The block is hungry. It’s been a hot minute, and a hot summer, since Feed the Block has taken place on Fremont East. Marshmello’s show in April was the most recent date in the free-admission, one-night EDM festival. The community has turned out. About 20,000 attendees showed up for that performance. The public wants s’more Marshmello (ha!), and other superstar DJs in his strata. Diplo, Gryffin and Major Lazer have all taken over the corner of Sixth and Fremont streets.
The ForestHouse Art car, vibrating to the beats, is Feed the Block’s distinctive stage. The show overlooks Fremont East and, in the distance, the Fremont Street Experience canopy. The setting is uniquely Las Vegas, the shows feeding not only the block, but social media pages.
A revival of Feed the Block is due in early October. The event was an instant hit with Gryffin’s performance in April 2025. But it is a seasonal experience.
“There probably will never be a summer event,” says Ryan Doherty, founder of Corner Bar Management, the event’s lead visionary whose businesses dominate Fremont East. “As we’ve gone down the road, there are too many expenses related to doing this in the summer.”
Those expenses are related to health and safety measures when the temperature tops 100 degrees. Those concerns cut out the June-to-August schedule.
Seeking DJ deals
Feed the Block is advancing without its original partner, Wynn Nightlife. The company has since split with President Ryan Jones, a move Wynn officials confirmed in April.
Wynn Nightlife is currently renovating the 17-year-old XS Nightclub for a November relaunch, auditioning new servers and bartenders through Aug. 27. The project is also likely to end Wynn Nightlife’s ongoing participation in Feed the Block, which was designed (in part) to promote XS and Encore Beach Club headliners.
Who is stepping in as Feed the Block’s exclusive partner?
“It might be nobody,” Doherty says. “Wynn came on as a partner last time, but really, all we need is for someone to lift the radius clause, where DJs can’t play anywhere else in town because they are getting big money to play exclusively wherever they have a deal.”
The deal-making turns informal, as happens in downtown Las Vegas.
“If we said, ‘Next time Fisher’s in town, can he play the night before at a free block party? It’s really good because it helps you advertise and market to a young audience,’” Doherty says. “They’d probably say yes, because he usually is sold out, and they don’t really care about having a free party the night before a sold out show. They’d just say that you can’t announce until the show is sold out, or until the week before.”
‘A few winners’
Doherty’s show is a free agent, open to booking from any company. The DJs could come from Tao Group Hospitality for a few shows, LIV Nightclub at Fontainebleau or Electric Daisy Carnival producers Insomniac.
“It doesn’t necessarily need to be someone exclusive for Feed the Block,” Doherty says. “It’s really a community event. The DJs are making no money, and the clubs aren’t making any money, either. It’s to reach a new audience.”
The plan is now to run Feed the Block ahead of the annual Freaks on Fremont Halloween event, which returns Oct. 29. Both shows are 18-and-over. The Freaks on Fremont event will return with the ever-fascinating Xuza art car (not to be confused with the ForestHouse art car), with a headliner to be announced.
Doherty’s neighborhood might not be as fancy as, say, Omnia Dayclub. But it is different, in a never-a-dull-moment way.
“The DJs like doing this. They get off on playing these shows,” he says. “It is also great content for them. It gives them something on their feed that isn’t the same pool party, or nightclub party, over and over again. There are a few winners in these scenarios.”
Piano show plays out
Cheapshot on Fremont East, another of Corner Bar’s projects, has ended its Don’t Tell Mama-styled piano party. That show was coincidental in many ways, marking the return of showman Kenny Davidsen to the original Don’t Tell Mama club space. Co-owners Minh and Joanna Pham moved to Neonopolis in 2019 after their lease expired on Fremont East. They closed the club in January.
Popular musicians Spadoni and Chris Morgan joined Davidson in rotation at Cheapshot. The club opened March 26, hoping to rekindle the appeal of the original club. But the noise from Fremont East overtook any hope of playing an open-mic, cabaret-styled show. Even a move to a 5-to-11 p.m. slot, opening before the crowd intensified, did not work.
“The nightlife events, with a DJ booth in the back, are just better-attended,” Doherty says. “We’re still going to be open Thursday through Sunday. Half of it will be DJs and half burlesque. I don’t know what half, but that seems to be what works there. The only thing that’s, like, not there anymore is the piano bar.”
John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. Contact him at [email protected]. Follow @johnnykats on X, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.