Part 2! There was just too much going on at the First Friday Art Festival in Las Vegas for one episode!
The Las Vegas Pride Parade. The Las Vegas Food Truck Round Up. The usual Friday night party animal and gambling crowd that shows up for the weekend. First Friday. This all adds up to a huge festive fun night in Las Vegas!
I mentioned in the first article, that First Friday is an art festival that takes place in the Las Vegas art district on the first Friday of every month. Artworks of all kinds can be seen and there are great works of art for sale. There are several other forms of art at First Friday that will never have a price tag attached. One section of Casino Center Boulevard was devoted to street chalk drawing art. Children, teens and adults all took part in creating chalk drawings on the street. There was even some graffiti style chalk art. Chalk street art is a temporary medium. The canvas is washed clean by rain and the next First Friday brings a fresh new street canvas.
Graffiti art is a respected form of art, but the damage it causes results in negative views of that art medium. Las Vegas is the city of 1,000 murals, so where does graffiti fit in? There are actually houses in the downtown Las Vegas art district that are devoted to graffiti art! Fine graffiti art can be some freaky looking stuff and it is cool with society, if it causes no damage. The graffiti art house murals downtown are really something to see. Elaborate graffiti art is not something that is easy to learn.
A trend in modern art galleries has been art galleries that have a house DJ! The DJ's do not simply spin disks like the old days, when vinyl records were a hot item. Modern DJ's create music and sound. Trendy art studio's with DJ's attract a lot of attention. It creates a whole new atmosphere for attracting customers who are interested in the arts!
I did a lot of walking during the First Friday and Pride Parade events. Luckily, the Food Truck Round Up was going on too. I photographed nearly every food truck that was at the festival. I checked each food truck menu out and there was plenty to like. I settled on Chicago style deep dish pizza for my first bite to eat at Amore, Taste Of Chicago. A little while later, I saw a food truck that had a very interesting cuisine. Louisiana style food!
The Rusty Pickle food truck is painted bright neon lime green and it is hard to miss. The Rusty Pickle menu board has some classic Louisiana style offerings. The menu food was interesting. There was a "one of a kind" extra topping that was offered with every menu item. Fried dill pickle chips!
The Louisiana all beef hot link sausage sandwich sounded like dinner to me! I ordered my hot link with purple cabbage and fried dill pickle chips. Of course a Louisiana hot link is not a hot link without some Louisiana remoulade on the sandwich! Pink colored remoulade is one of many styles of remoulade in Louisiana and it is great on a hot link sausage sandwich. After the first few bites, I was in Louisiana hot link heaven! The fried dill pickle chips added a really nice touch to this sandwich.
The food at the Rusty Pickle was cooked with love and care the old fashioned way. I could tell that the cook had many years of cooking experience and it showed in the quality of his food. There was nothing skimpy about the sandwich either. The toppings were piled on top of a nice size hot link.
I highly recommend the Rusty Pickle for anybody that happens to smell the aroma of great Louisiana cooking coming from a bright neon lime green painted food truck in Las Vegas!
After the great pizza and hot link, I was ready for a beer. A friend of mine was working at Snick's Place. Snick's Place has been around for a very long time and it is the oldest gay alternative bar in Las Vegas. The bar is well stocked and the drinks are poured nice!
I had my beer at Snick's and my friend was having a good time looking at the photographs of the Pride Parade and First Friday. Since Snick's is located in the Las Vegas arts district, plenty of people from First Friday wander in for a cocktail and to relax. Relax? On a First Friday event, Snick's Place is a big party! The artsy crowd and the gay crowd are not two groups of people that clash. Both crowds are on the alternative side of life, so the mutual ground of Snick's Place turns into a loud fun party!
To many, gambling is a form of art. When at a bar, I do throw a few dollars at a poker machine for fun. It gets kind of creepy when three 6's is the only win that you get, while on a streak of losing a few dollars. Three 6's on a poker machine causes many superstitious gamblers to cash out and move on to another poker machine. Since three 6's came up and my ice cold beer was finished, I decided to call it a night. I am not superstitious, but my feet were killing me after all the walking I did that night!
Of course, I do recommend Snick's Place as a comfortable place for a great cocktail. The gay and alternative lifestyle crowd needs no introduction to this bar, because Snick's has been around for so many years. Like the sign on the wall says, "Snick's Place - Helping Ugly People Get Laid Since 1976!"
The September 2012 First Friday, Las Vegas Food Truck Round Up and the Pride Parade events made for a great night to remember. Three big events with no admission fee is rare in this day and age!
When planning a trip to Las Vegas or if you are a local, First Friday is a monthly event that is worth checking out. There is so much going on and so much to see! There are more areas of the First Friday event that I did not cover in the photographs or story. I'm sure that I will feature those areas of the Las Vegas art district in a future First Friday article. Lets see, the First friday next month is.... Ha! Ha! Ha!
Yum! ... Shawna
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