the Wild & Scenic Film Festival, which focuses on environmental and conservation activism. There’s also food, a raffle, and a community fair that puts faces to the causes fighting for Las Vegas’ glorified — and glorious — backyard.

Just how big is Boulder City Hospital’s Art in the Park? The annual creative confab (and Boulder City Hospital fundraiser) claims to draw 100,000 people a year and takes over four city parks. If you’re looking to swap out your Wayfair affirmation canvases with artwork that required a palette and a pulse, you’ll have plenty to consider here. Held at Wilbur, Bicentennial and Escalante Parks.

White Pine County will celebrate being situated in the path of totality by throwing a party, the Ring of Fire Eclipse Festival. Billed as a community-wide event — enlisting businesses and local governments “from Schellbourne to Baker” — the festival promises a wide range of events, from the usual food, music, and pub crawls, to the more unexpected Tai Chi, 5K run, and … a Hip Hop dance party? The staple will, of course, be skygazing.

Back in ye olde family-friendly Strip days, Excalibur was as close to middle-age England as you could get this side of the Atlantic. Now that it looks more like a medieval Westfield Mall in Bethesda, the Age of Chivalry Renaissance Festival is your best bet for Anglo-Saxon reverie. The commitment to theme is unassailable; expect jousting tournaments, artisan wares, historical reenactments, and medieval surgeon demonstrations — minus any insurance preapproval tomfoolery!

Most adults can’t handle the usual Halloween haunt attraction — you know, the makeshift mazes with Hefty trash bag walls and carny-like scare actors — let alone kiddos. That’s partially why Springs Preserve established Haunted Harvest, where the young ones can trick-or-treat, game, craft, and traverse a mellower macabre maze without the PTSD.

Grimm’s Fairy Tales is a curious theme for any children-friendly event, given that the collection of stories traditionally featured so many violent episodes and sexual themes that adults thought twice about reading them to their kids. But time has softened the infamous stories, thus giving the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District confidence in branding its second Haunted Harvest event with the worlds and characters of the Brothers Grimm. As for activities: Trunk-or-treating, face painting, and shadow puppet shows highlight this daytime Halloween alternative.

There’s no shortage of Dia de los Muertos festivals on the Southern Nevada calendar, but the abuelo of all of them may be Clark County’s Life in Death Festival. While attendees can simply observe the performances and art that honor the dead and poke fun at mortality, they’re encouraged to build ofrendas (altars) and read calaveras (memorial poems) made for loved ones who have passed on. This year, the county is offering a $500 stipend for each of the three best ofrendas.

The Day of the Dead art exhibit will be in the gallery from October 10 through November 22.

There’s a festival for everything nowadays — many totally unasked for (see: festivals for underwater music and cheese-rolling). But this one’s a no-brainer: It’s for pizza. The one dish perfect for any hour of the day, the one nearly impossible to screw up (silenzio, pineapple despisers), the one most likely to reduce its consumer to awkward moaning sounds on sight. Your ticket to the Las Vegas Pizza Festival comes with unlimited samples of the valley’s best pies, made by a royal court of world-famous pizzaiolos residing in Las Vegas.

If playing Fallout: New Vegas in your mancave just isn’t enough anymore, the folks at the NCR Army have an event for you. The second annual Fallout: New Vegas Festival will be a cosplay ’n’ camping Xanadu for fans of the video game. Buy a ticket, amass your prepper gear, and consider this a dry run of our post-apocalyptic future.