Slotzilla
Fremont Street has been closed to vehicles from Las Vegas Boulevard to Main Street for nearly 20 years, but for the past two years it’s been possible to travel from Neonopolis to the Four Queens by zipline at speeds of up to 30 miles per hour. The first zipline attraction was meant to be temporary, but proved so popular that it eventually led to the construction of a permanent steel-framed structure designed to resemble an iconic casino fixture. Fremont Street Experience’s SlotZilla, in operation since April, sends guests zipping westward four at a time. By Labor Day, however, four additional guests should be able to “zoomline” all the way to a newly built stage in front of the Golden Gate Hotel & Casino.
Where the zipline’s takeoff platform is 74 feet above the ground, the zoomline launch pad rises 40 feet higher to enable guests to hurtle horizontally for 1,750 feet, quite possibly over the heads of bands during their sets. “We wanted to increase the capacity,” says Thomas Bruny, Fremont Street Experience’s director of marketing. “Flightlinez had four lines and went halfway down the street. We couldn’t increase the lines width-wise because of the width of the Viva Vision canopy. So we came up with the concept of having a double decker system where four lower lines would go halfway down the street, and four higher lines above that would go all the way to the end of Viva Vision by Main Street.”
Zoomline passengers will fly like Superman, wrapped in a safety outfit akin to a “soft-taco shell,” according to Bruny. The lower level places the rider in an upright, seated position that can rotate, but the upper level is a head-first experience that essentially turns the guest into a guided human missile cruising only a few feet below the canopy. The engineering feat making it possible was more than a matter of building a raised platform.
“Even though it doesn’t look like it, Fremont Street slopes slightly from west to east, so from Main Street to Fourth Street it slopes 14 feet,” says Bruny. “The apex of the canopy is 90 feet above the street the whole way, so the canopy’s also sloping 14 feet. The gravity-based attraction wants to go this way, and the canopy was sloping that way. So to have enough speed and angle to ensure zoomline riders would get all the way (to the end), we had to build a tall takeoff platform.”
The top of the platform will be the tallest point of interest on Fremont Street that’s not in or on top of a hotel-casino. A ride at night will mean zooming through a neon-lit history of old Las Vegas as well. The relatively newly opened D hotel comes up on the left after the gift shops, with the lower-level zipline landing between the illuminated signage of the Four Queens and Fremont Street Casino. The zoomline will take the tour even further, with the classic design of Binion’s on the right and the cream-and-gold exterior of the Golden Nugget on the left. A winking Vegas Vic waves zoomers past the Pioneer Club, where the ride ends above the stage between Las Vegas Club and the Golden Gate.
Fremont Street Experience’s entertainment options have evolved as well, as have the methods for dealing with excesses that came with increased popularity. Law enforcement interacts with costume-clad characters, asking for identification and keeping an eye out for aggressive behavior. The City of Las Vegas placed restrictions on open cans and bottles on Fremont. Only plastic cups are allowed outside of casinos, and Fremont’s convenience stores must bag and seal beer purchases. The new rules have not hampered access to libations, however, as bars line the street and offer every conceivable cocktail in a variety of presentations, from traditional plastic tumblers to oddly shaped novelty containers.
A single stroll may mean passing a wild child keyboard player, a bass-and-female-vocal combo, saxophonists, magicians and illusionists, showgirls and an assortment of indescribable eccentrics who help keep Fremont weird. Music is all-important to the Fremont Street Experience, from the Viva Vision programming that includes soundtracks by Bon Jovi, the Doors, Heart and The Who to this summer’s free Rock of Vegas concert series featuring bands such as Seether and Deep Purple. Labor Day Weekend includes an Aug. 30 show headlined by Fuel (Drowning Pool, Royal Bliss and Local H round out the bill), which is also the date Las Vegas’ art scene comes out in force for First Friday and the venues of locals-oriented Fremont East enjoy their highest attendance of the month.
While Bruny notes that tourists are the primary demographic the Fremont Street Experience caters to, he sees the new double-decker zipline structure as a uniting element for Downtown Las Vegas. “We think SlotZilla will actually be something that connects and brings Fremont Street Experience and Fremont East together,” he says.
Fremont Street Experience, noon-midnight Sun.-Thurs., noon-2 a.m. Fri.-Sat., $20 for lower zipline, must weigh 60-300 pounds, fliers under age 13 must be accompanied by fliers 13+. vegasexperience.com
