Main stage and artificial grass spectator area of Route 91 in September 2017, partially obscured by Luxor hotel block. Photograph taken from a helicopter during final preparations for the 2017 event.
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 the event being revived.
History
The following country music artists were the major acts in the respective years:[6]
More than 1,000 shots were fired into the crowd as the shooting continued for over 10 minutes. More than 800 people were injured in the attack.[10] At the time, the event was attended by approximately 22,000 people.[11]
Aftermath
Following the mass shooting, organizer Live Nation decided not to hold the 2018 Festival.[12] 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.[13] 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.[14]
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,[15] but that did not happen. Instead, in 2022, MGM sold most of the village.[16]
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