Area15 celebrates first year, looks toward expansion in 2022

By | December 8, 2021

LAS VEGAS — Las Vegas’ newest immersive art, events and entertainment district, AREA15, celebrates its first anniversary as the leader in the immersive art and entertainment arena—both in Las Vegas and beyond. In its first full year of operations, AREA15 welcomed close to 2 million visitors and added 10 new experiences, with even more announced and scheduled to open in the coming months.

After three years of planning, AREA15 was determined to develop the world’s first purpose-built experiential art and entertainment complex despite a global pandemic. Complying with health and safety guidelines, reducing capacity to a mere 25 percent, creating more than 1000 new jobs and completely pivoting their grand opening strategy, AREA15 successfully opened its doors in September 2020 and has remained a leader in the immersive entertainment industry ever since. 

“Opening amid a pandemic made transforming venues and experiences into pop-up outdoor restaurants and hosting socially-distanced events with reduced capacities a new normal and locals flocked, eager to escape their self-quarantines,” says Winston Fisher, CEO, AREA15. “We are so pleased with the reception AREA15 received in Las Vegas, and we look forward to announcing locations in other markets soon.”

Since its September 2020 debut, AREA15 has opened nearly 20 immersive experiences of all shapes and sizes, hosted celebrity birthday and bachelorette parties and introduced two world-famous immersive art exhibitions— “Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience,” and “Klimt: The Immersive Experience.” AREA15 saw the opening of Meow Wolf’s Omega Mart, launched the original production “Rated Red – a Burlesque-esque Experience,” and hosted iconic music festivals such as the iHeartRadio Music Festival Daytime Stage, Sin City Hearts presented by Desert Hearts and more than 20 DJ shows throughout the summer of 2020. The complex’s malleability helped developers think quickly and effectively and, in the end, create a destination that proved as highly anticipated and desirable as they could have ever imagined.  

In the last year, AREA15 reached the following milestones:

  • Nearly 2 million – Total number of visitors in year one
  • 1,659,938 – Total number of experience tickets sold
  • 800,000+ – visited Meow Wolf’s Omega Mart
  • 70,000 – Rides on Haley’s Comet
  • 30,000 – Rides on Birdly
  • 28,000 – Rides on Oz Ride
  • 81,000 – Tickets to Van Gogh sold
  • More than 1,000 – Jobs created
  • 44 – Hosted events 

Experiences which opened in September 2020 include: 

  • Wild Muse
  • Birdly
  • Brainstorm
  • Oz Experience
  • Gallerie 360
  • Oddwood Bar
  • Haley’s Comet
  • Art Island

Experiences which have opened since September 2020 include:

  • Museum Fiasco – October 2020
  • Dueling Axes – November 2020
  • The Beast by Todd English – December 2020
  • Wink World: Portals into the Infinite – January 2021
  • Emporium Arcade Bar – February 2021
  • Meow Wolf’s Omega Mart – February 2021
  • Five Iron Golf – March 2021
  • Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience – April 2021
  • Virtualis VR – July 2021
  • Lost Spirits Distillery – August 2021

More experiences have been announced for the Las Vegas location with openings scheduled for Winter 2022:

  • LIFTOFF is the spectacular open-air balloon ride located next to Art Island in front of AREA15. Manufactured by Aerophile, the global leader in tethered balloon structures, the seven-minute ride will lift guests 131 feet into the sky to enjoy an extraordinary, 360-degree panoramic view of the Las Vegas Strip and surrounding areas. Lift Off features impressive capabilities, including a 16-seat gondola that rotates 360-degrees and Oasis, a full-service bar located at the base of the tower, where guests can choose a complimentary cocktail to enjoy aboard the ride. 

Illuminarium will transport millions of visitors to places they only dream of experiencing by placing them “inside” the narrative, whether on a safari, at the bottom of the ocean, surrounded by a once-in-a-lifetime musical performance or somewhere in the celestial universe. Illuminarium combines and amplifies techniques used in traditional motion picture production and virtual reality that allows visitors to experience real world content and authentic, re-created worlds in an immersive environment, all without glasses or wearable equipment.