{"id":39280,"date":"2024-02-21T15:57:14","date_gmt":"2024-02-21T23:57:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/vitalvegas\/?p=39280"},"modified":"2024-02-21T16:20:00","modified_gmt":"2024-02-22T00:20:00","slug":"shots-fired-at-fremont-street-experience-not-that-kind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/vitalvegas\/shots-fired-at-fremont-street-experience-not-that-kind\/","title":{"rendered":"Shots Fired at Fremont Street Experience (Not That Kind)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Fremont Street Street Experience has had enough of seeing visitors badgered by aggressive street performers demanding payment for shows or photo ops.<\/p>\n

The downtown venue has begun using digital signs to let tourists know tipping is completely optional, along with advising them of the fact street performers aren’t employed or screened by Fremont Street Experience. Or anyone, really.<\/p>\n

New signage is part of a years-long effort to protect free speech while dealing with increasingly bad behavior on the part of buskers, including scantily-clad women who sometimes demand obscene compensation for photos.<\/p>\n

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Reminder: “Showgirls” on Fremont Street aren’t actual showgirls (and not just because these are A.I. “showgirls”). You can tell from the quotation marks.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Full disclosure: We worked at Fremont Street Experience for six years in digital marketing. The gig gave us a perspective others may not have, as well as an appreciation for the unique situation on Fremont Street, one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world.<\/p>\n

As we’ve shared on various occasions, Fremont Street is a public street. That makes the venue unique, vastly different from similar promenades on private property such as Linq promenade or The Park (at New York-New York) on The Strip.<\/p>\n

On private property, performers can be “curated” (screened for actual talent, background checks) or can be prohibited completely.<\/p>\n

As a public street, Fremont Street Experience has to grapple with some thorny issues, including the fact many “performers” don’t perform anything. Sometimes, they weave palm fronds into flowers or hold signs that say, “Kick me in the nuts, $20.”<\/p>\n

Many tourists assume these magnificent idiots are employees of Fremont Street Experience, which is untrue. (Fremont Street Experience does employ bands on the venue’s three stages.)<\/p>\n

Whenever Fremont Street Experience or the City of Las Vegas attempt to limit buskers, usually due to complaints from tourists or downtown casinos and other businesses, the ACLU sues. Public street, First Amendment rights must be protected.<\/p>\n

It’s a dance, really, and managing buskers has evolved over the years. Now, buskers enter a “lottery” for performance spaces<\/a> during evening hours. During the day, they roam, and that includes costumed characters and “showgirls” who pose for photos with visitors.<\/p>\n

Back in 1995, the performance circles were fancy (and were torn up approximately six minutes after installation).<\/p>\n

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First look at the new performance circles on Fremont Street, part of a new city ordinance going into effect soon. pic.twitter.com\/jY8erkY26J<\/a><\/p>\n

— Vital Vegas (@VitalVegas) November 10, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n