Las Vegas Strip shooting site 09 2017 4947 (cropped)

Route 91 Harvest was a

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

festival in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

that was held annually in

Paradise In religion, paradise is a place of exceptional happiness and delight. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical or eschatological or both, often compared to the miseries of human civilization: in paradis ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

from 2014 to 2017 in the

Las Vegas Village The Las Vegas Village was an open-air venue located on the Las Vegas Strip on Las Vegas Boulevard in Paradise, Nevada. Opened in 2013 as MGM Resorts Village, the venue was and owned by MGM Resorts International. The village was the site of the ...

, a lot on Las Vegas Boulevard (former U.S. Route 91), directly across from the Luxor Las Vegas hotel and casino and diagonally across from the Mandalay Bay resort and casino. The festival's promoters were

Live Nation Entertainment Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. is an American global entertainment company and monopoly that was founded in 2010 following the merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster. The company promotes, operates, and manages ticket sales for live entertainme ...

and

MGM Resorts International MGM Resorts International is an American global hospitality and entertainment company operating destination resorts in Las Vegas, Massachusetts, Detroit, Mississippi, Maryland, and New Jersey, including Bellagio, Mandalay Bay, MGM Grand, and Pa ...

. No festival has been held since 2017, following a deadly mass shooting in which a gunman shot and killed 60 people and injured hundreds more from a window on the 32nd floor of the adjacent Mandalay Bay hotel. So far, no announcement has been made about a date for a future event.

History

The following country music artists were the major acts in the respective years: *2014: The inaugural festival featured

Jason Aldean Jason Aldean (born Jason Aldine Williams; February 28, 1977) is an American country music singer. Since 2005, he has been signed to BBR Music Group, Broken Bow Records, a record label for which he has released ten albums and 40 singles. His 2010 ...

, Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert *2015: Florida Georgia Line, Thomas Rhett, Gary Allan, Lady Antebellum, Keith Urban, Tim McGraw and Brett Eldredge *2016: Headliners included

Luke Bryan Thomas Luther "Luke" Bryan (born July 17, 1976) is an American country music, country singer, songwriter, and television personality. He began his music career writing songs for Travis Tritt and Billy Currington before signing with Capitol Reco ...

, Toby Keith, Brad Paisley, Little Big Town and Chris Young *2017: Major acts were Eric Church, Sam Hunt,

, Jake Owen and Lee Brice *Since 2018: No festival due to the 2017 shooting.

2017 shooting

The 2017 festival was the scene of a mass shooting in which 60 people were ultimately killed, making the incident the deadliest mass shooting by an individual in U.S. history. The shooting began as singer

finished his sixth song on the final day of the festival and ended with gunman Stephen Paddock's

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...

. More than 1,000 shots were fired into the crowd as the shooting continued over 15 minutes. More than 800 people were injured in the attack. At the time, the event was attended by approximately 22,000 people.

Aftermath

Following the mass shooting, organizer Live Nation decided not to hold the 2018 Festival. In December 2018, it was announced that the Festival might return in 2019, with it being held at the Las Vegas Festival Grounds at the corner of Sahara Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard. However, this event did not come to fruition. A January 2020 article in ''Billboard'' magazine on the possibility of the return of the Route 91 Harvest Festival cited several significant challenges that would need to be overcome. These included finding a new venue for the festival, being able to successfully coordinate the booking of numerous performers and competing with existing residencies of country stars in other Las Vegas venues. In 2019, MGM planned to repurpose the Las Vegas Village as a community center which would host athletic events, and parking space for

Allegiant Stadium Allegiant Stadium is a domed stadium located in Paradise, Nevada. It is the home stadium for the Las Vegas Raiders of the National Football League (NFL), the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) Rebels college football team, the Las Ve ...

, but that did not happen. Instead, in 2022, MGM sold most of the village.

References

{{Reflist 2014 establishments in Nevada 2018 disestablishments in Nevada 2017 Las Vegas shooting Country music festivals in the United States Festivals in Nevada Live Nation Entertainment MGM Resorts International Music festivals established in 2014 U.S. Route 91