The city has started evaluating event permits and scheduling street closures taking place during next month’s South by Southwest festival, the 10-day period referred to in city planning circles as spring festival season. One of those planned closures announced during a stakeholder meeting held last month by Austin Center for Events is a partial shutdown […]
Austin Center for Events (ACE)
The Austin Center for Events is a collaborative office anchored by teams from transportation, music, police, fire, EMS, and other City departments and agencies. The office oversees special events in the city.
Posted inMusic & Entertainment
Citing construction concerns, city indefinitely extends moratorium on new street events
The city has indefinitely extended a long-standing moratorium on street events in response to the large number of private development and infrastructure projects slated for downtown and beyond in the coming years. A memo released last week by José Roig, director of the Development Services Department, and Richard Mendoza, interim director of the Transportation and […]
Posted inMusic & Entertainment
Events task force delivers recommendations for managing major gatherings
The city will likely begin collecting and publishing comprehensive information on major events and music festivals in the coming years as part of a widespread revision to the special events ordinance that regulates large gatherings impacting communities and city services. City Council is expected today to approve the long-awaited recommendations of the Special Events Task […]
Posted inMusic & Entertainment
City offers guidelines for events to reopen safely amid pandemic concerns
The city has released a new set of guidelines for event safety that looks to provide some clarity and help a critical piece of the local economy recover from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. On Friday the Austin Center for Events published the 13-page “Bringing Events Back” report that breaks down recommendations for how […]
Posted inMusic & Entertainment
Activists push for friendlier block party rules, as special events task force trudges on
A member of the city’s Pedestrian Advisory Committee is beginning a campaign to push the city to relax its rules and regulations for organizing block parties, which came under a new permitting process last year. Adam Greenfield, the committee member who also leads the Streets for All open space activism group, has gathered more than […]
Posted inMusic & Entertainment
Increased sound enforcement among ‘agent of change’ recommendations for Council
By the end of this month, City Council could start considering a number of policy and operational changes – including a revision to the sound ordinance and more stringent enforcement of noise disturbances – to try to alleviate growing friction between nightlife businesses and nearby residences and hotels throughout the city. On Saturday, the city’s […]
Posted inPublic Safety
Venues face tough realities in city’s active shooter training
“Remember that the intent of this person is to end your life.” Those sobering words, delivered last Wednesday by Austin Police Department Officer Josh Visi, came as something of a wake-up call for the 40 or so concert venue owners and promoters who had gathered to learn how to handle active shooters inside a live […]
Posted inMusic & Entertainment
New event deadline means clarity, crunch time for SXSW planners
The Austin Center for Events has set a hard deadline of Feb. 8 for applications for special events scheduled to take place during spring festival season, or the 10 days in March that span the South by Southwest festival. Setting that date – which was announced Dec. 27 – roughly a month ahead of the […]
Posted inMusic & Entertainment
Events ordinance approaching completion, with rules TBD
It appears that the city’s ordinance to manage the thriving and lucrative special events industry in Austin is finally about to become a working part of local code. City Council is expected to have a third reading and final approval of the ordinance at its May 10 meeting, nearly five years since officials first began […]
Posted inMusic & Entertainment
Special Events Ordinance could see final approval in October
Staff at the Austin Center for Events will continue working on the city’s long-delayed Special Events Ordinance, despite a push from some City Council members to make the policy official by the end of the month. Council ended up approving the second reading of the 31-page ordinance by a 9-0 vote, with Council members Delia […]
Posted inMusic & Entertainment
Council begins movement on stalled special events ordinance
Roughly four years after it was created, the city is moving forward with a new ordinance governing special events that, among other things, is intended to make the application process easier to navigate. At Tuesday’s work session, City Council received a presentation on the special events ordinance that was called for by a Council resolution […]
Posted inReporters' Notebook
Reporter’s Notebook: Petitions, among other things
Pilot Knob, revisited… Over the weekend, City Council’s recent Pilot Knob deal got a lot more ink. As you might remember, the Austin Monitor first wrote about the deal, which will bring affordable housing to the planned unit development, at a cost of millions to Austin’s water utility. Since then, plenty of other places have […]