Don’t look now, but there’s another festival coming to downtown Las Vegas this fall. But don’t worry about road closures or towering stages.
Duck Duck Shed is a four-day festival starting today that shines a light on the architecture, design and culture of the city.
Now in its second year and produced by the Neon Museum, it includes a variety of different events, screenings, walking tours of the city and exhibits. And it’s not just downtown.
Duck Duck Shed will feature not one but two events based on the new Sphere venue, an architectural marvel that has changed our city's skyline. Another will do a deep dive into Cirque du Soleil's show, O, which turns 25 this week.
Entertainment in general is rounding out the festival's programming far beyond the architecture and design focus. And according to executive director Aaron Berger, it's not just an expansion of the festival — it's an expansion of the Neon Museum's mission.
"We really want to talk about Las Vegas," he says. "We talk a lot about architecture. And we talk a lot about the properties. But we don't talk a lot about entertainment. And that is definitely a flag that's been planted in this city."
Entertainment isn't the only new foray for Duck Duck Shed.
"We are adding more evening events, more social cocktail party events," says Berger. "But each one of them has a learning component to it — [for] the museum, that's really important to us. So yes, we're having an evening called Food Through the Ages. But it is an opportunity for people to understand how we went from a 99-cent shrimp cocktail city to a Michelin-star restaurant city. And where did that evolution take place and why? Well, we're going to do that through food — and six cocktails!"
Guest: Aaron Berger, executive director, The Neon Museum
