August is often denigrated as the Sunday of months. I think that’s actually a denigration of Sundays, which I very much appreciate unless I blow a Friday deadline (ahem). Adults slag off August because it lacks holidays and temperate weather; kids harumph their return to school; and some Strip properties can’t give their rooms away — although maybe that’s because the resort and parking fees still mean spending a C-note a day. Staycation?! More like vexation!
For cultural enthusiasts, too, the August events calendar resembles a population density map of Nevada: largely barren, save for a few clusters of life. Much of that life can be found in several free art galleries. For instance: Jamie Zepeda’s renderings of the people, places, and cultures of the American Southwest and Mexico — called La Salida del Sol — hold court at the East Las Vegas Library (August 20-October 20, times vary, thelibrarydistrict.org). If you’re not familiar with Zepeda, it’s her charming vaquera that’s painted on the Blue Diamond/Dean Martin Zap! box. Also, the West Las Vegas Library is hosting a one-man show of sorts in artist/rapper/educator Perry Porter’s The Renaissance Man (through September 22, times vary, thelibrarydistrict.org), featuring his collection of watercolor and acrylic paintings that favor the positive, trauma-free version of Black life and, per the library, “the rhythm of lived experience.”
For those who want to squeeze in one more jaunt with Junior before school resumes — or if you just need something in your back pocket for the weekends — the Las Vegas Science & Natural History Museum is enticing families with big, hairy spiders — crafted ones, fossilized ones, live ones — in its big Art & Science of Arachnids exhibit (thru August 23, 9a-4p daily, $7-$14, lvnhm.org). Not to be outdone, the Springs Preserve is hosting nearly 20 live dinosaurs in Dino Safari: A Walk-Thru Adventure, where giant animatronic reptiles move and chew, but don’t disembowel you like they did ol’ Dennis Nedry (thru October 5, 9a-4p Thursday-Monday, $5-$19, springspreserve.org). Or you can hold out until October for the real family bait of the season, the Las Vegas Book Festival (October 17, 10a-5p, free, Fifth Street School, lasvegasbookfestival.com). At press time, the participants hadn’t been announced yet, but here’s hoping the programming staff dedicates one story hour to the cautionary tales of the 19th-century German children’s storybook, Der Struwwelpeter. It’s a collection for our times.
Speaking of books, there’s a four-week spree of noteworthy local authors incoming — all promoting their new major releases, and all brought to you by the Writer’s Block bookstore, gratis. Nicholas Russell gets things going — at the Beverly Theater — to delve into his first book, the horror novel Observer (September 18, 6p, thewritersblock.org). One week later, Desert Companion contributor Krista Diamond sits down to get into her Las Vegas/Los Angeles-straddling debut novel, Close Relationships With Strangers (September 25, 7p, The Writer’s Block). Erin Singer is next up to talk about her own debut title, the comedic, Vegas-set novel Dangerland! (October 2, 7p, The Writer’s Block), and one week later, she interviews former Pahrump resident and critic darling Claire Vaye Watkins to disucss the latter’s third novel, Yellow Pine, another story set in Watkins’ beloved Mojave Desert (October 9, 7p, The Writer’s Block).
Fans of Japanese animation may have already bagged their tickets to the Las Vegas Philharmonic’s program of composer Joe Hisaishi’s scores for Studio Ghibli. But everyone else should consider watching the Phil — led by new music director/conductor Rei Hotoda — tackle the complex but heartful musical identities of Ponyo, Totoro, and Howl (September 12, 7:30p, September 13, 2p, $46-$162, The Smith Center, lvphil.org). For another performance, set to be both rooted in and leaping from tradition, look no further than Alison Krauss & Union Station, who headline the cozy Encore Theater for a rare Strip airing of live bluegrass and Americana (September 29, 8p, $90+, wynnlasvegas.com).
UNLV’s Nevada Conservatory Theatre leads the late-summer return of theater with Big Love (September 24-October 4, times and venues vary, $19-$35, unlv.edu/nct/season-info), a boisterous, violent, and more-than-a-little relevant take on Aeschylus’s The Suppliants that whisks gender politics, the patriarchy, and relationship woes into its dramaturgic batter.
With such a bloody work as Big Love, Halloween would be the obvious transition point. Those who enjoy running the gauntlet-like haunts will have the usual gory attractions splattered, I mean, scattered all over the valley. Meanwhile, the more cardiovascularly sensitive can enjoy HallOVeen, the gentle but spirited fair at Opportunity Village’s Magical Forest (October 2-31, times vary, price TBD, opportunityvillage.org). Swap the carny jump scares for free candy and a spiked cider — after all, 2026 has been enough of a horror show.
