Fremont Street Experience Announces 2025 Free Concert Series Lineup [Updated]

By Scott Roeben, on May 01 2025
5 min read 15 comments
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It’s an annual tradition. Fremont Street Experience announces the lineup for its free concert series. People complain about the lineup. We remind them the shows are free. We also make a joke about how we don’t recognize any of the bands, which seems to fly in the face of our admonishment people shouldn’t complain about the lineup because the shows are free, but it is, in fact, self-deprecating humor to build rapport and an affinity for the Vital Vegas brand, so just keep moving.

This year’s roster includes Toad the Wet Sprocket, Robin Thicke, Craig Morgan, Jet, Our Lady Peace an others.

The series kicks off May 24, 2025 with Hinder, Drowning Pool and Saliva, whoever they might be.

Concerts on Fremont Street are a whole thing.

Here’s the quick version of this summer’s concerts: Hinder (May 24), Drowning Pool (May 24), Saliva (May 24), Alien Ant Farm (May 25), Jet (May 25), Buckcherry (June 7), Robin Thicke (June 21), Craig Morgan (July 4), Nine Days (Aug. 30), Dishwalla (Aug. 30), Toad the Wet Sprocket (Aug. 30), Vertical Horizon (Aug. 30), Sponge (Aug. 31), Ugly Kid Joe (Aug. 31), Our Lady Peace (Aug. 31), Cracker (Sep. 6), Candlebox (Sep. 6) and Zebra (Sep. 20).

You know we’re going to share the full lineup with times and locations, but housekeeping first. The bands appear on various stages on Fremont Street Experience: 1st Street (between Binion’s and Circa), 3rd Street (between The D and Four Queens) and Main Street (on the west end of Fremont, near the Plaza).

Each stage has its own capacity, so you can sort of tell how popular a performer is by which stage they’re scheduled to play. Scroll down for a stage map.

Here’s the full schedule before we describe the same information in words so search engines can find it.

Schedule subject to change without notice due to band drama, genital warts, outrageous rider demands or being dissed by Eminem.

As mentioned, the 2025 Downtown Rocks Free Concert Series at Fremont Street Experience kicks off Memorial Day weekend with Hinder (8:00 p.m., Main Street Stage), Drowning Pool (7:00 p.m., 1st Street Stage) and Saliva on May 24 (9:00 p.m., 1st Street Stage). This combination of acts is giving “CSI” vibes, but anyway.

On May 25, fans can catch Alien Ant Farm (8:00 p.m., 3rd Street Stage) and Jet (9:00 p.m., 3rd Street Stage). Nu-metal, check. Retro rock, check. The 2025 lineup has something for everyone except people of color. Why do you always have to make things awkward?

If you think that’s awkward, it’s also worth noting there are no Chinese bands scheduled due to tariffs.

June features Buckcherry on June 7 (9:00 p.m., 1st Street Stage) and Robin Thicke (9:00 p.m., 3rd Street Stage) on June 21. Robin Thicke’s hit (sic) includes “Blurred Lines,” the song that was accused of promoting the objectification of women and rape culture. It’s Vegas, so the objectification thing has been normalized, but the other part could raise some hackles.

Craig Morgan performs July 4 (9:00 p.m., 3rd Street Stage). There is a 640% chance he will say something cloying about America, God, trucks or the armed forces. Because, you know, country music.

On Aug. 30, multiple stages light up with performances by Nine Days (6:00 p.m., Main Street Stage), Dishwalla (8:00 p.m., Main Street Stage), Toad the Wet Sprocket (9:00 p.m., 1st Street Stage) and Vertical Horizon (7:00 p.m., 1st Street Stage). The fun continues on Aug. 31 with a triple-header at the 3rd Street Stage featuring Sponge (7:00 p.m., 3rd Street stage), Ugly Kid Joe (8:00 p.m., 3rd Street stage) and Our Lady Peace (9:00 p.m., 3rd Street Stage). It’s a sad day when we know so little about music that we can’t think of something snarky to say at the end of a paragraph. We could make a joke about ugly kids, but we have already been canceled enough this week.

September wraps up the series with a blast from the past: Cracker (8:00 p.m., 3rd Street Stage) and Candlebox (9:00 p.m., 3rd Street Stage) perform on Sep. 6, followed by Zebra (9:00 p.m., 1st Street Stage) on Sep. 20.

This map of the stages on Fremont Street will come in handy, especially if you’re shitfaced. And by “if” we mean “when.”

Fremont Street Experience is paid for by its member casinos, or was (now, the SlotZilla zipline pays for everything), and casinos tend to like older customers with more disposable income, hence the throwback bands in the lineup. Those bands also tend to be less expensive.

We worked at Fremont Street Experience for six years, so we’ve been to a few free concerts (we had to build an addition to our house to hold our lanyard collection). We are preemptively exhausted on behalf of Fremont Street Experience staff because there are a lot of shows and they’re labor-intensive events.

The concerts are a lively and crowded experience, so arrive early and stay late.

The best spots, in front of the stages, are reserved for VIP guests of the member casinos of Fremont Street Experience. If you gamble at one of those casinos, ask your host about getting wristbands for the VIP area.

Security measures for Fremont Street concerts are heightened within the concert footprint (concerts are permitted as special events, buskers are not allowed to perform near the stages), so expect the usual security theater including metal detectors and wanding. No coolers, no backpacks, no big purses, no weapons (real or fake). Common sense stuff.

We can hope.

There is no seating for Fremont Street Experience concerts, but Four Queens and Binion’s sell seats in their outdoor bar areas for the concerts.

Bring earplugs.

And condoms.

It’s Fremont Street.

Parking gets tricky, with rates raised for these “special events.” Parking at the Fremont Street Experience lot is $25 on concert nights. Some of the casinos, like Golden Nugget, crank their rates up to $50, not because they expect people to pay it, but to deter concert-goers from taking spots from the casino’s customers. Maybe park at Downtown Grand, get a cocktail or bite to eat at Triple George or Pizza Rock before the concert and get your parking validated. If you gamble downtown, your loyalty club tier might get you free parking, too.

That’s it for now. The concert schedule sometimes has some late entries and we’ll update our story if we hear about any additions to the schedule.

Today, we heard from Andrew Simon, President of Fremont Street Experience. He said, “Stay tuned, even more bands to be announced soon. Biggest lineup in our history!” He seems very excited, so stay tuned.

When people complain about how expensive Las Vegas has gotten, we list the free shows at Fremont Street Experience as one of the best free things to do in Las Vegas!

Yes, that sentence was for the search engines, too. If you don’t like it, get your own blog.

Update (5/15/25): Fremont Street Experience has added five shows to its free concert line-up: Rome (July 19, 1st Street Stage), Gym Class Heroes (Aug. 9, 3rd Street Stage), Awolnation (Aug. 9, 3rd Street Stage), Parmalee (Oct. 9, 1st Street Stage) and Julian Marley & The Wailers (Oct. 18, 3rd Street Stage).

Here’s an updated list for the folks who are more visual and such.

Bring earplugs.