The Big Pregame (Vegas’s Version)

Music blared as the Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. had a conversation across a barricade. Close by were Machine Gun Kelly, the platinum-blond musician, and his partner, the actor Megan Fox. Outside the 45,000-square-foot, strobe-light-filled tent near the Las Vegas Strip, a man climbed a life-size statue of an elephant. Other partyers cheered him on and snapped pictures.

“I think if you do it right, people let loose and just enjoy themselves,” said Brian Toll, a co-founder of the h.wood Group, the hospitality business behind the star-studded circus that melted Friday night into Saturday morning, cosplaying as a socializer, concert and brand-activation playground.

Super Bowl week is important for business: When the N.F.L. crowns a champion, it also feeds television networks and gives a valuable platform to advertisers and performing artists. But for many other people, it is a great excuse to party.

“I think the game is the biggest event of the weekend, but I don’t want to confuse size and magnitude versus what people enjoy the most,” said Michael Rubin, the billionaire owner of the sports retail company Fanatics, which annually hosts a Super Bowl party for the sports and entertainment elite.

This year’s glamour has been heightened because the entertainment juggernaut Las Vegas is hosting the Super Bowl for the first time. Officials expected about 1,000 private aircraft operating through area airports. Musicians timed their residencies around the weekend.