LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The year started with a lot of promise but 2020 will deliver one more disappointing blow to Las Vegas as authorities have decided to cancel the spectacular strip firework display citing safety concerns.
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority said there will still be some fun things planned to ring in 2021.
The announcement does not come as a surprise to Anthony Curtis, of LasVegasAdvisor.com
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"New Year's Eve and the Super Bowl, I mean, those are probably as big as it gets in Las Vegas, so this is going to put a real dent in what happens for New Year's Eve and that's probably the intent, they don't want people jamming together on the streets," explained Anthony Curtis.
Every year the Las Vegas spectacle brings in more than 300,000 visitors, many of them huddled in the cold, together on the Las Vegas Strip.
The scenario would violate many public health safety protocols amid COVID-19.
"It seems like a fitting end, it follows everything that's happened so far and they're looking at safety protocols before everything else and fireworks had to go," explained Curtis.
Sin City has been down this path before with fireworks displays.
In 2000, the new millennium celebration fizzled with no fireworks at all.
Instead, confetti rained down from the Eiffel Tower on the Strip.
Afterward, 13 Action News' reporter Steve Crupi said the fireworks display that year was scrapped to save money.
"They underplayed it in 2000, it was the changing of the millennium, that's when you expected the biggest show and it just sort of fizzled, they just didn't plan a big show like they probably should have, and [the casinos] heard about it," explained Curtis.
Lessons were learned and since then the fireworks have lit up Las Vegas every year since on New Year's Eve.
13 Investigates has learned the New Year's Eve fireworks show at the Plaza hotel-casino in downtown will still go on.
Planners say it will be the only display in Las Vegas and people from around the valley should be able to see it safely, from a distance.
