First Friday

My feeling on First Friday is that it was cooler when it was 15 people in the Funk House eating cheese cubes and wine while someone played bad music in the back. Since then it has gradually worked to gentrify the downtown district, but unfortunately the depth of cultural activity has never outpaced the number of people trying to make money off it by building expensive condos and ridiculous clubs.
Although it’s done a world of good for downtown, my feeling remains that the whole thing has never lived up to the promise I was sold.
I feel like such a shit for saying this, but it’s true. Art kids in Las Vegas are still better off leaving for a bigger scene than they are staying and trying to make this one better.

First Friday is actually an event that occurs every First Friday of the month. It’s art walk. Its also wine tasting, socializing, watching bands play, Seeing artists make art, musicians play… its kinda like a modern day renaisancce festival. Without the horses… or the knights… and swords… and kings… wenches…Ok wait there’s wenches. No really it’s a great array of ecclectic people. They range from the Hipsters, to foodies, to wine groupies, emo kids, rockers, etc. Yea whoever you are — you get a label even though you may fall in many catagories. The art walk itself spans many blocks From Charlston and Main to LVB. It goes around art bar, the radiator shop, etc. There’s so much to look at and some of the artwork is really good. When I went, Adam West had his artwork there… yea he’s not much of an artist. Great at selling his name. Don’t buy Adam West artwork. Yea. I can draw better than that Blind… and an amputee. Definitely go to First Friday. When they say the «freaks come out at night», they really aren’t kidding.

My Vegas go to man jumped at the chance to attend First Friday.
Per their website, «FF is an ongoing monthly arts, entertainment and social event that is held on the first Friday of each month from 6 to 10 pm with after parties at a few locations going on until the wee hours.»
Walking along the streets of the Arts District, you can see variations of visual arts, performing arts (dance and music), and anything else that fits into the genre of arts.
The area for this event is huge. I suggest carpooling and making a night of it. Wear comfortable shoes as you’ll be walking a lot — into galleries and onto dirt roads. There are also food vendors, so you can grab dinner there.
My first experience there was okay. I saw lots of painting and visual arts and then crossed the street to a more griddy type area with young punk kids dominating the scene. It’s a very interesting mix of people here, young and old, rich and economically challenged. You can see the latest fashion craze among the young as trendsetters are abound.
However, when the event shuts down at 10 pm, the cops are aggressive. They are on horseback and they will move quickly to clear out the streets. Cops at any event is a damper, especially if they are on horseback.
I gave this only a 3 star because I didn’t get to really check out everything that was going on. It’s definitely worth going back though again. See you at the next First Friday!