Over the last two years, Hot August Nights—celebrating its 40th anniversary this year—has endured some drama. News-making controversies include:
• An ugly racism incident in Virginia City during the 2024 event.
• The sudden resignation of the board president, executive director and several others after last year’s event, apparently over the direction of the event. “The business model for Hot August Nights needs to change and they’ve been battling this for a long time,” departing executive director Deny Dotson told the Reno Gazette-Journal. “It’s a free event and it needs to change.”
• A schism, of sorts, between Hot August Nights and the Grand Sierra Resort, which had served as the main Hot August Nights venue for years, through 2024. The main venue was moved to the University of Nevada, Reno, in 2025, apparently due to construction at the GSR. The GSR wanted it back for 2026, but instead, this year’s main venue will be in downtown Reno, at the Caesars Entertainment properties—the Eldorado, Silver Legacy and Circus Circus. As a result, the GSR is hosting an overlapping event called “Street Heat.” (Read our February article on the schism here.)
But this burst of controversies is nothing—and I mean NOTHING—compared to the chaos Hot August Nights went through in its first 15 years. That chaos included two executive director firings leading to lawsuits, a near-bankruptcy, accusations of law-enforcement overreach and racial profiling at the event, and two riots—one of which made international news.
This was the subject of the RN&R‘s cover story this week 26 years ago, written by yours truly. Here, in its entirety, is that story from our July 27, 2000, issue, which was headlined “The turbulent history of Hot August Nights: Since its inception in 1986, HAN has brought cash—and controversy—to Northern Nevada.”
This Monday, July 31, the area’s biggest special event will get under way when Hot August Nights 2000 officially starts at the Peppermill Hotel Casino with a kick-off party from 4-10 p.m.
The kick-off will mean many different things to many different people. For some locals and tens of thousands of area visitors, it will mean the start of one of the year’s highlights, a festival celebrating big classic cars, old-fashioned rock ‘n’ roll and a temporary return to the 1950s.
For others, namely many area businesses, it will mean the start of one of the most profitable times of the year as they battle to get their share of the millions of dollars that will be pumped into the economy by the out-of-town visitors.
For yet others, mainly locals, it will mean the start of a hellish week of overtime, traffic jams, closed roadways and inaccessible businesses.
David Saville, the executive director of Hot August Nights, says he’s looking forward to this year’s event. He says about 4,000 cars have registered for this, the 15th Hot August Nights (although Saville emphatically points out that next year, not this year, will be the 15th anniversary, complete with an anniversary celebration).
“Our goal is to have a great, safe event, like we’ve had every year,” Saville says.
Besides the safety goal, Saville also wants to make the event as good as ever, and he hopes to include more than just Sparks and Reno in the festivities. He points to pre-kick-off concert parties and concerts being held at the Hyatt Resort at Incline Village on Saturday, July 29, and Sunday, July 30, as proof that the Tahoe area is getting more involved in the event. He also says he hopes to promote the area, not just the event.
“We want people to come here, not only to enjoy Hot August Nights, but to enjoy the entire area,” he says.
After a rocky 1999 event—room-occupancy rates were down, as were crowd counts and gaming wins following the downtown Reno riots that broke out after the final Saturday night of events in 1998—Saville says room-occupancy rates are back up this year, with many places sold out.
“The bookings are strong,” he says, adding that it rained for much of the event last year, contributing to the lower figures. Saville also pointed out that there were no official Saturday night events last year—they were cancelled in the wake of the 1998 riots, but they are back this year—a step that further damaged crowd counts.
This year, he predicts that a strong entertainment lineup—scheduled performers include Bill Haley’s Comets, Lil’ Elmo and the Cosmos and Chubby Checker-along with the new Harrah’s Plaza and a drag-race course lengthened from one-sixteenth of a mile to one eighth of a mile, will help bring people back.
“We’re pretty sure our goals will be met,” he says.
Whatever happens during this 15th Hot August Nights, it will just add to what has been a very controversial history for the event. From riots to firings to near bankruptcy, it seems that Hot August Nights has seen almost everything since its start in 1986.
The start
In the beginning, Hot August Nights was a fairly simple event. In 1986, it was a three-day affair, highlighted by a sock-hop at the Convention Center that drew about 10,000 people. Car shows, concerts and Elvis Presley/Marilyn Monroe lookalike contests made the event lineup, and an estimated 28,000 people attended the events.
Co-founder Willie Davison, a marketing executive for Coors, said at the time the event exceeded his wildest expectations.
