Las Vegas Grand Prix takes big step in the right direction with latest announcement

The 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix is expected to further develop the impressive concept introduced by Formula 1 for the event’s inaugural year — and now, that event will include a much needed free fan festival.

Though fans are encouraged to reserve tickets for this daytime festival, it is otherwise free. High ticket prices in 2023 inhibited many fans from attending the race itself, but this is the ideal antidote for an otherwise big-spender event.

Las Vegas Grand Prix’s free festival

The F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix Fan Experience will take place on November 22 and 23, during the race weekend. This free-to-enter festival will be located on Las Vegas Boulevard across from Wynn Las Vegas.

Entry tickets are free, but they are limited. However, securing a free ticket to the fan festival will also open up exclusive discounts for fans who may also wish to buy General Admission tickets.

At the fan festival, F1 teams will make scheduled appearances for question and answer sessions, as well as for autographs. Further, F1 Academy will feature a showcase with a show car.

Also available will be an assortment of food trucks, F1 partner activations, and live entertainment.

Takeaways from the inaugural F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix

👉 Why F1’s chaotic Las Vegas past doesn’t do Sin City justice

👉 The four clear areas F1 must address after first Las Vegas Grand Prix

Tickets to the Las Vegas Grand Prix are high enough to be prohibitive for race fans on a budget, but that didn’t stop those fans from descending on Sin City in droves during the inaugural weekend.

Even though those fans didn’t sit in a grandstand to watch the race, they enjoyed the droves of free activations in and around Las Vegas throughout the weekend, including a screening of Ferrari and countless team-affiliated show cars and merch stands inside various resorts.

Come race day, those fans either watched the race from a local bar, or they made laps of Las Vegas’ pedestrian bridges, where they were able to catch glimpses of Formula 1 cars without having to pay for an entrance ticket.

Las Vegas boasted a whopping $1.5 billion economic impact as a direct result of the Grand Prix in 2023, and it’s certain that the F1 fans who couldn’t afford a ticket to the race but could afford a flight and a hotel room to enjoy the atmosphere contributed significantly to that impact.

PlanetF1.com spoke to fans who both attended the Grand Prix, as well as those who had simply turned up in Las Vegas without a race ticket. Almost everyone praised the “F1 convention”-like vibe, where the entire city had been taken over by race fans.

The introduction of a free fan festival will inevitably encourage more travel to the city of Las Vegas during the race weekend, even for the folks who aren’t actually attending the race.

Read next: Huge economic impact of Las Vegas GP comes to light with key report published