Las Vegas Strip volcano’s last blasts are a must-see as Mirage’s closing approaches

A throng of people gathered on the sidewalk outside the Mirage hoping to see the longtime Las Vegas Strip resort’s iconic volcano show.

There was little space to maneuver on the railing by the time the production began Sunday, and many people had no choice but to stand a few steps away and glimpse whatever they could.

The volcano show — known for its choreographed display of spewing water, fire and both — is one of many attractions at the Mirage set to take their final bow with the property’s upcoming rebrand to the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino and Guitar Hotel Las Vegas.

Based on the seemingly endless crush of people at the volcano over the past few days, it appears locals and tourists alike are making the effort to see the classic show one last time.

Jessica Hock said her mother worked at the Mirage when it first opened, so the two of them came to see the volcano Sunday night before the property’s doors officially close today.

“It’s sad to see it go,” Hock, a Las Vegas resident, said about the volcano. “The Hard Rock can’t put anything here, Strip-side for curb appeal, that’s going to be any cooler than this.”

When asked what she’ll miss most about the Mirage, which hospitality mogul Steve Wynn originally opened in 1989 for upwards of $600 million, Hock said “the nostalgia.”

“The atrium, the smell,” she said, standing by her mother after the volcano show as the crowd was already dispersing. “All the key pieces that make the Mirage the Mirage are going to go away.”

The Hocks were far from the only people making a final pilgrimage Sunday to the 35-year-old Mirage, the last day that guests could stay the night at the resort before its closure just days later.

Hard Rock International, which is owned by the Seminole Tribe of Florida, purchased the Mirage property from MGM Resorts International in 2022, and is slated to thoroughly renovate the entire property over a few years.

Officials have said the new resort will boast a nearly 700-foot guitar-shaped hotel tower in lieu of the volcano, and a total of about 3,700 rooms. Hard Rock is eyeing a spring 2027 opening.

People bustled through the property Sunday night, many pulling suitcases, taking selfies in the property’s serene domed atrium full of live flora or playing at slot machines that hadn’t yet been shut off.

Many of the latter were already out of order, creating dark spaces in corners of the casino and — in some instances — forcing patrons to wait in line for their turn at a working machine.

“It’s crazy to me,” said Melissa Kravitz, a Las Vegas local who — much like Hock — had a parent on the Mirage’s team when it opened more than three decades ago. “We just played the Willy Wonka-Oompa Loompa (slot machine), and some lady goes, ‘When you get up, can we have it next?’ I’m like, where do you hear that in Vegas?”

Kravitz and her husband, Brian Kravitz, were at the property Sunday night to eat at the California Pizza Kitchen location in the Mirage one last time, because it’s where they used to go on dates.

The now-married couple expressed their excitement for what Hard Rock would do with the property, while also reflecting on what they would miss about the Mirage’s history — like the resort’s bygone dolphin habitat, which they used to bring their kids to see.

The permanent discontinuation of Siegfried & Roy’s Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat, which famously also housed big cats, was announced in a memo sent to property employees in November 2022, not long after Hard Rock entered the more than $1 billion deal to buy the site.

“It’s nostalgic, because when we first walked in that same smell that you got, like, 20 years ago — it’s that same Mirage smell,” Melissa Kravitz said Sunday night, as she and her husband prepared to leave the property. “Not a lot has changed.”

People from young to old could be seen at the property Sunday night, whether taking a dip in the pool to escape the relentless heat, getting a drink at the packed-out Lobby Bar or playing table games in the opulent high-limit lounge.

While seats were hard to come by and at least one restaurant required a dinner reservation or customers faced an hourlong wait, the property’s impending closure was hard to deny. The Mirage’s row of shops was sparse in terms of merchandise, even as most storefronts were still open. Some spaces were completely gutted.

Las Vegas residents Robin and Steve Perry came to the Mirage to take a little trip down memory lane. Robin Perry said she can be seen on the casino floor in “Vegas Vacation,” which filmed in part at the Mirage in the mid-1990s.

The property was the “biggest thing on the boulevard” back then, Steve Perry said. He and his wife pointed to the residency of staple entertainers Roy Uwe Ludwig Horn and Siegfried Fischbacher — the illusionist, tiger-wrangling duo more commonly known as Siegfried & Roy — as an example of the property’s rich history.

Robin Perry fondly remembered “good times” at the resort with her sister.

“I’m going to miss the whole hotel,” she said Sunday night, standing outside the Otoro Robata Grill & Sushi restaurant just off the casino floor. “I wish it would stay.”

The resort’s closure is already underway, however, with the conclusion of long-running shows like Cirque du Soleil’s “The Beatles LOVE” and magician Shin Lim’s “Limitless.” As of Sunday night, the once-bustling box office of “LOVE” was dark and practically empty.

Shin Lim, an alumnus of “America’s Got Talent,” has found a new home for his show in the Venetian’s Palazzo Theatre.

Despite the approaching closure, workers at the Mirage seemed to be in good spirits, from the still-open food-and-beverage venues throughout the property, to the housekeepers making their rounds.

The Mirage’s final overnight guests in history were required to check out by 11 a.m. Monday, with no opportunities for a later checkout.

Representatives from Culinary Union Local 226 and Bartenders Union Local 165 have previously said that union workers at the Mirage could opt for a severance bonus of $2,000 per year of service and six months of pension and health benefits, or a lesser, unspecified amount and recall rights to the property when it reopens.

“The beautiful thing is that this company (Hard Rock International) — it’s going to remodel and reopen, and it’s going to be bigger and better than before, and we 100% support that,” Ted Pappageorge, secretary-treasurer for the union, told the Sun. “But it’s tough for workers who have put their entire career, some of them into one place, to see it closed down.”

Some people at the Mirage this weekend indicated that, though they’re sad about the end of an era at the property, they’re equally excited at the prospect of a new era through Hard Rock.

“This is almost old Vegas now,” Steve Perry said inside the casino. “Now let’s see the new Vegas.”

Not everyone seemed to have the same outlook, however.

“You’re going to put a giant guitar here, and it’s going to reflect the sun into the freeway; it’s going to reflect the sun into the Strip,” Hock said beside the Mirage volcano. “It’s a cool idea on paper, but to actually put it into fruition — I don’t think it’s going to be anything like this is.”

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