In just its second year, I missed the inaugural Las Vegas Asian Night Market as I was back home in…read moreHawaii at this time last year. Reading the reviews, it doesn't seem like I missed much, but after reading this review (for those who didn't attend last night's festivities) y'all didn't miss much, as there was so much more to be desired and so much more to still be improved upon.
It also didn't help the fact that We recently came back from attending the Gold standard of night markets in North America, The Richmond Night Market in Canada which has been around since 2000, boasting over 100 food vendors and over 200 market vendors in an open, 18-acre lot, various games, exhibits, and a main event stage that caters to the 1 MILLION attendees every year.
Back to our "night market", the overall vibe felt like a very poorly thought out block party. For the 10,000 people who attended last night, here's some highs and lows of the festivities in my eyes:
Highs:
10,000+ in attendance means that there's a demand for events like this
Great effort to the people responsible for putting this together .
Now the Lows/Points of improvement:
BIGGER, OPEN LOT
With attendance guaranteed to grow next year, a bigger open area is SUPER necessary.
A blocked off street section with lines snaking every which way and people going against the grain saying "excuse me" every second was chaotic!
LIGHTS/SIGNAGE/LOUNGING
The street lights were the primary source of light for the event which made for a blah, dimly lit venue, the lounging areas that I saw were just tables and chairs at either side of the street, kinda like an afterthought. Some food vendors' signage was non existent or not very visible, again to a poorly lit venue. Better lighting is another necessity!
MORE VENDORS
Drop "Asian", rename it 702 or Las Vegas Night Market, and reach out to chefs, restaurants, food and non-food vendors, etc. After all, aren't we considered a culinary destination? There's seriously no shortage of food choices here. Maybe this way, it'll alleviate the long lines, offer more food choices, and lessen the possibilities of food vendors running out of food(Fukuburger ran out at 8:30pm)/drinks ,gives people the opportunity to browse, shop, and possibly come back for more food.
AREN'T WE A CITY KNOWN FOR ARTS/ ENTERTAINMENT?
There's also no shortage of singers, dancers, acrobats, magicians, comedians, cooking schools, martial arts schools, etc. in Vegas!?
TAKE A PAGE FROM THE RICHMOND NIGHT MARKET
Check out my review/pictures!
Go on their website and check out all the YouTube videos....It's a well thought out night market...Scrap the VIP Package and offer an Express Zoom Pass to allow Zoom Pass Holders early entrance before General admission attendees. More people are guaranteed to purchase this for sure.
Extend dates to possibly multiple weekends in a month instead of just one day each year?
(Maybe mid-September through the month of October) Richmond Night Market was every weekend(Fri, Sat, Sun) from May 10 through October 14, from 7pm to 11pm and the place was packed start to finish!
TAP INTO OUR LOCAL ARTISTS
Maybe think of a theme, and make it more inviting!
A little splash of color and maybe some cool installations to give the venue life! Color does wonders!
Remember, these two stars are MY EXPERIENCE, so take it with a grain of salt, learn and evolve from it, and don't taze me, don't @ me, or message me with any form of negativity. Believe you me, I really want this thing to stick around, because our community could really use an event like this after working
out the kinks. ALOHA!!!
SHAKA METER: \uuu/ \uuu/ 2(with a huge margin for improvement)