A Brief History of Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend

Everyone goes to Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend right? Well maybe not everyone but we all known where the name Viva Las Vegas Came from right? The Elvis Movie, but we don’t all know the History of Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend. I emailed Tom Ingram, The founder and organizer for Viva Las Vegas and asked his a few questions.

Tom Ingram is an actor born in the UK, and moved to the US and having organized weekend music events in the UK decided to do the same here in the US between acting gigs, deciding Las Vegas was the best place for a Rockabilly Weekend Event.

Originally, Viva Las Vegas was a music festival with a car show for the people who attended the music event. The car show was a way for attendees to show off their cars, with the target audience being anyone into 50’s music or 50’s styled cars and hot rods.

Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend has been going now for 13 years, and has been getting bigger and bigger each year, adding extra shows and attractions at the event since it’s beginning, with one major change recently, which was the move to The Orleans Hotel. Tom says average attendance usually on Saturday is about 15,000 people, the first Via Las Vegas had about 2,000 people and Tom says e he will continue with the weekender as long as people come and support it.

I asked Tom what else he does for a living and he said Viva Las Vegas is a full time job. The organization for Viva Las Vegas 14 started 2 months before Viva Las Vegas 13, which took place this past weekend. I asked him what he did is anything for a living, and he told us he owes and manages 36 apartments and does a bit of acting and producing.

So Tom, how much does The Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend Make? “No where near as much as people think”. Is there anything else you would like to add so people can get to know more about Viva Las Vegas? “That could take hours to write. Perhaps one day I will write a book about it.”

Thanks Tom, for the candid interview about Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend, oh and what do you look like?