EDC Organizer to Renovate Las Vegas’s Most Historic Rock Music Venue

Clark County has earmarked $10 million to help Insomniac, the promoter behind the annual Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC), renovate the former Sahara Event Center just east of the Las Vegas Strip.

According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Clark County’s Redevelopment Agency set aside the funds toward a massive overhaul of the venue as part of its broader mission to breathe new life into the surrounding Commercial Center. Insomniac pledges to invest $20 million of its own.

“It’s going to enable Insomniac to complete their purchase and then invest $20 million to renovate it and rehab it, make it a current event center,” Commissioner Tick Segerblom told FOX5 Vegas. “It’s going to be very exciting.”

This latest real estate venture deepens Insomniac’s already extensive Vegas footprint. Ever since its flagship EDC relocated from Southern California in 2011, the electronic dance music promoter has fostered ties with local resorts and mega-clubs, turning the days preceding the festival into “EDC Week” with high-profile takeovers at venues such as Hakkasan, Omnia at Caesars Palace, and the Marquee Nightclub.

The upcoming 2027 edition of EDC Las Vegas is scheduled for May 4-16 and May 21-23 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, marking the first time the festival stretches across two consecutive weekends.

Music History on Ice

The Sahara Event Center is the most historically significant surviving rock music venue in Las Vegas—having hosted shows by Led Zeppelin, the Grateful Dead, and even Bob Marley.

What’s strange about this designation is that the venue—located at 800 Liberace Ave. (formerly E. Karen Ave.) in the Commercial Center—was an ice rink at the time.

It was built in the 1960s to showcase the Ice Capades and a semi-pro hockey team called the Las Vegas Gamblers. However, for touring rock music acts with sizeable followings who—for various reasons including their youth appeal and drug associations—were unwanted by casino showrooms or the biggest venue in town, the Las Vegas Convention Center, it was the only show in town.

Rinky Dink

Promoters at the time converted the Ice Palace into a concert hall by placing plywood over the ice, then squeezing as many freezing kids inside as the fire code permitted.

That Bob Marley and the Wailers ever performed on any Las Vegas stage is a fact known mostly to scholars of the reggae icon and the 3,000-4,000 young people who witnessed what transpired at the Ice Palace on Oct. 21, 1973.

It was a complete surprise to them. This was a Sly & The Family Stone show. The hit funk band’s two opening acts (the other was the Atlee Yeager Band) weren’t named on the ads, the marquee or the $6 tickets.

Other rock acts who made their Las Vegas debuts at the Ice Palace included Buffalo Springfield, Yes, the Doors, Steely Dan, and Carlos Santana—whose band opened for the Grateful Dead (which was also making its Las Vegas debut) on March 29, 1969.

Ice Broken

As the decades passed and casinos became more receptive to booking rock acts, the building traded its ice rink for the whir of roller skates during its era as Playland Skateland. Eventually, it evolved into the Sahara Event Center and roller hockey rink.

By September 2026, Insomniac had leased and temporarily closed the space.

While Clark County’s $10 million has been officially set aside, the full transfer of funds remains contingent on a finalized agreement between the county and the promoter.