A Fremont Flashback

The music and culture of the 1980s will flash back to downtown Las Vegas this summer as Fremont Street Experience presents “Nina Blackwood’s Absolutely ’80s” summer concert series and festival. The 100-day promotion will kick off Memorial Day weekend and run through Labor Day weekend.

Original MTV veejay Nina Blackwood will host a series of free headliner concerts at Fremont Street Experience. The series launches Saturday, May 28, with Terri Nunn and Berlin and concludes with Howard Jones on Saturday, Sept. 3.

Other early bookings include Dale Bozzio and Missing Persons on Saturday, June 4, and Loverboy on Saturday, Aug. 6. Additional headliner concerts are also scheduled for June 18, July 2, July 9, July 23 and Aug. 20.

Along with headliner concerts, Fremont Street Experience will feature tribute bands of iconic ’80s artists, plus cover bands playing ’80s music throughout the summer. There will also be a production show titled “VJ Invasion: Launchdate 8.1.81” to commemorate the video music generation that began Aug. 1, 1981, with the birth of MTV.

Blackwood is synonymous with ’80s music and her radio shows can be heard regularly on Sirius XM channel “80s on 8” and on syndicated radio shows “Nina Blackwood’s Absolutely ’80s” and “Nina Blackwood’s New Wave Nation.”

This will be the third year of the summer concert series at Fremont Street Experience in Downtown Vegas, where Las Vegas began.

In 2010, Fremont Street Experience focused on the music and culture of the 1970s with “Summer of the ’70s.” Artists and bands such as Gloria Gaynor, Sweet, Little River Band, Blue Oyster Cult and Jefferson Starship highlighted last summer.

“Our summer concert series has drawn record nightly crowds to downtown Las Vegas over the past two summers and now this summer, we believe ‘Absolutely ’80s’ will be a smash hit with both visitors to Las Vegas and local residents,” said Jeff Victor, president of Fremont Street Experience. “The ’80s brought a new generation of music into our living rooms via cable television and MTV. Nina Blackwood was at the forefront of that cultural new wave and today she continues to rewind all the great music and memories of that decade.”

Blackwood will also be featured nightly on Viva Vision with a 100-day countdown of her greatest artists and songs of the ’80s.

Fremont Street Experience is one of the top attractions in Las Vegas, annually drawing over 16 million visitors to downtown. The five-block urban pedestrian mall connects 10 famous downtown hotel-casinos — Binion’s, California, Fitzgeralds, Four Queens, Fremont, Golden Gate, Golden Nugget, Main Street Station, Plaza and Vegas Club.

“Downtown Vegas is casual and fun, and best of all it’s the best value in Las Vegas,” Victor said. “All the concerts and stage shows are free, plus downtown hotels offer the best deals in room rates, food and drink specials.”

Along with the free concerts and stage shows, Fremont Street Experience is renowned for Viva Vision, the largest video screen in the world. Viva Vision is 1,500 feet long, 90 feet wide and suspended 90 feet above the pedestrian mall. It features 12.5 million LED lights and a 550,000-watt sound system.

Throughout the summer the nightly lineup of Viva Vision shows includes “Don McLean’s American Pie” at 9 p.m., “The Doors — Strange Days in Vegas” at 10 p.m., “A Tribute to Queen” at 11 p.m. and “KISS Over Vegas” at midnight.

For complete information on the lineup of headliner concerts and nightly entertainment, visit www.vegasexperience.com to plan an experience that will take you back to the ’80s. You can also become a Facebook fan of Fremont Street Experience to get the latest information on “Nina Blackwood’s Absolutely ’80s.”

—Paul Rogers, Custom Publishing Writer