The Austin City Limits music festival started today. Barton Springs Road is now closed until early Monday morning, and while the traffic and the tents dotting Zilker Park are temporary, there is a part of the festival that will stick around.
When festivalgoers throw down, say, $100 for a one-day pass to see The Weeknd, Austin’s Parks Department pockets $2. And, if you bought a 3-day ticket, the city will get $3 per ticket per day, “which will come back to the park system for park maintenance,” says Jason Maurer with the Parks Department.
Three dollars per ticket per day. 3 dollars x 1 ticket x 3 days = 9, so that means $9 goes to city parks.
Maurer says this $9 is then sprinkled around – used to maintain parks close to Zilker. So, if you think about it, part of your ACL ticket could fund tree care along the Barton Creek Greenbelt. Last year, the city made $1.3 million from these fees.
But how does the city ensure that Zilker gets some TLC? Well, festival presenters pay for cleanup themselves. They also submit a fee that funds year-round care for the park. Last year, that was a flat fee of $500. This year, it’s 10 cents per person per day, meaning what was $500 that went toward maintaining Zilker last year is now $45,000. Hopefully, that's enough to keep the park in tip-top shape for when Drake comes back next year.
