AVN Awards, convention to return to former Hard Rock Hotel

Virgin Hotels Las Vegas is continuing its lovefest with a long-running Las Vegas expo.

The vast AVN Show, with all of its moving parts, is returning to the former Hard Rock Hotel in January. Convention officials announced a three-year extension beginning with next year’s show from Jan. 18-23. The expo’s signature event, the 38th annual AVN Awards Show also known as the Porn Awards, is set for Jan. 21 at the Joint.

Hotel officials held off plans to close the property for its changeover from Hard Rock Hotel to Virgin Hotels to honor the AVN partnership.

“We recognize that our convention customers at Hard Rock were important to the property and to the base foundation of our goals moving forward,” Virgin Hotels Las Vegas property president and CEO Richard “Boz” Bosworth said Monday. “We delayed construction in order to serve these groups. Otherwise, we would have started sooner. They are very cherished clients.”

The event re-launches with the GayVN Awards show on Jan. 18, with the ANE (AVE Novelty Expo) exhibits taking over what will be the entire Virgin Hotels conference facility. AVN draws more than 1,000 adult performers and 400 exhibitions of new titles and products. Fifteen parties, panel discussions and networking events are planned for 2021 and beyond.

Elsewhere on property, the famous Hard Rock Hotel guitar sign has been disassembled and removed from its position at the hotel’s main entrance. Bosworth says a buyer for the sign has been identified and the hotel is in the process of selling the piece. The future of the piece is still being sorted out.

John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. His PodKats podcast can be found at reviewjournal.com/podcasts. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on Twitter, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.