The impact of Drai’s rooftop nightclub will endure as Las Vegas nightlife continues to evolve

Thu, Oct 30, 2025 (2 a.m.)

A night spent at a big Vegas nightclub is supposed to be a mind-blowing experience. The expectations are something beyond spectacular, whether it’s your first time or your fiftieth. It has to be a night to remember.

Those expectations usually include loud music curated by a famous DJ, thousands of like-minded party people surrendering to the vibes, and an opulent atmosphere layered with technologically advanced production. Drai’s Beachclub and Nightclub, which opened on the roof of the center-Strip hotel and casino the Cromwell in 2014, has all those things and more—namely, full-length live concert performances from the biggest names in hip-hop and R&B, and unbelievable views of the iconic Vegas skyline to take in when you need a break from the party.

The night I remember best at Drai’s rooftop was in August of 2015. It was a Friday night and we arrived at the Cromwell after midnight, already feeling a bit partied out heading into the weekend but determined to catch a set from one of our favorite genre-defying artists. We stepped out onto the outdoor pool deck for a drink and some air before the show, and the energy from the wonderfully diverse, packed crowd brought us back to life. Then Miguel took the stage in full soulful rockstar mode, seducing everyone in attendance to dance whether we were near the stage or perched over Las Vegas Boulevard. It exceeded expectations, a music experience that seemed like it could only exist in a movie or someone’s imagination, and we still couldn’t believe it when we had a “nightcap” in the lobby bar downstairs at around 4 a.m.

If you saw The Weeknd or Cardi B or Future or Snoop Dogg or Lil Wayne or anybody else at Drai’s over the past decade, you have your own memories. The club made a major impact on the Vegas and national nightclub scene by incorporating real live performances—not just “club sets” where the artist sings over a track for a few minutes—and establishing itself as the home for hip-hop on the Strip.

Sadly, this Halloween weekend is the last one for this version of Drai’s. The rooftop will go quiet after an industry closing party on November 2. As of press time, 50 Cent was the only scheduled headliner for the closing weekend, on October 31. The Cromwell is beginning its rebranding transformation into the Vanderpump Hotel, a monumental expansion of the partnership between Caesars Entertainment and TV personality and restaurateur Lisa Vanderpump, and the rooftop space will become a resort pool.

It’s the end of an era, but not the end of Drai’s, which was a pioneering venue in Las Vegas nightlife well before the rooftop expansion. Victor Drai opened the original Drai’s restaurant in 1997 in the hotel’s basement—it was the Barbary Coast back then—and set up a new scene around a late-night lounge that evolved into the iconic afterhours club experience. (We old-timers have plenty of memorable nights from that version of Drai’s, too.)

Now it’s time for another evolution. “We started small, scaled big, and now we’re going back to what made the brand special in the first place—connection,” Dustin Drai, Victor’s son and president of the company, said in a statement. “The future of nightlife isn’t about the biggest room or the biggest artist. It’s about the people you’re with, the room you’re in, and the feeling you get when it all comes together.”

Jason Strauss, co-CEO of the Strip’s most prolific nightlife company in Tao Group Hospitality, agrees that the future of Vegas nightlife will include more intimate and curated experiences, but also “a return to the glamour of Vegas. I think we’ll see more places doing live music, doing supper clubs, and the return to people getting dressed up,” he says. “It’s about getting people excited, a celebratory moment every night. I also think there’s going to be more of a concentration on new genres of music. We just saw an incredible Mexican Independence Day weekend with the Latino community looking for Latin-based venues, and we’re also seeing a lot more country music going mainstream.”

Speaking of clubs going country: Just across from Drai’s on Flamingo Road, Caesars partnered with Opry Entertainment Group and Blake Shelton to open Ole Red in front of Horseshoe Las Vegas last year. Last week, that same partnership—with a different country music star, Luke Combs—announced Category 10, another venue offering food, drinks, music, dancing and more, will open next year, on the other side of the Cromwell at the Flamingo. Jason Aldean’s Kitchen & Bar offers similar programming just outside the Shops at Crystals on the west side of the Strip.

We might be at an interesting transitional point in the ongoing evolution of Vegas nightlife, but that doesn’t mean the megaclubs are going anywhere. Observers looking for bright spots from a slow summer and the current tourism dip may have missed this sector of Vegas entertainment.

“The venues that are keeping up with trends and spending time and energy to deliver the experience, we had amazing summers at our pools and nightclubs,” says Strauss. “I know Wynn [Nightlife] did, and it makes you think, why aren’t more people talking about it? Every weekend, all summer, dayclubs full of three or four thousand people having a great time.

“We’re still the nightclub capital of the world. … Whatever is happening here, the rest of the country takes their cues. There’s nowhere else that has the budgets to build out these types of venues, to be part of a monolithic casino and bring value to the entire property, to continue to evolve and be the best.”

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