AUSTIN, Texas — ACL Fest 2021 brought nearly $7 million to the City of Austin's parks system.
It was the first year the festival returned to Zilker Park after a two-year hiatus from the pandemic. Austin Mayor Steve Adler announced the impact at a press conference on May 10, the same day the 2022 ACL Festival lineup was released and the three-day tickets went on sale.
As part of the press conference, a check was presented to the Austin Parks Foundation for $6.7 million. The Austin Parks Foundation has partnered with the music festival since 2005.
So far, more than $48 million has been generated through the festival for Austin's parks, trails and green spaces for things like upkeep of the parks, grant programs, development and much more. The festival has also generated more than $2.6 billion for the Austin economy since 2006.
In 2018, the festival contributed more than $264 million to the Austin economy. That's around $10 million more than the previous year in 2017. In 2019, it was $291 million. Meanwhile, the total economic impact for the 2021 festival was $369 million, marking the first time the annual total surpassed $300 million.
Proceeds this year will go toward many projects across the city, such as:
- Little Walnut Creek Greenbelt (District 1) - Support of vision plan
- Onion Creek Metro (District 2) - Support for planning, design and construction of all abilities playscape
- Zilker Eagle (District 8) - Support bringing back a fully electric mini-train to Zilker Park
- School Parks Capital Replacement (Districts 1-10) - Support for replacement and addition of PARD standard amenities at school parks.
Hours before the mayor's press conference, the festival announced the 2022 lineup. This year's festival will be held Oct. 7-9 and Oct. 14-16 at Zilker Park. Headliners include the Red Hot Chili Peppers, P!nk, The Chicks and Lil Nas X. Other big names scheduled to play this year's fest are Texas' own Kacey Musgraves, SZA, Flume and Paramore. Check out the full lineup.
Three-day tickets will go on sale at noon Tuesday – and you'll want to be ready if you're looking to snag some. Last year, Weekend 1 tickets sold out within an hour of going on sale and tickets were sold out for both weekends by 3 p.m., three hours after ticket sales began. When single-day tickets went on sale a few days later, they also sold out in record time.
PEOPLE ARE ALSO READING: