I spent last weekend at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas. For those who haven’t been, this hotel is not on the main strip with the big name hotels – Mandalay Bay, MGM Grand, The Venetian, and so on. The Golden Nugget is in downtown Las Vegas, about 20 minutes northeast of the strip, on Fremont Street.
The Fremont experience
Fremont Street is this unique blend of entertainment activities crammed into a five-block long, outdoor shopping mall. Overhead, it has a massive arched canopy that looks like a white, metal grate and functions as a screen for a continuous light show and hundreds of ads.
- It’s sort of like Pearl Street in Boulder. Lots of buskers to entertain passers by.
- It’s sort of like Bourbon Street in New Orleans. Lots of bars serving overly sweet drinks to mask over-sized portions of alcohol.
- It’s sort of like a summer concert series at a local park. But the entire series happens every night on three stages, twice on Fridays and Saturdays.
- Oh, and there’s an incredible zip line called Slotzilla running the length of the mall.
Awesome people-watching
But back to those buskers … Vegas takes the idea of public street performances to a whole new level! Words cannot describe, so I took a few pictures. Enjoy!
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Excellent description of Fremont, Rick! Old downtown is definitely my favorite part of Vegas.
How about ex-wives? You think that guy would babysit an ex-wife?
Great post! I love old downtown LV.
Also, the most egregious thing in the photo set is the guy wearing crocs with socks!