“We just never thought this many people would be here,” he told the Reno Gazette-Journal after the inaugural event. “We’re already planning for next year. Just think how big this is going to become.”
Davison recently told the RN&R that his plan for Hot August Nights was for it to eventually become a month-long event, with car-themed weeks. One week would be Chevrolet week, followed by Ford week, GMC week and then “obsolete iron” week. He also wanted each week to have a different musical theme.
“That’s why I named it Hot August Nights,” he told the RN&R. “Hot August Nights. I intended the event to take up the whole month.”
In an effort to move toward meeting that goal, the event was expanded to eight days in 1987. But from the start, problems plagued the event. The Beach Boys cancelled a scheduled concert. Fats Domino would also cancel a concert, and a major event—a beach party—was moved at the last minute from Rancho San Rafael Park to Bally’s (now the Reno Hilton). Hot weather also hurt crowd counts, with only about 32,000 attending the events.
Although promoters said in the days following the event’s conclusion that a small profit would probably be made, in the end, the results were very different.
The 1987 celebration racked up a $250,000 debt, drawing the event’s future into question. Davison and other organizers left the nonprofit organization, and Hot August Nights had to make deals with agencies such as the Reno-Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority and the Reno City Council just to keep going.
In retrospect, Davison feels that the event just needed some “fine-tuning,” and that the debt would have been paid off eventually. However, he does concede that the event probably grew too fast.
Ever since then, Davison has had little involvement with the event that he essentially gave birth to.
“I feel shunned by them,” he says. “Why? I don’t know.”
Recovery and the first riot
In 1988, thanks to financing by the RSVA and other organizations, Hot August Nights was back. However, it was cut back to three and a half days, and was in some ways similar to the 1986 event, with a prom night dance, car parades and cruises, concerts and swap meets.
In what was essentially a make-or-break year financially for the event, the organizers came out ahead by between $50,000 and $75,000—money that went toward paying back its debts.
However, the last night of the event ended in chaos and violence. After the official events ended for the night on Saturday, Aug. 6, a melee broke out after a number of cars started spinning their wheels and a crowd developed in downtown. Some witnesses claimed hardly any police or security officers were in sight. Hot August Nights organizers were also no longer present, although trash and debris from the earlier party—including bottles—remained in the streets.
When the police did arrive in large numbers, people in the crowd started throwing bottles at the officers. Several fights broke out; the result was a dangerous mess of traffic, glass and violence. A police car’s window was broken.
In the end, 21 people were arrested, and eight people were treated for injuries at Saint Mary’s Regional Medical Center. Several complaints were also filed against the Reno Police Department because officers reportedly used excessive force.
The riot left yet another bad mark on Hot August Nights, which was still in debt. Nonetheless, Randy Burke, then the executive director of the Hot August Nights board, pledged the event would go on.
And it did, with success. In 1989, Hot August Nights had its best all-around year. The four days of events were profitable—and violence-free—as the debt from the 1987 event was cut to $75.000. However, the organization was completely broke and was only surviving on credit at the time.
But the event lived on, because local officials saw what the event could bring the area—money. In 1989, an RSCVA survey estimated that 13,500 people came from outside of Nevada to specifically attend Hot August Nights, and that those people added some $4.8 million the economy.
In 1990, the event again turned a profit, and was finally debt-free with money in the bank. Hot August Nights grew to five days and would stay that size for several years.
However, the crowds did not stay the same size; they kept growing. In 1991, the RSVA estimated 43,000 people visited Reno-Sparks for the event, spending $34.5 million. In 1992, those numbers jumped to nearly 115.000 visitors spending $65.7 million.
Hot August Nights, by the mid-’90s, was a definite success. Almost too successful, some said. Events were selling out; traffic was becoming gridlocked, and it had become impossible to get a hotel room during the event. Police were also arresting more and more people, as the larger crowds started getting tough to handle.
Gouging and firing
In 1994, Hot August Nights was still doing extremely well. It was profitable.
Hotel rooms in the area were sold out. The classic-car registration was capped after 3,500 cars registered.
And then, without explanation, Randy Burke was fired.
To this day, Hot August Nights has not explained why he was fired, saying it was a confidential matter that did not have to be discussed publicly, even though the organization receives public funding through the RSCVA.
He was replaced by Hank Sosnowski, a radio/public relations man. For the 1995 event, Sosnowski had to contend with a lower budget. The event went well by most accounts, although the revenue for the event came in hundreds of thousands of dollars lower than expected. Nonetheless, the event made a $120,000 profit.
