Royal Flusher's Daily Vegas Pic - Aug 19, 2017 - Fremont Showgirl

Pic of the Day for Saturday August 19, 2017

The Fremont Street Experience is an unqualified success as of 2017. It wasn't always so.

If there were a fifth Queen, she'd be it.

It's been about 20 years since the canopy was put in to try to breathe life into the worn out downtown properties. This brought marginal improvement over the next 13 or 14 years.

Three things have happened that have made the difference in the last 5 or 6 years.


The first thing is the bands. Live music on a regular basis made being on the FSE a cool thing to do, and brought in a younger crowd.


Second, the characters and buskers. The lovely showgirl I photographed in 2010 was one of the very first people to dress up in costumes and pose for pictures.

Third, as the FSE continued to improve its experience with bigger events, a revamped canopy display and sound system, the oligarchies of the strip continued to nickel and dime the customers, pulling the ratchet ever tighter on fees, other fees, and more fees. People realized that they could still get a good deal, and a good gamble downtown and sometime around 2011, 2012, the thing finally took off in the way the originators of the canopy envisioned.

Now, it's not uncommon for the people on Fremont Street to be wall to wall, shoulder to shoulder in the evening, and gaming revenues downtown and hotel occupancy rates are benefiting.