Las Vegas to complete memorial for 2017 mass shooting victims by 10th anniversary

A permanent memorial honoring the victims and survivors of the 2017 mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest music festival in Las Vegas is set to be completed by the 10th anniversary of the tragedy. City officials and the Vegas Strong Fund announced the plans Monday, ahead of the seventh anniversary of the Otcober 1 devastating event.

The planned memorial will be located on a portion of the former Las Vegas Village concert grounds, where the festival took place. The design, approved last year, will feature 58 tall candle-like structures, each bearing the name and image of a victim.

The site will also include 22,000 lights, symbolizing every person who attended the festival that night. A walking path through a garden will lead visitors to a 58-foot glass tower and the candle structures.

Jan Jones-Blackhurst, chair of the Vegas Strong Fund, confirmed that ground will be broken on the memorial within the next six months. 

The project is expected to cost tens of millions of dollars, with Clark County contributing $1 million to support construction. This memorial will be a distinct addition to the city’s efforts, separate from the community healing garden built by volunteers shortly after the shooting, which has since become a gathering place for many to honor the victims.

The 2017 shooting led to extensive legal proceedings, including an $800 million settlement from MGM Resorts in 2020 to resolve claims filed by victims and their families. The settlement followed a class-action lawsuit stemming from the attack, which had left the concert site largely unused. In 2022, 13 acres of the festival grounds were sold to North Dakota’s Three Affiliated Tribes for $90 million, leaving a portion available for the new memorial.

Brian Rogers, a paramedic who responded to the scene on the night of the attack and now serves on the Vegas Strong Fund board, emphasized the emotional impact of the memorial.

"For our victims, families, our survivors, we know that you long for a space to lie down, to grieve, to pay respects to those you've lost, and to gather in community and remember the good parts of the times you shared together, enjoying music on that fateful night before the shooting started," Rogers said.