Halloween used to be considered a slow time in Vegas. That is why the promoters of Vegoose last year started the eclectic music festival that offers two days of great music followed by nights that can be spent on the Las Vegas Strip (as opposed to an evening like at most festivals, camping in a field with the bugs, drunks and portable toilets). This year local media have shown a lot of love for Vegoose. Yesterday, Vegoose made the cover of both of the Las Vegas alternative weekly papers (Las Vegas Weekly and City Life). The daily newspaper, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, offered a special Vegoose supplement.

But this year, even without Vegoose, Las Vegas has a very busy and memorable Halloween for all sorts of other reasons. First off: there are two funerals for two new Las Vegas ghosts. ICE, a freestanding nightclub, that once had its own reality show ("The Club") is calling it quits with a going-away party that begins Sunday morning at 4 a.m. and runs until noon. In addition to giving the clubs in casinos competition, ICE proved adventurous in its booking of DJs, offering big names behind the turntable most weekends.

Though expected, announced and planned for, the closing of the Stardust is generating a lot of attention and sadness too. The casino that was fictionalized in the movie "Casino" is going out right with Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme onstage. This is an old task for them. They were the last performers at the Circus Maximus Showroom at Caesars Palace and before that, I think, they closed out the Desert Inn.

The elite resort nightclubs are also in promotional overdrive for Halloween weekend. Pure at Caesars, for example, has an event on Friday with Gene Simmons hosting the launch of his perfume line (gross!). Then on Saturday, Pure's advertising invites tourists to join a birthday party for the latest Paris wannabe: Ivanka Trump.

Over at the Luxor, the Spotlight Series shines on LeAnn Rimes for shows Friday and Saturday. I wish I could find the time to see her there this weekend. But it seems that the conventional wisdom about this holiday here is about to change. Las Vegas is becoming a very popular tourist spot for Halloween.