Life Is Beautiful: Fantastic Images of Superstar Shows
An intimate view of the festival that unites Stevie Wonder, Diplo, Foo Fighters, Kendrick Lamar, Kings of Leon and The Weeknd
We’re approaching the fourth Life is Beautiful festival—the annual three-day event of music, art, and culinary culture that happens in downtown Las Vegas. We’ve continually been impressed by its diverse lineup of rockers, rappers, and DJs that strives to cover all sounds. In addition to featuring high-profile legacy acts like Stevie Wonder, Duran Duran, Outkast and Lionel Richie, the LIB team has a knack for zeroing in on bubbling new artists, helping take them from the Hype Machine to household names.
Case in point is G-Eazy, who played the festival two years ago on a smaller stage and finds himself returning this year with top billing. Or Twenty One Pilots — virtual unknowns at the time of their 2013 booking — who earned two hits on radio by the time they hit the stage that year. Or The Weeknd, booked last year just before he hit critical mass with “I Can’t Feel My Face.” This year’s carefully-curated line-up strategically blends buzzy bands like Finish Ticket, Bob Moses, Raury and Leon Bridges with fan favorites like Mumford and Sons, J. Cole, Major Lazer and The Lumineers.
“We try to put together a lineup that not only crosses multiple genres, but really hits both the biggest and most buzzworthy artists from each one,” says Life is Beautiful’s head of music and live performances Craig Nyman.
There’s a serendipitous nature in this year’s batch of artists, namely with Third Eye Blind and Empire of the Sun, both having just released new singles and announced upcoming albums. Or acts like The Lumineers, J. Cole or Mumford & Sons, who have sparsely played Las Vegas, if at all. Even their DJ lineup differs starkly from the EDM billboards on the Strip, with ahead-of-the-curve bookings like Zhu, Flume, Kaytranada, Bob Moses and Duke Dumont.
“Jimmy Eat World is one of the top five requested bands, Third Eye Blind is top ten,” says Nyman. “That shows me that our fans are listening to all genres of music, but also that ‘old school’ and ‘classic’ is starting to refer to bands from the 90s.”
With this year’s festival just a couple weeks away (Sept 23–25), Nyman looks back at some of the most memorable moments of Life is Beautiful’s brief but breathtaking history. — Mike Pizzo
Foo Fighters (2014)
“If you look back to that year, there was a such a scarcity of Foo Fighters shows at that time. For us to be able to follow 2013 with one of the biggest rock bands out there, for all of us running the festival that was just amazing. That was the same year that we did Kanye, Outkast and Lionel Richie, so I think when you look at the overall line-up of 2014, it was a massive year for us. In 2015, when Glastonbury — which is one of the biggest festivals in the world — announced their first three artists, it was Foo Fighters, Kanye West and Lionel Richie. It was surreal for us.”
Kendrick Lamar (2015)
“When we confirmed Kendrick for the festival, all of us had a good feeling that he was about to blow up and become the star that he is now. We knew what we had in Kendrick and that it would obviously be a dynamite performance. There was this aura before he went on the main stage, people were just so amped up for the performance. It was the first time he was performing in Vegas since the album had come out. I watched the beginning of the show from the side of the stage because we were going to do the ball-dropping. There wasn’t a set time for it, we just figured 30–35 minutes into the set. We must have had 20 volunteers out there throwing out all the balls over the fence into the front of house.”
Kings of Leon (2013)
“I just can’t help but smile when I look at this picture. It was such a great moment during year one, to have them perform in downtown Las Vegas. That was such a big show for us, being able to kick off the first night ever of Life Is Beautiful with Kings of Leon. They were really excited to be back on the map after being gone for so many years. They are one of those rock bands that everyone knows at least two of their songs, but for us being fans it was just electric. People went bananas for them.”
Lionel Richie (2014)
“I get so excited anytime I see any photos of Lionel from our festival. That was a set that brought together parents and their kids. There was this elation, everyone had these grins on their faces. It was almost like one gigantic sing-a-long. People were having so much fun and they knew his entire catalog. I believe we were the second festival ever for him to perform at, following Bonnaroo. Then of course he went on to do Glastonbury and Outsidelands. He was an artist that I grew up listening to because of my parents. Towards the end of the set, he did “We Are the World.” I got chills hearing thousands of people — mostly strangers — sing along in unison, especially considering what that song meant back then and also what it means today.”
Major Lazer (2015)
“I feel like Major Lazer keeps kicking it up another ten notches every time. There’s no denying the energy that they bring to a show is of one of the top groups out there. In 2014, we had Wayne Coyne [The Flaming Lips] go into the hamster ball [it’s Diplo above], so people who have been to the festival before are familiar with it, but in this instance there were thousands of people that had probably never seen it. It’s always funny when you see people rush forward to be a part of the action. People lost it and had so much fun.”
Matt and Kim (2014)
“I love this photo. I love them, they are two of the nicest people in the business. Their crowd that night was wild. They filled our western stage, completely packing out that lot. The only thing I remember was that at the end of the set, the lights came on and the crowd would not leave, chanting for an encore. At a festival, you can’t do things like that, because we are on a schedule. But it was great to see people having the best 40 or 50 minutes of their weekend and the ultimate sign of respect was that everyone stayed for the entirety of the performance.”
Passion Pit (2013)
“This is another one from year one. The way that we work on my end is that we start building our lineup and our stages at the same time. Passion Pit was right before Vampire Weekend, who were right before The Killers. It was a one-two-three [punch]. The band has done really well in the Vegas market… It was a fun, high-energy set and they definitely delivered. For a young band, it was almost like a greatest hits performance because they had so many songs that were out at that point.”
Snoop Dogg (2015)
“Every photo of Snoop from last year got picked up [by other media outlets.] I guess everybody loves Snoop! We added him to the line-up in our second wave last year. It was by far the wildest crowd we ever drew to the Ambassador Stage, the people were just reveling. You get to see him live and it’s just like ‘another one, another one, another one.’ You don’t realize how many hits he has until you see a full show.”
Stevie Wonder (2015)
“On a purely selfish note, for me personally, Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life is my parents’ favorite album of all time. Being able to watch Stevie with them is one of the coolest moments of my life. That was as good as it gets. Similar to what I said about Lionel — but even more so with Stevie — it was a moment of crossing generations for families. He performed for over two hours and was telling stories; you can’t ask for much more with a living legend like him.”
The Roots (2014)
“I’ve seen them two dozen times at least. They are a fun band to have on your line-up. I have to think that in their heads they were like ‘Man, we are performing before Lionel Richie!’ It was a perfect storm where everything was working, with a really high energy set that took us into the rest of the evening.”
The Weeknd (2015)
“I think this was his first festival performance in two and half years, so for us it was a super big deal. At the time, he was making waves, but if you look at him now, he’s ten times bigger. After Life is Beautiful, he just exploded when “I Can’t Feel My Face” came out, maybe six months later.”
Vampire Weekend (2013)
“I believe this was right when Modern Vampires of the City came out in 2013, that produced a bunch of big songs for them. Maybe it was a little bit niche, but having them go up right before the Killers, it was another one of those great bands to have in year one of the festival. I’ll never forget Ezra [Koenig] saying something about how nice it was to be performing outside in Las Vegas and how there was more than just the Strip. That was pretty cool for us, being the new kids putting a festival in downtown Las Vegas.”
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