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The Las Vegas Festival Grounds is an open-air venue on the Las Vegas Strip in Winchester, Nevada. It is owned and operated by Phil Ruffin. The venue is located at the north end of the Strip, north of Circus Circus Las Vegas. It is 26 acres (11 ha) and has a capacity of 85,000 people.

History

From 1941 to the 1970s, the El Rancho Vegas occupied most of the land. In 2007, MGM Mirage (later MGM Resorts International) purchased the 26-acre (11 ha) El Rancho site from Gordon Gaming for $444 million.

In 2014, MGM announced plans to develop the site as an outdoor music venue in partnership with Cirque du Soleil and Ron Burkle's Yucaipa Companies. The project was primarily designed to serve as the site of Rock in Rio USA, a new biennial music festival. The venue was initially referred to as the City of Rock, named after its equivalent in Rio de Janeiro, the site of the original Brazilian version of the Rock in Rio festival. The name was soon changed to the MGM Resorts Festival Grounds. MGM hoped to position the grounds as a site for festivals, concerts, and sporting events (such as boxing, mixed martial arts, and soccer) as a complement to its other venues in the area.

The festival grounds made its debut in May 2015 with the Rock in Rio USA festival. Development costs for the site totaled $20 million.

In October 2015, the MGM Resorts branding was dropped and the site was renamed to simply Las Vegas Festival Grounds. The renaming was part of an effort to downplay MGM's role in the venue to improve its marketability for third-party events and to brand the site as being part of Las Vegas's "community".

MGM sold the property to Phil Ruffin, along with the neighboring Circus Circus hotel and casino, in 2019.

Events

The Rock in Rio USA music festival was held at the venue in May 2015, headlined by No Doubt, Metallica, Taylor Swift, and Bruno Mars. The festival was intended to be held biennially, but after disappointing ticket sales, plans for future editions of the event were quietly shelved.

In April 2016, the Las Vegas Festival Grounds hosted the ACM Party For a Cause Festival on the weekend preceding the Academy of Country Music Awards.

In 2018, the iHeartRadio Music Festival relocated its Daytime Village stage to the Las Vegas Festival Grounds, moving from the Las Vegas Village.

On November 1–3, 2019, the Festival Grounds held a music festival called Day N Vegas, which featured performances from rap and hip-hop artists. Major headliners included J. Cole, Migos, Tyler, The Creator and Kendrick Lamar. The festival was organized by Goldenvoice, known for organizing the Coachella Festival. The following month, it hosted the inaugural Intersect Music Festival, organized and sponsored by Amazon Web Services.

The Festival Grounds hosted the heavy equipment exhibition of the 2020 Conexpo-Con/Agg held at the Las Vegas Convention Center, due to the construction of expansions to the facility.

On October 22–23 and 29, 2022, the When We Were Young festival was scheduled. The opening day was cancelled the day of the event due to high winds.

References

1. "Coordinated Plans Drives Strip Festival Grounds". Martin-Harris Construction. March 2015. Retrieved 2018-04-26.
2. "Las Vegas Festival Grounds". MGM Resorts International. Retrieved 2018-04-26.
3. Howard Stutz (April 19, 2007). "MGM buys parcels for new center". Las Vegas Review-Journal – via NewsBank.
4. Jason Bracelin (April 22, 2014). "Rock in Rio plans permanent venue on Las Vegas Strip". Las Vegas Review-Journal. Retrieved 2018-04-26.
5. John Katsilometes (September 27, 2014). "As mass gatherings go, Las Vegas is the place to be". Las Vegas Sun. Retrieved 2018-04-26.
6. "MGM Resorts, Cirque to build 33-acre, open-air venue to host Rock in Rio in Las Vegas". Las Vegas Sun. Retrieved 23 April 2014.
7. "Rock In Rio USA Teams With MGM, Cirque & Yucaipa Ahead of 2015 Debut". Billboard.biz. Retrieved 23 April 2014.
8. ^ Mike Weatherford (May 16, 2015). "Rock in Rio leaves town, but turf will get more footwear". Las Vegas Review-Journal. Retrieved 2018-04-26.
9. "No MGM Resorts: It's now Las Vegas Village and Las Vegas Festival Grounds". Las Vegas Sun. October 2015. Retrieved 20 November 2015.
10. John Katsilometes (November 2, 2019). "Phil Ruffin's options abound at Las Vegas Strip's festival grounds". Las Vegas Review-Journal. Retrieved 2019-12-20.
11. Bailey Schulz (December 20, 2019). "MGM Resorts completes $825M sale of Circus Circus to Ruffin". Las Vegas Review-Journal. Retrieved 2019-12-20.
12. John Katsilometes (November 7, 2016). "MGM Resorts: No return of Rock in Rio to the Strip". Las Vegas Review-Journal. Retrieved 2018-04-26.
13. "Strip Scribbles: ACM lineup expands, Super Bowl 50 chefs, Fetish & Fantasy Ball". Las Vegas Sun. Retrieved 14 February 2016.
14. "Country music awards to return to Vegas with 3-day festival". Las Vegas Review-Journal. Retrieved 14 February 2016.
15. John Katsilometes (May 1, 2018). "iHeartRadio ready to return outdoor festivals to the Strip". Las Vegas Review-Journal. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
16. Chloe Melas (June 25, 2019). "Kendrick Lamar and more of the biggest names in hip-hop to headline new music festival". CNN. Retrieved 11 July 2019.
17. "Day N Vegas". Day N Vegas. Retrieved 11 July 2019.
18. "Festivals". Goldenvoice. Retrieved 11 July 2019.
19. Wang, Amy X. (2019-10-16). "Of Course Amazon Is Putting on a Music Festival". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2020-03-01.
20. Hayes, Mike (6 February 2020). "A fresh look to ConExpo". KHL. Retrieved 2020-03-01.
21. Haring, Bruce (2022-10-22). "'When We Were Young' Festival Forced To Cancel Opening Day Show At Last Minute". Deadline. Retrieved 2022-10-22.

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36°08′33″N 115°09′37″W / 36.1424°N 115.1603°W / 36.1424; -115.1603

• 2015 establishments in Nevada
• Buildings and structures in Winchester, Nevada
• Festival venues in the United States
• Las Vegas Strip
• Music venues in the Las Vegas Valley
• Sports venues in the Las Vegas Valley
• Event venues established in 2015