Question of the Day - 27 March 2017

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You’re right, this is a good combo question, especially since Restaurant Week is a great event and a good cause.

To answer the first, the number-one worst time to come to Las Vegas, if measured by crowds, high demand, and high prices, is New Year's Eve.

(Of course, 350,000 celebrants think it’s the best time to come to Las Vegas. "Worst" and "best" are, of course, in the eyes of the beholder, but we’ll take your criteria at face value and leave the worst/best duality to the philosophers and gurus.)

The two three-day weekends that bookend the summer are also ferocious for crowds and prices: Memorial Day and Labor Day. July 4th, especially if it falls on a Thursday, Friday, Monday, or Tuesday, can be added to those two long weekends.

Super Bowl weekend can attract upwards of 175,000 visitors.

The National Finals Rodeo is also one of the city's largest events, taking place the second week of December and attracting 175,000 spectators from all over the world.

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in early January is one of the largest conventions in the world and the 2015 show was the largest to date: 170,000. "Normal" attendance is more like 130,000, which is 130,000 reasons to stay away then if you don’t like hordes.

World of Concrete Expo bounces around between mid-January and early February and sees upwards of 70,000 attendees. MAGIC (the men's apparel show) takes place in February and August and attracts 85,000 people to both. And the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convenes every April with more than 100,000 attendees.

A new category here includes the several annual music festivals that now play Vegas. The 2016 Electric Daisy Carnival had a nightly attendance of 140,000; it’s usually held in June. Life Is Beautiful takes place downtown in September; the 2016 festival also attracted nearly 150,000 (though a lot were locals). The Academy of Country Music Party for a Cause takes place this week and 60,000 are expected.

By the way, the most crowded times in Vegas are covered in an FAQ in the General category found in Read First on this site. If you haven’t visited the FAQ yet, the answers to lots and lots and lots (nearly 300) questions of this sort (which was submitted before the new website was launched) can be found in the FAQ.

To the second question: Las Vegas Restaurant Week takes place this year June 19-30. Now in its 10th year, this a fundraiser for local food banks, homeless shelters, and feed-the-needy organizations. (Since 2007, more than 2.5 million meals have fed nearly 300,000 food-insecure southern Nevadans.)

On June 6, participating restaurants will be announced at fb.com/LasVegasRestaurantWeek.