AUSTIN, Texas — Money made from this year's Austin City Limits Music Festival is going back into the community.
Each year, a portion of the music festival's ticket sales and other revenue goes to the Austin Parks Foundation. This year, park facilities across the city are getting a total of about $205,000 in grants.
"I think that the city's parks are something that people in Austin really care about. They also love their live music. So these two things kind of go hand in hand," said Katie Kennedy, the Austin Parks Foundation's director of marketing and communications.
The grants include:
- $88,000 to Roy G. Guerrero Colorado River Metro Park (District 3) for nature trail installation and maintenance
- $50,000 to Dottie Jordan Neighborhood Park (District 1) for a shade structure over the playground
- $25,000 to the Elisabet Ney Museum (District 9) toward the new Restoration Master Landscape plan
- $27,000 to Clarksville Community Garden & Haskell House (District 9) to establish a freedmen’s colony heritage food garden, interpretive plan and garden improvements
- $10,000 to Armadillo Neighborhood Park (District 2) for poison ivy and invasive species removal
- $5,600 to Parque Zaragoza (District 3) for shade tree installation around the playground
“This grant cycle allowed our team at Austin Parks Foundation to fund significant projects identified by community members across four districts in Austin,” said Colin Wallis, CEO of Austin Parks Foundation. “With the help of the City of Austin’s Parks and Rec. Department, we are able to work directly with park adopters, stewards and stakeholders to improve their local parks, whether it be through maintenance, installations or the addition of amenities.”
There are two different sizes of grants. Neighborhood Grants, which are smaller, between $500 and $5,000, and Community Impact Grants, which are over $5,000.
"It's such a cool process because it doesn't matter the size of the project. If you have a park that you love and you want to see a change in the park, these grants make that happen," Kennedy said.
The Austin Parks Foundation was also awarded $18,050 over the summer. That money helped fund garden repairs at PEAS/Cunningham School Park Garden, mulch at Walnut Creek Metro Park to protect the soil after the 2023 ice storm, community garden rainwater tank repairs at Gus Garcia District Park and fencing at St. David’s Community Garden.