▶ SOUNDING

of the on-sale — there was a such good response in ticket sales on the first day. That was a really good sign. We said, ‘OK, commercially, this is going to work.’

“And then the second half of that is, ‘The fans are coming, how are the bands going to feel about it?’ And we got great feedback from them. They love being outside downtown. The ambiance of that venue is really cool. This thing doesn’t work without the location.”

With crowds that approached 10,000 a day this past April, the mix of locals versus out-of-towners was pretty much a 50-50 split, Melien says, a ratio he expects to be roughly the same in 2018.

Of course, in the wake of the Route 91 Harvest festival tragedy, security at outdoor fests such as Las Rageous has to be doubly scrutinized, though Melien cites the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department’s handling of last month’s Rock ’n’ Roll Marathon as a precedent for big events moving forward.

“I think the city, led by Metro, has done an extraordinary job at looking at how to secure these things 100 percent to make people feel good and feel secure,” he says. “They did it with the Rock ’n’ Roll Marathon. The city is doing all the right things.”

The emergence of Las Rageous puts Vegas on the burgeoning regional hard rock and metal festival map, which has expanded in recent years as the genre moves from touring fests such as Ozzfest and the Mayhem Fest to stand-alone events.

Word has spread fast.

Last year, Melien had to call booking agents to recruit bands to play the fest.

This time, they started calling him.

“The industry sort of picked up on it,” he says. “We had four or five agents that represent a lot of the metal community out for the event last year, hanging out, and they loved it. This event is here to stay.”

Contact Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476. Follow @Jasonbracelin on Twitter.