Haute Event: Life Is Beautiful Day One Highlights Include Kings of Leon, Beck and Chefs Galore

Life is Beautiful Festival hosted its official kick-off party Grills & Guitars on Friday night. The party featured a culinary feast prepared by 16 celebrity chefs, including Bruce Bromberg, Aarón Sánchez, Scott Conant, Cat Cora, Rick Moonen, Kim Canteenwalla, Susan Feniger, Mary Sue Milliken, David Myers, Jet Tila, Clayton Arakawa with musical performances by Dawes and Todd Rundgren.

On Saturday, thousands of people to Downtown Las Vegas to explore the 15-block music, food, art and learning event consisting of five music stages, a culinary village, an alchemy garden, an eclectic street art program curated by Charlotte Dutoit, a learning program with a range of notable speakers, and much more.

Highlights of the festival so far include:
Kanye West toured the footprint of the festival with co-founder Rehan Choudhry & Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh on the eve of the opening.

At Grills & Guitars, Nancy Silverton presented Jonathan Waxman with the Lifetime Achievement Award surrounded by Aarón Sánchez, Bruce Bromberg, Michael Symon and the festival’s co-founder, Rehan Choudhry.

Hometown favorites Imagine Dragons played their biggest show in Vegas to date, and spoke about their excitement of being part of the transformation of Downtown Las Vegas. The show ended with a surprise appearance from the cast of Mystère by Cirque du Soleil.

Childish Gambino performed his own rendition of Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep.”

Capital Cities covered a Bee Gee’s song and two different versions of their hit “Safe and Sound”
Beck performed Michael Jackson’s hit song “Billie Jean.”

Aarón Sánchez packed the room with energetic fans during his “Chefs on Stage” cooking demonstration.

Ben McKee of Imagine Dragons joined Jet Tila during his cooking demonstration and Youngblood Hawke cooked with Cat Cora.

Speakers including Tony Horton and the creators and cast of MTV’s “The Buried Life” inspired attendees when sharing their stories about following their passions.

The Beatles LOVE by Cirque du Soleil surprised guests with a pop-up performance on Fremont Street.

Headliner Kings of Leon closed out the festival’s first night with an inspiring performance featuring a three-song encore.

Click on the photos below to enlarge.

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