Downtown Las Vegas’ Life is Beautiful fest canceled

It’s taking the year off without really taking the year off: The three-day Life is Beautiful music, arts and culinary festival has been canceled for 2020.

Originally scheduled to take place over multiple stages downtown Sept. 18-20, Life is Beautiful instead is set to make a full return next year.

But while no bands will play come September and no murals will be painted to brighten more buildings downtown, festival organizers emphasize that Life is Beautiful still will be active in the community.

“We were more excited than ever to share the vision of this year’s festival with you,” the organizers wrote in an open letter to fans. “Instead, this moment has given us the opportunity to pause and assess what is truly important. It has given us the space to reflect and to grow, to refocus on our work, and to find new ways to give back to our community beyond the three days of the festival.”

Since debuting as a two-day fest in 2013, Life is Beautiful has grown into one of the city’s biggest annual music events, drawing upward of 175,000 fans a weekend.

While the local spring music festival slate had already been turned upside down thanks to Electric Daisy Carnival, Punk Rock Bowling and the new Reggae Rise Up event all being bumped to October or canceled, now the fall fest lineup is being affected as well.

“It’s clear the health and economic hardships from the COVID-19 crisis will impact us all for some time to come,” Life is Beautiful founder Justin Weniger said in a news release. “In light of this, we made the determination to re-examine the role Life is Beautiful plays in the community and how we can put our resources, creativity and time into doing what we always set out to do: inspire and bring together a community.”

Contact Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476. Follow @JasonBracelin on Twitter.