Vegas Labor Day Craziness
It has been quite a wild ride covering Vegas in 2020. From the rather abrupt closures in March to the somewhat botched reopening in June, it has been a fascinating subject to cover. These days Vegas seems to be settling into this new reality with strict enforcement of health & safety procedures and very light demand. Well, that is until this past weekend.
While I hope you don’t blame me for avoiding the Las Vegas Strip on this Labor Day weekend, I have been following along with what has been happening. To start, the crowds have been real. Just look at this INSANE demand for Fat Tuesday at Casino Royale.
The pent-up demand for Fat Tuesday daiquiris was greatly underestimated pic.twitter.com/e3ntrOCTZr
— Las Vegas Locally 🌴 (@LasVegasLocally) September 6, 2020
I have so many questions. 😂 I do hope everyone got their frozen concoction and enjoyed their weekend. Not the choice I would have made and admittedly those crowds don’t look like much fun to me. What do you think? (Also @LasVegasLocally is a great account to follow if you love Vegas!)
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Street Racing on the Strip
While many would describe the environment on the Strip as a little subdued since the reopening, this weekend seemed to throw that all out of the window. For example, a nice group of people decided that the Strip was a good place to race and do burnouts. This video is both fascinating and a little terrifying.
Cactus & Las Vegas Blvd last night pic.twitter.com/FSX8Uoye1w
— Las Vegas Locally 🌴 (@LasVegasLocally) September 7, 2020
Maybe it’s just me but I don’t think I’ll be running out in the middle of the street the next time I see cars driving around in circles as they evade the police.
Fremont Street Was Insane
People are coming to Vegas to have fun and nowhere is more fun when you just want to party than Fremont Street. Naturally thousands of people headed out to the historic core of Vegas to enjoy this end of Summer holiday. The crowds were pretty insane.
A big crowd was seen Friday night on @FSELV. There was very little social distancing and many people did not have on masks. https://t.co/2rxjDRL8x2 pic.twitter.com/5081AzVpIu
— KTNV 13 Action News (@KTNV) September 6, 2020
So this is what @FSELV looks like on a Saturday night when everyone comes to Las Vegas for Labor Day weekend. California beaches or closed. You have cheap flights so people are coming. Little do visitors know that bars are closed a lot of stuff or closed. So look where they are pic.twitter.com/p16jtHfyel
— BidenHarris2020 (@pammypam74) September 6, 2020
Is Vegas Back?
While these crowds are a really good sign for Las Vegas, I wouldn’t say Vegas is back in its old form. First, I should start by saying that masks are still required in public places and inside casinos you’ll be quickly reminded to keep your mask on if you try to go without it at any point in time.
Obviously we can see from these videos that crowds are forming, social distancing isn’t being followed and many don’t have masks. It’s not my position to say whether this is good or bad, but I can say I don’t think you’ll see scenes like that too often. Vegas has been committed to getting enforcement under control and I think there would be a big backlash if these videos became the new normal.
Room Rates Are Very Soft
While this surge of people is either good or bad depending on your perspective, it doesn’t seem to be a sign of a larger recovery. Admittedly I have no inside information, but room rates continue to be very low through the rest of the year. Caesars continues to have very low rates at their Strip properties including $9 midweek nights for elite members.
Thankfully Vegas has a lot of support from drive-in markets, meaning that a lot of trips are planned last minute, so the hope for improvement is still valid. This weekend showed people are willing to come in large numbers to Vegas and hang out sort of like the old days. Was it a fluke? We will see!
Vegas Labor Day Craziness – Bottom Line
Vegas never disappoints and despite the fact that I spent this Labor Day weekend at home I was entertained and somewhat shocked by the videos and antics of the visiting crowds. No doubt this isn’t quite the Vegas we all knew and loved, but it isn’t the ghost town we have largely seen since June either. And that’s something to talk about.
What do you think about the crowds that descended on Vegas this weekend? Let me know in the comments!
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I’ve never waited in a line that long for anything in my life.
Rose your statistics are useless and not relevant in so many ways. How many of the people who died had other illnesses that they would have died from anyway. Was COVID the sole cause of death orca contributing factor. The research on myocarditis is still up in the air. Your death est of 2.58 million is pure speculation. You are comparing apples to oranges. How can you compare 911 and a death rate from a war that was 75 years ago with what is happening now ? COVID has so far followed the curve of what most scientists expected as far as the death rate, hospitalization rate and recovery rates go. The media has overblown the statistics as they do everything else. The Pandemic is real but your figures are not!
Were there many people gambling in the casinos? Granted this was a holiday weekend, but I don’t think these crowds are what the casinos have in mind. Buying one or two drinks a night and walking around is not generating the income that is needed for a LV comeback. Unfortunately, scenes like this will keep away many of us middle-aged folks that like to gamble and spend our money in the casinos. I sure hope they can figure it out. I miss my LV trips!!
I think the cop racing on the strip was losing.
Haha it did look like he had his hands fulls.
I don’t know, unless you mean the Mardi Gras antics, I’m not sure I’d agree with the Vegas never disappoints part. This is why we can’t have nice things.
Haha fair enough. Perhaps that little bit of verbiage was a stretch. I more meant it never disappoints when it comes to being interesting. No doubt many leave disappointed.
Sorry, pet peeve. If people did the right thing on masks and distancing for the general good, our country would be in a much better place. I’ll try to step off the soap box.
Covid is essentially over but the media and lefties won’t let it go. Sturgis was several times larger and are there bodies lining the streets in South Dakota? NOPE. The frenzy over Lake of the Ozarks and bodies dropping dead into the Lake? NEVER HAPPENED. Turn off the news and and WAKE UP. The scamdemic is ending and the people are over it as you can see in the videos. You’re a gambler. Care to wager on whether or not Vegas hospitals are suddenly inundated with Covid patients? I’ll lay -500 on “Hospitals Will Not Be Overrun with Covid patients in September”. Want action or you just want to continue to pander to the fear?
Twice as many Americans died of COVID last *week* as died in the 9/11 attacks. More Americans died of COVID in the last 33 days than died in the Korean War. More Americans died of COVID this summer than died in both Vietnam and WWI combined.
And of course, there’s growing evidence that around 17% of infections (even asymptomatic infections) result in myocarditis, which has a 10-year fatality rate of 56%, so… even the virus magically disappeared today, worse-case, you’re looking at 2.58 million COVID-related deaths in the next decade. Maybe that’s why “the lefties” (aka scientists) won’t “let it go”? Or maybe it’s part of a secret plot to scam you into not going Vegas!!
Shaddup, troll. We’ve topped 180k deaths and 200 is in reach by end of month.
You’ve been in your Facebook bubble too long.