Texas-Sized Fun
Keep Austin Weird
Barton Springs is a pool/creek that everyone flocks to in the warm summer months. Fed by a natural cold-water spring in Zilker Park, the pool exists within the channel of Barton Creek and uses water from Main Barton Spring, the fourth-largest spring in Texas.
Waterloo Park has a growing park system based around Waller Creek with playgrounds, open green spaces and free community events at the Moody Amphitheater.
Winding through trees, bridges and more, the Lady Bird Lake Hike and Bike Trail stretches from the Tom Miller Dam on the West side to the Longhorn Dam on the East. The trail's 10.1 miles are some of the most popular in all of Austin.
Rainey Street Historic District is a lively alternative to the nightlife scene, it's made up of former residences that have been converted to backyard pubs and eateries.
Each truck is contracted to stick around for at least a year, so visitors and guests can map out their favorite bites before visiting from out of town. Located near Zilker Park, The Picnic is a great spot to satisfy hunger after a busy day of Austin exploring.
A 1980 renovation transformed the Congress Avenue Bridge into an ideal bat cave, soon attracting migrating Mexican free-tailed bats. Starting in late March and continuing through early fall, hundreds to thousands of bats pour out and cascade East over Lady Bird Lake nightly at sundown. Don't miss the mid-August Bat-Fest, which is during the peak of the migrating season, where you can expect live music, loads of food and drink vendors, and more, at this bat-viewing party each year.
South by Southwest, commonly referred to as SXSW, is a conference and festivals that focuses discussion on several key industries like tech, music, film, education and more. Founded in Austin in 1987, this conference has grown exponentially over the years to become the world renowned conference that it is today. Noted filmmakers, musicians and multimedia artists from around the world converge to showcase music, film and interactive media during this internationally-recognized event every March.
ACL Festival is is the city's highly anticipated music festival that takes place every October. The two-weekend event brings together more than 130 acts from all over the world to play rock, indie, country, folk, electronic and more on eight stages. The festival is held at Zilker park.