Question of the Day - 05 January 2022

The Arts District started out in the late 1990s as a few artists' studios and galleries, along with the odd antique shop, in an older and somewhat rundown part of town. Today, it's a thriving, if somewhat amorphous, district of art galleries, antique and vintage shops, bohemian bars, hair salons, and restaurants that stretching approximately from a couple of blocks south of E. Charleston Blvd. bordered by I-15 to north as far as Fremont Street and just beyond. Over the years, the retail outlets have not only become more plentiful, but also coalesced into a recognizable neighborhood, with colorful paint jobs and murals on District buildings, murals, signs, green spaces, sculptures, and occasionally people in costume defining the large downtown space. 

The First Fridays event, which will celebrate its 20th anniversary in October 2023, is proof of the area's vitality. A monthly happening that takes place, logically, on the first Friday of each month, it involves all the relevant stores and boutiques throwing their doors open until late at night for a big open-house/street party, often accompanied by cheap beer. There's live music and street entertainers, whole roads shut off to traffic and lined with various weird and wonderful arts, crafts, food, and drink stalls, and generally a very chilled-out atmosphere with good opportunities for interesting purchases of a gift nature or just as a treat for yourself. An average of 20,000 people congregate for the event every month.

Technically, the Arts District is known as the 18b, which signifies the 18-square-block zone laid out in 1998 to encourage art and artists in downtown Las Vegas. The 18b is bounded by Commerce Street to the west, Hoover Avenue to the north, Fourth Street to the east, and Wyoming Avenue at the south. But the Arts District has spilled over the 18b and has turned into a cultural, commercial, and even residential district that's arguably the hippest area in town.