WinStar Spotlight Blog
While we were all busy being culture snobs, something happened with bookings at casino venues. It honestly was not that long ago that casinos were the place where once-great performers went for one last roll of the dice, but suddenly, places like WinStar World Casino in Thackerville are just blowing up. Weezer recently played the 3,000-seat Global Event Center, and in a particularly unusual turn of events, the great Al Pacino, a man who is one hit record away from scoring the coveted EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony), engaged the audience in a wide-ranging Q&A session. Other casinos are doing bang-up business, as well — who would think a few years ago that Snoop Dogg would play Lucky Star Casino in Concho?
At any rate, in August The WinStar World Casino launched WinStar Spotlight , a smart, engaging entertainment blog covering upcoming performances and events at the venue. This is a smart move for WinStar — a lot of casinos are unfortunately old-school and disappointingly minimalist in their approach to promoting their shows, but because WinStar is competing directly with many non-casino arenas for A-listers these days, this is a good development.
I’m actually looking at doing a long-form story on the rise of the casino entertainment business and the rehabilitation of its image. A few years ago, I saw B.B. King at Riverwind. When you’re just a few rows back from true greatness and the presentation is as good as it was that night, it’s worth the consideration. Weezer playing WinStar is similarly impressive. Currently, that venue is in country mode, with Dierks Bentley playing tomorrow night and the next few months featuring performances by Dwight Yoakam, Willie Nelson and Blake Shelton, among others, but they’ll get back to rock in good time, and their comedy offerings are often of the highest order. Earlier this year, Craig Ferguson performed there, and then incorporated the WinStar’s all-the-world’s-landmarks facade into his opening monologue.
My friend Phil Bacharach oversees WinStar Spotlight — he knows how to do this. Let it be an example.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
I have recently started a site, the information you offer on this web site has helped me tremendously. Thanks for all of your time & work. “The murals in restaurants are on par with the food in museums.” by Peter De Vries.