LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The first life is beautiful with no coronavirus restrictions since 2019 has begun bringing tens of thousands of people to Downtown Las Vegas.
The festival spans 18 city blocks with dozens of artists featuring on seven stages for one big weekend attracting people from all over the country and beyond.
"I'm up in Seattle right now," said Sean Grosvenor.
Grosvenor said the atmosphere was electric on day one especially since coronavirus lock-downs and safety protocols put a damper on so many events like LIB for two years.
"Kind of like a post-COVID festival vibe," he said, "stoked to be here. I mean, this is my first one back in awhile, we used to do this all the time, but the energy is hype."
Businesses know the crowd is ready to spend including those from outside the city like Characters Unlimited.
"Out of Boulder City," said Brandon Barth, Characters Unlimited Digital Director, "and we're actually celebrating 35 years this year."
Characters Unlimited or, as many know them, the company that makes the Zoltar fortune telling machines, capitalized on LIB crowds by pulling what they called the 2022 twist.
The company took an old school fortune telling machine and updated it to dispense NFTs, the unique digital tokens popular in crypto markets, to anyone willing to drop $5 on a fortune reading.
"It's insane the amount of business that benefits from this," Barth said, "it makes you step back driving to Life is Beautiful, and you're like looking at Las Vegas, man, life really is beautiful."
LIB will be open from 2:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. through Sunday.
