Fremont Street Experience, Las Vegas

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Besides the free Viva Vision shows (see my other Freemont Street Tip) there is lots to explore on Freemont Street. If you are looking for gambling, you'll find it. If you're looking for family entertainment you'll find it. If you want to buy some tacky-but-can't-resist souveniers of Las Vegas this is THE place to do it. Everything here is generally cheaper then on The Strip. The merchants especially seem to be cashing on the C.S.I. Show merchandise. These t-shirts can be found for about $5. Other Vegas shirts can be found here - a wide variety for about $2 or $3 each.

I didn't see many "shows" available to go to on Freemont Street except for Live Nudes. But the whole street comes to life at night. Walking around at 4 in the afternoon - the street is pretty quiet, but come 10pm or 11pm the place is jumping! Especially Saturday nights.

There is plenty of security around as well but you won't see them because they are in plain clothes. But they're there. The alcohol flows freely here and it takes some getting used to to see people walking around with beers in their hands on this public street. But things usually go off without a hitch. Sure you get the odd loneytoon here or there but you'll likely never feel threatened. All ages, all races - it's just a great melting pot of people and it's great for people watching.

Try and schedule your visit to Freemont Street when a live musical act is playing. We lucked out - there was a free band called "Wonderboogie" performing there. It was an amazing 70's Disco Tribute band. They had over 500 people all doing the Love Train at midnight. It was surely a sight to see! Young and old will have a great time on Freemont Street - but you only need about 2 or 3 hours to wonder around. The street is not that long, but if you go into the casinos, have a bite to eat, watch the musical acts or other creatures that be - it's worth the visit. Enjoy!

We were there 8 yrs ago and there was alot more going on than there is now. No street performers anymore. The light show only runs once an hour on the hour. Tried to go into the new mall and most of it was closed and we didnt feel safe. We could not get to the cheap food because they wouldnt allow kids to even walk thru the casinos to get to the resturaunts. Parking was terrible. Some crazy lady running a parking lot yelled at us because we parked in the wrong spot. She wanted us to park back in the corner were we couldve gotten blocked in. We left her lot. We did like the restored neon signs.

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WOW, WOW, WOW! We saved the Fremont Street Experience for last, but in hindsight i wished that we had done it earlier as we had missed so many things out. As we walked everywhere we had missed out on some of the hotels such as the Stratosphere and Circus Circus, the Westward Ho etc etc. (Save that for next time!!!)
Luckily we had got to the freemont street just in time for the light show (i didn't realise that it was only on certain times in the evening!
All of the lights on the front of the hotels/casinos went off and the lights began! It was amazing. (just keep you hands on your belongings as while your looking up, it is the perfect opportunity for someone to pick your pockets!
And of course while your downtown, you get to see Cowboy Victor and Cowgirl Vickie as well as some of the most famous casinos such as the Golden Nugget!

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Here is an incredible FREE light show in downtown Las Vegas. On Fremont Street are several large, older casinos. This is the "old" part of Las Vegas, where casinos are not as trendy as on the strip. The experienced gamblers say that the odds are generally better down here than they are out on the famous Strip. They have excellent buffets, at a good price, as well. And often they have live entertainment. First time I was there, they had a zydeco (cajun) music festival, with some of the biggest names in that genre.

So when visiting Las Vegas, don't overlook downtown. You'd be missing out.

Next to "The Strip", Fremont Street is the best known street in Vegas. The Fremont Street Experience is a pedestrian mall that is covered by a barrel vault canopy, 90 feet high at the peak, that covers four blocks or approximately 1,500 feet. The underside of the canopy is covered with a display programmed to show periodic sound-and-light presentations after dark. Each show begins by turning off the lights on all of the buildings, including the casinos, under the canopy. Before each show, the streets that still cross the experience are blocked off for safety reasons. They play all sorts of tunes that include Vegas favorites such as Elvis or Frank. It's a pretty cool thing to witness.

The initial display contained about 1.9 million lightbulbs controlled by 32 computers located in kiosks on the mall. The sound system, using speakers suspended over the mall was rated at 350,000 watts. Strobe lights were added at some point to provide additional entertainment options. Enhancements have increased the wattage to 550,000 watts in the sound system and an LED display controlled by 10 computers

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There is always something going
on at the Fremont Street Experience
located in the heart of downtown
Las Vegas on the historic street that
started it all.
The world-famous, one-of-a-kind
entertainment venue is home to
Viva Vision, the biggest big screen
on the planet.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The giant LED screen towers 90-feet above
a pedestrian mall lined with unique retail
shopping kiosks and two permanent
performance stages.

More than 12 million lights in the Viva Vision
canopy and 550,000 watts of concert quality
sound pumped to speakers throughout the
venue produce an incredible array of eye
popping imagery and heart pounding music.

Fremont Street is also has lots of shops, restaurants, cafes, hotels and yes casinos. People try to lure you into their casino giving you strings of free beads, I wonder why they think this would tempt you to enter! There are also street entertainers and musicians.

The whole of Fremont Street is now covered with a canopy that measures 1,400 feet and is 90 feet up. Nightly shows are approximately at 8.30pm, 9pm, 10pm, 11pm and midnight (check first to make sure).
There are different shows and the one we saw was of 'earthlings going head to head with aliens'. There are lots of flashing colours and very loud music and noise, some people may not like this. However I thought it was brilliant and so cleverly done and well worth going to see, on top of all that it is free! What more can you want.