Festival season is in full swing, but let’s be real, when isn’t it in Austin?
Whether you’re a festival fanatic or prefer to avoid festival traffic, Austin’s annual international festivities keep the local economy chugging. We’re taking a quick look into how much cold, hard cash some of Austin’s most famous events bring in.
Austin City Limits Music Festival
All-time economic impact: $3.08 billion, equivalent to 32,201 jobs.
All-time funding for the Austin Parks Foundation: $55 million
2022
- Contributions to the Austin economy: $447.9 million
- That figure is equivalent to 3,578 full-time jobs.
- In comparison, the 2023 Super Bowl contributed about $600 million to Arizona’s economy.
- $7.2 million, excluding annual fees for Zilker Park restoration efforts, was donated to the Austin Parks Foundation for projects including:
- Trail improvements and maintenance at the Barton Creek Greenbelt
- Restoration of the historic Henry Madison Cabin at Rosewood Neighborhood Park
- Designing Austin’s first all-abilities playground at Onion Creek Metropolitan Park
Note: ACL Festival began tracking economic impact in 2006, four years after the festival began.
SXSW
Economic impact since 2009: ~$2.88 billion
2022
- Contributions to the Austin economy: $280.7 million
- $1.8 million in hotel occupancy tax revenue, which came from 10,000 SXSW direct hotel reservations, or 45,500 room nights.
Note: SXSW’s 2023 economic impact report had yet to be released at the time of publication.
Formula 1 US Grand Prix
All-time economic impact: ~$7 billion
2021
- Contributions to the Austin economy: ~$1 billion
- Around 400,000 fans sat in the audience.
- Formula 1 fans reportedly spent $600 million in the city during Grand Prix weekend.
- The day after the race ended in 2022, Austin Bergstrom-International Airport saw a record-breaking amount of passengers.
Note: the 2022 US Grand Prix economic impact report had yet to be released at the time of publication.
