The debut of the Best Friends Forever festival on October 11-13 was remarkable in the rarely-in-Vegas and once-dormant bands it brought to the city. What wasn't remarkable was the city it chose for its event.
Las Vegas has become the go-to for music festivals of all kinds, mostly for rock, but also for reggae, blues, jam/improv acts, and more. This fall alone has seen the debuts of not just Best Friends Forever, but A Big, Beautiful Block Party — an offshoot of Life is Beautiful, which took 2024 off to regroup after new owner Rolling Stone assumed full control from the estate of Tony Hsieh. The national trend of cancellations and lower-than-usual attendance at large, multi-genre festivals — as well as the loss of the open-air Fremont East layout that helped define LIB — gave Rolling Stone pause.
But Las Vegas continues to add to its already notable music-festival calendar, thanks to its ample tourism infrastructure and variety of venues. Many of those festivals focus on a specific genre, leaning on nostalgia and drawing its most loyal visiting and local fans.
Best Friends Forever enjoyed an enthusiastic welcome from both its featured bands — hailing from the post-hardcore/indie/midwest emo scenes of the 1990s through the present — and generation-spanning audience. The fest's social media account already announced a return in 2025. And Gus Wenner, head of Rolling Stone, told State of Nevada over the summer that it hoped to both restart Life is Beautiful and bring back A Big, Beautiful Block Party — possibly with a different genre focus — next year. Headliners Justice and LCD Soundsystem highlighted the indie dance/electro-heavy first edition in late September.
Another festival hits the city this weekend: The third When We Were Young, featuring mostly radio-friendly emo and pop-punk. The smaller SEMA Fest and brand new — and F1-adjacent — Neon City Festival take place in November. And the lineup for April's Sick New World was recently released; Metallica and Linkin Park will headline.
