Denise Truscello / Courtesy
Usher performs at the grand opening of his Las Vegas residency at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace on July 16, 2021.
Monday, May 9, 2022 | 2 a.m.
The month of May typically brings the first big outdoor music festival of the year to Las Vegas, the Electric Daisy Carnival at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. While the dance music mega-festival returns May 20-22, the Strip has already seen one new event this spring with Miami’s Vibra Urbana reggaeton fest taking place at the Las Vegas Festival Grounds April 30-May 1, and that site across from the Sahara is set to host the star-studded Lovers & Friends R&B and hip-hop festival May 14-15.
With more full-scale, multi-day events on the docket for summer and fall, Las Vegas has emerged from the pandemic as one of the busiest destinations across the country for music festivals.
“We love Las Vegas and it is such a perfect backdrop for different musical experiences, and obviously the city has a rich history of one-of-a-kind shows and performances,” said Dana Droppo, senior vice president of Billboard, which brings its annual awards show back to MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 15. “We’re always trying to balance honoring what’s happened historically [in music] and what’s bubbling and new, and that’s what’s happening in Vegas right now, on the Strip with all its entertainment and with this cool new core popping up downtown.”
Lovers & Friends, produced by Live Nation with legendary rapper Snoop Dogg and Los Angeles promoter Bobby Dee, was originally announced for May 2020 in L.A., but the pandemic shifted those plans. So many popular artists were part of that original bill that some fans thought the festival announcement was a hoax.
In July 2021, it was announced to be taking place at the Las Vegas Festival Grounds on May 14 of this year, and a second day was quickly added due to robust sales. Strip resident headliner Usher is at the top of the bill with hip-hop icon Lauryn Hill, rapper Ludacris, frequent Vegas nightclub headliner Lil Jon, TLC, Ciara, Nelly, Timbaland, Brandy, Monica, Ne-Yo, T-Pain, Lil Kim, Ashanti, Ja Rule and many more.
The Lovers & Friends website has posted that the festival has been almost entirely sold out with only a few Sunday tickets remaining, but tickets for both days starting at $195 plus fees are available at Ticketmaster and other outlets.
Other scheduled music festivals this year include: Psycho Las Vegas August 19-21 at Resorts World; Big Blues Bender August 25-28 at Westgate; Life Is Beautiful September 16-18 in downtown Las Vegas; iHeartRadio Music Festival September 23-24 at T-Mobile Arena and Area15; Lost In Dreams September 30-October 1 at the Downtown Las Vegas Events Center; Reggae Rise Up October 7-9 also at DLVEC; and When We Were Young October 22-23 and 29 at the Las Vegas Festival Grounds.
