ACL Fest generates $534M in economic impact, and $8.4M for citywide parks improvements

The Austin City Limits Music Festival generated a record $534.8 million in economic activity for the Austin area in 2024, according to a new report released this week. The event, produced by C3 Presents, continues to serve as a major driver for the city’s economy while also contributing substantial funding toward local parks through its longtime partnership with the Austin Parks Foundation.

On Wednesday, representatives from C3 Presents, parks supporters and city leaders gathered at Rosewood Park in East Austin to announce the economic impact, as well as a donation of $8.4 million to the Austin Parks Foundation.

Since it began tracking its economic impact in 2006, ACL Fest has contributed over $4.1 billion to the Austin economy, equivalent to the support of nearly 40,000 full-time jobs over that period. The 2024 festival alone accounted for an estimated 3,607 jobs, according to the annual report prepared by Angelou Economics.

The report emphasized the festival’s role in sustaining Austin’s hospitality, tourism, and event-related industries, including hotels, restaurants, transportation services, and retail businesses.

Including the most recent donation, the festival’s contribution to parks improvements over the past two decades totals more than $71 million. Those funds support a wide range of park improvement projects across all 10 City Council districts, in addition to the maintenance and restoration work performed annually at Zilker Park after the two-weekend festival concludes each October.

While introducing festival representatives, Mayor Kirk Watson referenced the city’s forthcoming budget work and how the needs of the more than 300 park properties throughout Austin will fare in the midst of a projected budget deficit.

“We’re going to be talking more and more about parks as this year goes on, as we talk about where we need to go in terms of… doing right by our parks,” he said, while praising the Parks Foundation’s work. “We can all agree that these investments will continue improving parks in every corner of Austin and not just Zilker Park, where the festival takes place.”

Proceeds from the most recent festival are being directed toward projects that include the restoration of the historic Henry Madison Cabin and playground replacement at Rosewood Neighborhood Park, the first phase of construction at Grand Meadow Neighborhood Park and design and permitting work at Jamestown Neighborhood Park. Funding will also support the creation of Austin’s first all-abilities playground at Onion Creek Metro Park and provide resources for trail improvements across various greenbelts and preserves.

Colin Wallis, CEO of Austin Parks Foundation, said his group works closely with Parks and Recreation Department staff to identify the best way to use the ACL donation, as well as the follow-on contributions the group receives from the attention given to the partnership. With construction and other cost increases making it harder to stretch dollars, Wallis said the foundation has to balance a number of needs in selecting projects that will move forward each year.

“It sounds like a lot but $8.4 million doesn’t really go a long way when you’re talking about $100 million (PARD) budget, 20,000 acres of parkland and new residents moving here every day,” he said. “What we do is try and look across the spectrum. The Parks Department has all of their facilities inventoried. We know which playscapes are failing. We know which pools are failing. So we’re really trying to work with them to identify which communities have never had infrastructure to begin with, so we’re looking across the spectrum to not just fix things that are broken, but also build new amenities.”

Council Member Ryan Alter, who chairs the Council’s Climate, Water, Environment and Parks Committee, said he expects that basic staffing and maintenance of parks properties are one of the cost areas that could be covered by a tax rate election, or TRE, that could go before voters this fall.

“I’ve talked with my colleagues, and if there is a TRE, (parks funding) is a high priority for them to include in the TRE, and myself as well. As we look at the highest needs of the city, we know that parks would be one of those,” he said. “That is something that we saw last year in a report of just how many parks workers we are deficient to just have, like, level one service. Taking the trash out every day, cleaning the bathrooms every day, that’s what people expect.”

Photo made available through a Creative Commons license.

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