In Las Vegas, bars and lounges are set to reopen

Las Vegas bars and lounges will be allowed to reopen at midnight Sunday, but at half capacity because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The easing of rules includes pubs, taverns, breweries, distilleries and wineries. Visitors and employees will need to wear face coverings, which is required at all indoor sites. Restaurants, hotels and casinos already got the green light to reopen after closing in mid-March.

Most resorts on the Strip opened months ago.

Wynn, Encore, the Cosmopolitan, the Mirage (including the popular Secret Garden & Dolphin Habitat), the Flamingo, Caesars Palace, the Linq and others are open. The Tropicana reopened Thursday, and the Four Seasons plans to welcome guests Sept. 25.

Park MGM, as well as restaurants Bavette’s Steakhouse, Primrose and the Italian marketplace Eataly, will reopen Sept. 30. It is the first resort in the city to ban smoking in hotel rooms and in its casino.

What may not be coming back?

The future of two well-known, off-Strip resorts — Rio, a Caesars property, and Palms, a Station Casinos property— are murky. Both are located along Flamingo Road west of the 15 Freeway.

Palms last year completed a splashy $690-million makeover, touted as the most expensive in Vegas history. It included a huge sculpture called “Demon With Bowl” by Damien Hirst in the pool area and other Hirst works, including two bull sharks suspended inside a tank filled with formaldehyde.

“Palms is currently undecided whether we are going to open it right now,” Chief Executive Frank Fertitta said in an early August earnings call. Much of the resort’s large collection of pricey artwork is on loan from the Fertitta family.

If you didn’t see “Le Rêve,” the Cirque-like water-themed show at Wynn Las Vegas, it’s too late. Since 2005, the show had been performed 6,000 times.

“‘Le Rêve’ is a barometer for similarly scaled shows,” said John Katsilometes, an entertainment columnist for the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “I think that’s gotten a lot of people nervous in Las Vegas.”