Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Joe Downtown: Life is Beautiful festival announces dates, schedules lead-in events

The two-day downtown Life Is Beautiful festival – a celebration of music and food – is scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 26 and 27, and organizers have begun to put together some mini-events leading up to the fall festival on Fremont Street.

Thursday and Saturday at the downtown Construction Zone trailers, 102 S. Seventh St., Life is Beautiful is collaborating with the First Friday Foundation to put on a series of talks delving into “the current and future state of festivals.”

Talks Thursday go from 5 to 7:15 p.m., though people are invited to meet the speakers beforehand beginning at 4 p.m. Speakers include Joey Vanas, First Friday/Life is Beautiful managing partner; Shannon Henn, Love Hope Strength Foundation executive director; Chad Kaydo, Bizbash editor in chief; Adam Tichauer, Playbutton CEO; Andi Cheatham, EPHOPE founder; and Rehan Choudhry, Life is Beautiful founder.

The second session is Saturday. A mixer begins the event at 11:30 a.m. Talks and panel discussions take place from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Speakers include Ashley Bekton, founder Bekton Media Group; Nathanial Whittenmore of Sponsorfield; and Pete Shapiro, Relix Magazine.

Two panels of people will discuss festival issues. Jesse Israel of Cantora Records; Sean Glass of WIN Records; and Tom Flanigan, EVP Entertainment/Leo Burnett will be on one panel.

The other panel's members are Betsy Fretwell, Las Vegas city manager; Gabe Shepherd, Las Vegas community liaison; and Karla Ballard, Ogilvy public relations.

The keynote speakers are Hugh Evans and Michael Trainer of Global Poverty Project/Global Festival.

Joe Schoenmann doesn’t just cover downtown, he lives and works there. Schoenmann is Greenspun Media Group’s embedded downtown journalist, working from an office in the Emergency Arts building.

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