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First Fridays

Part street carnival—fire-breathers, mimes, exhibitionists, and local bands mix with the pedestrian traffic—and part serious exhibition, the art crawl takes place on the first Friday of each month and meanders around the galleries that have set up shop in downtown's former warehouses and auto body shops (download a map at firstfriday-lasvegas.org). For years, Las Vegas's downtown area has been threatening to revitalize. Now, with the help of great new local bars in the newly christened Fremont East district, and events like First Friday, it's finally taking off.

Tip: The festivities continue well into the morning, so link up with one of the many after-parties you'll hear about in your wanderings. But don't even think about visiting any of the galleries on the first Saturday of the month, when the place turns into a ghost town as people try to recover from last night's party.