AUSTIN, Texas — If you’ve lived in Austin for the past 25 years or more, you may recall a citywide festival known as Aqua Fest.
Every August, beginning in 1962, tens of thousands would attend live music concerts, watch elaborate street parades and view all sorts of aquatic activities on what was then known as Town Lake.
The idea came from the Austin Chamber of Commerce as a way of livening up a usually hot and dull month of the year, August, and luring tourist dollars. With that, a 36-year tradition was born.
It was a history filled with parades, live music concerts, speed boat races, ski competitions and so much more.
One of the biggest Aqua Fest events of the 1960s was the world premiere at Austin’s Paramount Theater of the first-ever Batman movie. Based on the "Batman" TV show that was popular at the time, the 1966 premiere drew thousands to a parade down Congress Avenue to see the stars of the movie up close.
During its first two decades, Aqua Fest featured speed boat races on Town lake, later renamed Lady Bird Lake. But the crowds and the noise were too much for people living near Festival Beach, and protests against Aqua Fest's boat races became common in the 1970s. Sometimes, tempers even flared between anti-boat race activists, police and supporters of the races, leading to arrests.
The protests had an impact. Aqua Fest was moved to Auditorium Shores, and the speed boat races were gone. The festival shifted to a celebration of different cultures and a growing menu of live, outdoor music concerts.
By the time Aqua Fest celebrated its 25th anniversary in 1986, festival attendance reached its peak, with nearly 250,000 people attending events in the heart of the city that year.
But in the years that followed, the crowds grew smaller. The times and public tastes changed. New events like South by Southwest, Freedom Fest and the Austin City Limits Music Festival would take its place. Despite bringing in popular music acts in the 1990s, the festival began losing money.
By 1998, Aqua Fest had come to an end.