And then, after only seven months on the job, Sosnowski was fired, too, without explanation, only weeks after Linda Lott, the organization’s president, praised him in an interview.
Both Burke and Sosnowski ended up suing Hot August Nights for their firings. Burke settled his lawsuit in 1997 for an undisclosed amount of money and a statement that Burke’s firing was not based on any impropriety or wrongful conduct.
Sosnowski’s lawsuit was much uglier. Sosnowski claimed the organization never intended for him to be there for very long when he was hired, and that they already had another executive director in mind. The organization then countered that Sosnowski did not meet its standards.
The executive director position was scrapped altogether, and a general manager’s position was created. That was filled by Pam Mason, who lasted 15 months, through the 1996 Hot August Nights, before resigning for personal reasons. She was replaced by David Saville, a former Sparks Police lieutenant who has served as the general manager ever since.
In addition to the personnel issues, event organizers also had to deal with growing criticism throughout the 1990s that the event was becoming too commercial. It is a well-known fact that many area hotels traditionally raise their prices for the event, because demand is so high.
The price-gouging accusations grew, but the people kept coming anyway.
That is, until the 1998 riots changed everything.
The Reno riots
Almost 10 years to the day of the 1988 downtown Reno riot that made local headlines, the riot of 1998 made the news. Only this time, the headlines weren’t just local; they were worldwide. And the images that appeared on newspaper pages and television news shows may have damaged the event’s reputation forever.
After the events ended on Saturday night, a group of people—most of whom were in their teens or 20s and had nothing to do with Hot August Nights itself—congregated downtown. Fights broke out; the police moved in; a riot erupted.
When all was said and done, cars were tipped over. More than 200 people were arrested-including at least three media photographers, two of whom were from the Reno Gazette-Journal.
Following the riots, event organizers cancelled the Saturday events for the 1999 celebration. Police also vowed to crack down on liquor sales at downtown businesses in 1999, raising the ire of those businesses’ owners. Nonetheless, many people expected violence to erupt again in downtown Reno on the Friday night following the last evening of events last year.
But when that didn’t happen, the Reno Police Department declared Hot August Nights a success. This despite the fact that on the Friday night/Saturday morning after the end of Hot August Nights that year, 65 people were arrested—an inordinately high number for a normal weekend evening.
Downtown Reno on that Friday night last year looked as though it was part of a police state, and in the aftermath of Hot August Nights 1999, it became apparent that last year’s event was not as successful as police would have liked.
First, Reno police were accused of targeting minorities, as more than half of the nearly 250 people arrested during last year’s four-day event were non-whites, according to a Reno Gazette-Journal analysis. Second, several officers were suspended after it was determined that they erased a citizen’s videotape during the event. Third, Reno police and its officers union, the Reno Police Protective Association, got into a legal squabble when Chief Jerry Hoover demanded that all officers would have to be available for overtime if necessary.
Aside from police problems, however, the biggest way that Hot August Nights suffered in 1999 was financially.
Following the 1998 riot, many people stayed home. Some downtown businesses reported last year that business was cut in half from the year before. Attendance at some events was down-especially for some downtown Reno events, as some people chose to celebrate Hot August Nights in the safer area of Sparks’ Victorian Square, if they came at all. And room-booking rates were down almost across the board.
What’s in store for 2000?
That’s a tough question to answer.
Saville points out that room-booking rates are up across the board as a sign that Hot August Nights is on the rebound from 1998 and 1999. Saville also points to the fact that Saturday night events are back this year.
Everybody, from the police to the city government to the event organizers, says they are ready for Hot August Nights 2000. The true test will be to see what happens Saturday, Aug. 5, in that Hot August Nights Saturday return. After all, last year’s Friday night in downtown Reno was tense enough, with 65 arrests and the police state-like atmosphere.
Whatever happens in 2000, Hot August Nights co-founder Davison says that the event has become something the founders did not intend for it to become. He points to the price-gouging by the hotel-casinos and the overly large crowds (which, he insists, would be individually smaller and more spread out if the event was a month-long celebration instead of just crammed into a week) as indicators that Hot August Nights needs an overhaul.
Nonetheless, Hot August Nights is still loved by its co-founder despite its problems—mirroring a sentiment held many locals.
“I love it, and I’ll always love it,” he says. “It’s still great.”
This year’s 40th anniversary edition of Hot August Nights—with its main venue back in downtown Reno—takes place Friday, July 31, through Sunday, Aug. 9. Learn more at hotaugustnights.net.
—Jimmy Boegle
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