Life is Beautiful 2020

For the first lineup back, the Life Is Beautiful team have put together a stellar bill. I spoke exclusively as well with the festival's Justin Weniger and Craig Asher Nyman about the logistics of putting together the first festival in the live music world after the COVID vaccine, from assembling the talent to how they will handle safety protocols.

Steve Baltin: At what point did you guys make the decision you felt comfortable going forward with September?

Justin Weniger: We obviously have always been optimistic We've always been working diligently on that towards a goal. I'll say that over the course of the last year we worked with such a heightened sense of purpose and such a heightened sense of duty to help shine a light on the road to recovery for our community, our city as a destination, our fans and fans of music and really our industry. So we took the responsibility upon ourselves to keep working and working diligently knowing that we're nimble and we have something that means so much to so many people to continue pushing forward. And over the course of the last couple of months you started seeing the vaccine come out, the vaccine distribution, it will be open season if anybody of any age group wants to get a vaccine they'll be able to in May, that was encouraging when that first started. Over the course of the last week that's just built more and more momentum. That plus seeing Super Bowl and other live events happening with people was obviously an encouraging sign. And we felt the sense of responsibility to push forward and push through and do everything we can to deliver for our fans and our community in September.

Baltin: Will you be going limited capacity or have you factored in what safety protocols you will be taking?

Weniger: Health, safety and the guest experience is always and forever priority number one. So in any typical year we're always open to receiving new information on anything that can help create a better guest experience. So this year is no different other than things are just moving quicker. Nobody knows, I don't think anybody has a crystal ball to know exactly what the world will look like in September or what the conditions and protocols will be. But we're just listening, everyday we're working with local authorities, we're working with everyone that has information to make sure we're providing the best and safest festival experience possible. So I know that probably seems a little bit like a non answer, but there's a lot of great technology out there that's now tracking, you're seeing what CLEAR is doing with tracking, seeing if people have a vaccine or tested. If there's a world where we'll need to do that in September, if there's a world where the world is completely back to normal in September, we're gonna meet the moment and provide the best experience and safest experience as we can at that time.

Baltin: Will there be a vaccine protocol?

Weniger: It's still to be determined. There are so many things. The world changed in a month, so looking forward I think so many things will be different by September. We're preparing as if there was a vaccine protocol. We're also optimistic that there might not need to be. There's a lot of things that can happen. Were in Las Vegas, Las Vegas is very strong, very resilient and when things get tough here people come together to help each other out and push the community forward. So I don't think we're in it alone. We'll work with all of the authorities and every resource we can here to figure out what we need to do as the time gets closer. But in a year like this you gotta be ready to make a plan, break a plan, make a new plan and we're looking legitimately at every scenario and every trend that could happen over the course of the next few months and preparing accordingly. We just don't know yet. And if we ever got a to a point where it wasn't gonan be safe to do the festival then we wouldn't do the festival and we would refund fans' tickets and that'd be the end of it.

Baltin: Are you looking at other concerts and the live music industry in general as well?

Weniger: We're watching other music events. In Vegas alone there have been some things announced for the fall. The Vegas Golden Knights are letting fans back in the stadium again. I think it's 15 or 20 percent, but the governor has laid out a plan that's supposed to increase and there seems to be a path to full attendance at events again by fall, kind of globally speaking and in Las Vegas. So we're watching that, we're watching things on a state by state basis. We're really fortunate we have one focus and that's Life Is Beautiful and that's our community in Las Vegas. So we don't have to necessarily plan a tour, make sure that everything is equal across 20 dates or anything like that. We just have to focus on our fans and our community here and provide a safe experience. I think we're just gonna be in such a different world by September.

Baltin: How has the immediate response been?

Weniger: The GA sold out in about 30 minutes. VIP sold out in about an hour or so. The demand is there. We were elated to see the support of people and what it meant. If you're looking at the social comments and the emails and messages from people that bought tickets it was what it meant for this moment to be back.

Baltin: When did you start booking this lineup?

Craig Asher Nyman: We never stopped is the thing. It was more of, I don't like saying it this way, but it was like a holding pattern. We've just been rolling straight through and as we got into this year picking things up. In a way it also allowed us, as Justin said, where you're not having to route around a tour, because we were on this early, maybe a lot of artists are routing their tours or fall events around us now. Or using us as that starter or tent pole in the middle of their tour. The response has been really encouraging, everyone's excited, everyone wants to get back to it. From a timing standpoint, everyone is hungry and it gave us a chance to really fine tune a lineup that we feel coming out of all this is something our fans will be able to come to and have three days of revelry.

Baltin: So how much of the lineup was in place from 2020 and how much is new?

Nyman: Like 25, 30 percent, the rest is new. Let's just take the top artists: Green Day is rock royalty; Tame Impala is obviously bonafide headliners and an artist we wanted at the festival for a long time, excited to have them; ASAP Rocky, same situation; ASAP, a monster in hip hop with his stature; HAIM, how they've grown since the last album; you know how big Illenium is from an electronic standpoint; Young Thug is having probably one of the best years in hip hop, and obviously Glass Animals are rising more and more by the day. So from those artists on it's just this energy and this momentum that we feel. All of them have big songs right now and I think it's going to be a big summer into the fall.