Lovers & Friends 2024 Festival was THE BEST… said no one ever.

Hi, I’m Ashley, and I was an attendee of the nonexistent Lovers & Friends 2024 Festival in Las Vegas. You know, the one that was supposed to happen but got canceled with less than 24 hours notice? The one that only posted the cancellation on social media and sent out email notices 4 pm PST on the day of the festival? Yes, that one.

To say I’m bitter is an understatement. My boyfriend and I were so excited to experience this year’s Lovers & Friends Festival. Surely, by year 3 they got everything figured out, right? You would think.

I remember the first year Lovers & Friends Festival was announced. It seemed too good to be true, so I sat out that year. Last year’s lineup was just as good, with Mariah Carey, Christina Aguilera, and so much more. This year’s lineup topped anything I could imagine with Usher as the main headliner. (I couldn’t afford to go to this Las Vegas residency, so this was the second best thing, plus he was celebrating his Confessions album!!)

So guess how surprised I was (plus the thousands of other attendees) to find out the event was canceled in the middle of my dinner? We were at the MGM Grand enjoying a nice meal at Roy Choi’s Best Friend Restaurant, one of my favorites btw, when an Instagram post popped up on my feed. You have got to be kidding me. You almost could sense the awkwardness in the air.

Speaking of air, that’s the main reason they pointed to for why a cancellation needed to happen. Other theories involved the festival never paying the artists who were about to perform, the artists having no idea, and something I heard just recently: a safety issue that was discovered in a nearby hotel looking over the festival grounds.

Now, was it THAT windy, as they said?

No. To be quite honest, it wasn’t bad throughout the whole day. The wind was mild but it did pick up in the wee hours of the night near 10pm – 11pm when the festival would have been wrapping up anyways. We even took the monorail over to see the festival grounds only to find employees already taking down the stages as fast as they were putting them up. Could they have done the festival? Possibly, the wind was aggressive so I see both sides.

Am I super upset? I’m about 50/50. It just so happened that same weekend, Coachella 2025 tickets went on sale. I went out on a whim to purchase a pair for my boyfriend and me. It looks like the refund from the Lovers and Friends Festival will directly fund my Coachella tickets!

And look, we could have been “stranded” in a worse city, but being “The City that Never Sleeps,” there was no shortage of things to do. We found ways to keep ourselves occupied, whether that be watching Shin Lim’s Magic Show at The Mirage or checking out Shaq’s Dream Exhibition near Resorts World, we kept ourselves occupied.

And hydrated. Well, hydrated with alcohol, that is.

Will I be going back to the Lovers and Friends Festival?

Absolutely not. They lost my trust and any hope of me coming back. TBH, probably means nothing to them in the grand scheme. They’re the same people who put on the When We Were Young Festival, another one I’ve wanted to go to, but even thinking about that, I am quite hesitant.

So, see you at Coachella 2025?