Life Is Beautiful

ART AND DESIGN
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A festival that puts art and empowerment ahead of profit

The annual Life Is Beautiful Music & Art Festival has been transforming the cityscape and energy of Downtown Las Vegas through positivity, purpose, and inspiring messages since its 2013 launch.

In addition to the celebration of music, comedy, speeches, small businesses, and food, Life is Beautiful has a strong focus on art, providing its 200,000 plus attendees and the local community with murals and interactive art experiences. In 2019, one of the most captivating new works was a “solar-powered” shadow mural created by India’s most prominent anonymous street artist DAKU and female-run creative house Justkids, which has curated all of the art for the festival since its inception. Located on Fremont Street, locally known as “the writer’s corner,” Daku’s work pays homage to a bookstore that once lived in the host building. The piece is quietly animated by the sun through the day revealing a well-known poem missing only its final verse: “but for those who love, time is eternity.”

The festival started as a simple event, but has since become something much more: a brand that unites people around artistic and cultural experiences. “The idea was to build this festival that was somewhat idealistic, as in, this is what the city of Las Vegas could look like,” said CEO and partner of the festival Justin Weniger, “We don’t do the festival as a profit center, our only real metric, our only real KPI, is how much we’re developing a community.”

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