Westgate Las Vegas is bringing Elvis Presley's 1970 concert back to life on the very stage where it happened, with a one-night-only tribute show set for October 24 at 7 p.m. inside the International Theater. The production, titled 1970 Live – That's The Way It Was, stars award-winning Elvis tribute artist Travis Powell backed by a nine-piece band and nine background singers recreating the sound of Presley's legendary Summer Festival run.
A Stage Steeped in Elvis History
Tickets for the show are already on sale, according to FOX5 Las Vegas, which reports that the concert is designed to let longtime fans relive the moment and give newer fans a chance to experience it in person. The International Theater is the same room where Presley's August 1970 performances were filmed for the documentary Elvis: That's the Way It Is, which hit U.S. theaters on November 11, 1970, marking Presley's first non-dramatic feature release since 1956, per Wikipedia. Westgate has said Elvis remains part of the property's history, per the station's report.
That history runs deep. Between July 31, 1969, and December 12, 1976, Presley performed 636 sold-out shows at the property, first known as the International Hotel before it was renamed the Las Vegas Hilton in 1971, according to the Los Angeles Times. He frequently played two shows a day during his peak engagements there, the paper notes.
Setlist Built for Nostalgia
The October 24 show will include staples from Presley's catalog, among them Suspicious Minds, You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin', Love Me Tender, Bridge Over Troubled Water and Heartbreak Hotel, per the same account. Powell, who fronts the production, brings competitive pedigree to the role: he won the $25,001 top prize at the 2016 Tribute to the King contest in Milwaukee, North America's highest-paying Elvis tribute artist competition, according to Smithsonian Magazine, which notes contestants are judged across multi-day preliminary and showcase rounds.
This isn't Powell's first outing on this stage. Westgate previously staged a related recreation starring Powell titled 1969 LIVE! The King Returns during an Elvis King Weekend event on July 31 and August 1, 2026, according to Vegas411, which reports the venue paired those tribute concerts with guided $69 VIP theater history tours.
The Room Where Vegas Residencies Began
The building itself carries outsized significance for the Strip's entertainment history. Casino developer Kirk Kerkorian opened the 30-story International Hotel on July 2, 1969, for $50 million, making it the largest hotel in the world at the time with 1,568 rooms, according to CBC News. Barbra Streisand actually opened the resort's 2,000-seat showroom weeks before Presley took the stage, performing a four-week inaugural engagement starting July 2, 1969, per Chic Compass Magazine — notable timing given she'd just won the Academy Award for Best Actress in Funny Girl that same year.
Presley's own connection to the building went beyond the stage. He resided in a 5,000-square-foot penthouse suite on the 30th floor, known as Room 3000, during his engagements there, though the original suite was demolished in 1994 to make way for high-roller Sky Villas, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. During his initial four-week engagement in August 1969, Elvis set Las Vegas attendance records, drawing more than 100,000 fans across 29 shows following an eight-year absence from live performance, per FOX5 Vegas.
Part of a Broader Elvis Revival
The October tribute arrives amid a wider surge of Elvis-focused programming across Las Vegas this year. In August 2026, Animazing Gallery inside The Venetian Las Vegas opened a temporary Elvis exhibition featuring artwork, memorabilia, and several original guitars played onstage and in films, timed around the anniversary of Presley's 1969 Vegas debut, as Hoodline previously reported.
The format of Presley's original engagements also stands in sharp contrast to how the Strip books headliners today. While Presley performed up to two shows daily over multimonth blocks throughout the 1970s, modern Las Vegas residencies have largely shifted toward shorter, non-exclusive concert runs, the Los Angeles Times reported in 2019, adding that Celine Dion's 16-year run was one of the last traditional multi-year venue commitments. Westgate's one-night tribute offers a compressed echo of that marathon era rather than a return to it.
