If Las Vegas casino bosses could pick the perfect day for New Year’s, it wouldn’t be a Saturday. A Thursday would fit the bill, laying the foundation for a four-day party weekend. A Monday would be almost as good, with a long weekend run-up the festivities. To be sure, no one’s complaining about this year’s turn of the calendar, as a record 314,000 visitors are expected New Year’s weekend to spend $192.6 million on non-gaming items.
From Dave Rice putting UNLV basketball firmly back on the national spotlight, to IndyCar driver Dan Wheldon dying after crashing at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Bishop Gorman High football dominating again, it's been a memorable 2011 on the Las Vegas Valley sports scene. Here's a look at the top 10 moments.
New Year’s Eve is often a night of excess, and Las Vegas corners the market on indulgence. Some people might go overboard with drinks on the Strip. Others will dance the night away in clubs.
This New Year’s Weekend you can choose to party with three-quarters of the Kardashians, one-half of the Black Eyed Peas, or two one-quarter of the Jersey Shore cast. Those are just a handful of the celeb hosts in town for what has become one of the biggest nights in the world of Las Vegas nightlife.
Revelers heading to the Strip this New Year’s Eve will have even more opportunity to watch fireworks than last year. Las Vegas tourism officials have added an eighth pyrotechnics display to the lineup.
For some celebrities, sipping champagne and being seen at a Las Vegas club this New Year’s Eve will earn them a larger paycheck than their actual jobs headlining TV series, reality shows and concert tours.
Las Vegas' upcoming New Year's Eve celebration just got a lot louder. Veteran hard rock band Guns N' Roses has announced it will close out its 2011 U.S. tour with a Dec. 31 show at the Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel.
Metro Police said today they arrested 227 people during New Year's Eve celebrations and booked them into the Clark County Detention Center for a variety of misdemeanor and felony offenses, including 68 for drunken driving.
The biggest night of the year in Las Vegas didn't lead to any major problems for Las Vegas police, but a number of people were arrested for drunken driving, law enforcement officials said.
As an isolated event, it might not raise many eyebrows — the theft of a propane tank. But when law enforcement officials at the Southern Nevada Counter Terrorism Center noticed an increase of propane tank thefts across the valley prior to New Year’s Eve last year, they did what they are trained to do. They put smaller pieces of information together to form the bigger picture.
The lights went dark, the first lines of the Zombies’ “Time of the Season” blared from the speakers and the psychedelic light show began overhead to kick off New Year’s Eve at the Fremont Street Experience.
As yellows, purples and reds burst through the night sky, more than 300,000 New Year’s revelers packed Las Vegas to usher in a year many hope will be better than the last. Partiers stood jammed together along the Strip at midnight, eyes gazing up to watch the fireworks.
New Year’s Eve is about looking forward to the new year and making a few self-improvements along the way. And like many others in the Las Vegas Valley, notable residents have their own set of changes they hope to achieve in 2011.
Final preparations are under way to accommodate the thousands of people expected to begin 2011 in Las Vegas. The Strip and downtown are expecting 320,000 visitors for New Year's Eve festivities, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
