The vibes were immaculate this past weekend at Fallout Celebration 2024, an annual gathering of all things Fallout in Goodsprings, Nevada, which you might remember as the town where Fallout: New Vegas begins. Yep, the ghost town where Doc Mitchell nurses your character to health after eating a bullet is not only a real place, but as I found out, surprisingly true to life. The real Goodsprings is a tiny community nestled between a few dusty hills north of Primm—just far enough from society that crossing into its borders feels like you've entered a simpler, quieter world indifferent to the glitzy Las Vegas 30 miles down the interstate.
I imagine it was Goodsprings' secluded mystique and charming antiquity that made it the target of this massive fan gathering when it started a few years ago. Locals told me over 5,000 people RSVPed for the weekend—so many that the organizers stopped promoting the event in hopes that fewer would come—but nobody was turned away.
