Life is Beautiful’s third-annual weekend offered a diverse lineup and a new partnership with Insomniac, plus Bill NyeLife Is Beautiful Bill Nye

Life is Beautiful’s third-annual weekend offered a diverse lineup and a new partnership with Insomniac, plus Bill Nye

Life is Beautiful Music & Art Festival proved more attractive for 90,000 strong than Vegas’ glittering strip at the third annual music, arts, and food fest. The standout lineups in years past have created an expectation of diverse musical offerings (Kanye West, Skrillex, Outkast, and Foo Fighters shared the lineup in 2014), and this 2015’s stacked roster of talent set the bar even higher. For the first time, festival production titan Insomniac partnered with Life is Beautiful to expand the festival’s electronic offerings, and lend an experienced hand with production.

Life is Beautiful’s third-annual weekend offered a diverse lineup and a new partnership with Insomniac, plus Bill NyeLife Is Beautiful 2

Photo credit: Erik Kabik

Life Is Beautiful culled both legends and cutting-edge newcomers for the musical component of the three-day event. It seemed just as much effort was put forth in booking an impressive offering of speakers for its educational venue, as well. Indubitably the most popular of these was scientist Bill Nye, who overflowed the Learning venue capacity and also made a surprise appearance at Insomniac’s Troubadour Stage during Ryan Lofty’s set on Friday afternoon.

Life is Beautiful’s third-annual weekend offered a diverse lineup and a new partnership with Insomniac, plus Bill NyeLife Is Beautiful Bill Nye

Photo credit: Insomniac

Outside of its curated Troubadour tent, Insomniac’s presence was barely perceptible in its expression. Life Is Beautiful is set within the perimeter of several fenced-off city blocks in downtown Las Vegas, just adjacent to the kitschy Fremont Street Experience. Stage design for the three non-electronic stages was effectively simple and directed audience focus to the music. In contrast to signature Insomniac events like Electric Daisy Carnival, most lighting throughout the venue came from pre-existing street lamps and motel balconies that lined the streets. The company’s influence was most apparent in the details, indicative of Insomniac’s comprehensive attention paid to attendee experience. A spacious air-conditioned “cool-down” pavilion with restrooms, ample signage to stages and water stations, logical entry and exit points, plenty of security, and helpful mobile festival app updates made the event as enjoyable for festival first-timers as it was for veterans.

Life is Beautiful’s third-annual weekend offered a diverse lineup and a new partnership with Insomniac, plus Bill NyeLife Is Beautiful Mural

Photo credit: FilmMagic

The distinct sound and fairly powerful sound systems of each of the four stages belied their close proximity. Though walking from end to end of the venue was a mere ten minutes, there was an impressive lack of sound bleeding from one stage to another. The only stage with back-to-back sets each day, from gates opening until the closing set, was the all-electronic Troubadour. The other three allowed nearly an hour between sets, encouraging sampling of the vast talent the lineup offered.

Life is Beautiful’s third-annual weekend offered a diverse lineup and a new partnership with Insomniac, plus Bill NyeLife Is Beautiful Stevie Wonder

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Stevie Wonder unsurprisingly drew the biggest crowd on Friday night, but the rowdiest, at the second-largest Ambassador stage, was unquestionably at Major Lazer. Along with their classic Moombahton and dancehall hits, the trio mixed in some chart-toppers from Diplo‘s project Jack Ü and after an encore, closed with the group’s certified-platinum summer anthem “Lean On.”

Life is Beautiful’s third-annual weekend offered a diverse lineup and a new partnership with Insomniac, plus Bill NyeLife Is Beautiful Major Lazer

Photo credit: FilmMagic

Porter Robinson, who closed Friday night at the Troubadour, seems to have finally locked down his live show for a festival setting. In the covered tent, his meticulously-chosen visuals had their full and intentioned impact. The intricacies of Robinson’s audio-visual interplay has been mitigated by the vastness of main stages in festivals past, but the smaller and more intimate setting gave the producer the venue that his live show deserved.

Life is Beautiful’s third-annual weekend offered a diverse lineup and a new partnership with Insomniac, plus Bill NyeLife Is Beautiful Porter

Photo credit: Film Magic

19-year old Alessia Cara brought a powerful presence to the Ambassador stage just five months after the release of her first EP. Multi-instrumentalist Griz drew throngs later in the evening to the same stage with his soulful beats. The explosive crowd reaction when the producer layered on his signature live saxophone bespoke a mainstage crowd that valued live instrumentals over thunderous drops. Chance the Rapper and Snoop Dogg were unmissable for most- and for good reason- but a treasure trove of new and unreleased IDs awaited those who broke away for Jauz. Booming bass collaborations with Ghastly and Knife Party were among the high-octane new material the Los Angeles-based producer shared. Jauz’s most recognizable release to date “Feel The Volume” elicited the stage’s wildest reaction of the night, and may have been the only track heard at each of the four stages throughout the weekend. Vegas’ hometown heroes Imagine Dragons closed out the main Downtown stage long after the sun had set on day two.

Life is Beautiful’s third-annual weekend offered a diverse lineup and a new partnership with Insomniac, plus Bill NyeLife Is Beautiful Street

Photo credit: FilmMagic

Sunday was an exhilarating study of contrasts- the nostalgic familiarity of Weezer and Death Cab for Cutie, alongside current trend-drivers from all genres like Kendrick Lamar, Madeon, and Knife Party. The effect- surprising harmony- describes the weekend, and the greatest strength that Life is Beautiful brings to the well-saturated festival circuit.The lineup was a patchwork of legends and new voices, performing before a crowd of veteran festival-goers and first-timers. The formula is not complex, but its wide appeal and superb execution have carved a niche that doesn’t yet have similar competition on the West Coast.

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