Life Is Beautiful Festival 2017 Recap

Mikayla Krueger | October 01, 2017

Walking up Fremont Street there was bright lights, music coming from all directions and tons of people in the latest festival fashion walking up to the highly anticipated Life is Beautiful festival.

The festival being right off this popular street was a great place to pregame and grab a bite to eat before going into the venue. There was no shortage of deals and happy hours.

Stepping into the festival was like walking into an art gallery, with huge murals on the sides of the buildings everywhere you looked. It was definitely a unique feeling to be wandering through the streets of Las Vegas with giant pieces of art staring down at you no matter where you went exploring.

Festival goers could even go inside the Crime on Canvas building and look at artists works and if there was something that stole your heart, these pieces were for sale so you could take a part of the festival home with you.

One of the most amazing art installations at Life is Beautiful was the Art Motel by Meow Wolf. What was once an abandoned motel was transformed into an entire building full of different rooms that enticed all the senses.

One room had boxes on the walls with cranks on the side of each one for people to turn and then put their noses up to and figure out what aroma was coming out of the box. The next was a forest made out of foam trees and roots that people could touch and jump on. With so much for festival goers to see and do the whole weekend was needed to experience it all.

Friday’s musical lineup was through the roof, for us it started off with the Future Classic artist Hayden James. His remix of Odesza’s “Something About You” really got the crowd moving and grooving.

After some house beats we followed the Alternative sounds coming from Emo Nite at the Kalliope art car where we found our teenage dreams coming to life. It started with Frank Zummo from Sum 41 playing classic alternative songs, followed by a secret set by Blink 182 before their main set on the Ambassador stage later that night.

In addition to Blink 182, ending the night was Chance Rapper on the Downtown Stage, and Big Gigantic and Zeds Dead on the Fremont stage. While there was enough musical diversity for every taste, it was a tough decision for us to make. Ultimately, we sang “ Sunday Candy” with Chance and caught the feels for “Collapse” at Zeds Dead and called it a wrap for the first night.

Saturday was not short on huge music either, the Kalliope Art car was now the bass house stage curated by Space Yacht featuring acts like Kawt n Kandy and LondonBridge. This day also included huge power houses like Cage the Elephant, Muse and Kaskade.

Sunday properly ended the weekend with the rest of the stacked lineup. Zhu’s tribute to Linkin Park to his new collab with Ekali was one of my favorite sets of the weekend.

After that Troyboi mixed it up with his world trap beats, leading up to an unforgettable final set by the Gorillaz. The Gorillaz not only had a full band but also had multiple artists come up and play with them including Pusha T, Vince Staples, and De La Soul.

Life is Beautiful is an amazing festival that does a great job at keeping everywhere you go different. Walking through the streets of downtown Las Vegas was different on every block, from signature drinks available at different bars to culinary villages scattered throughout.

This festival was such an awesome way to witness huge artists of all genres, I would definitely add it to the bucket list!