The Congress Avenue colony leaving at dusk, now counted as an attraction.
Photo: Mexican Free-tailed Bat (Tadarida brasiliensis) - Congress Avenue Bridge - Flickr - Jay Sturner · Wikimedia Commons
Two festivals that grew, a district that lost rooms, two clubs still open, and a colony that became infrastructure.
6 pieces in this section · every one with its own photograph
A music conference born in 1987 to serve Austin's local scene now navigates defence contracts, artist boycotts, and the economics that make both necessary.
Photo: Nicole Klepadlo of Red River Cultural District at SXSW 2025 01 · Wikimedia Commons
The city trademarked "Live Music Capital of the World." The district it designated to protect live music has fewer rooms than it did in 2019.
Two rooms on the short list of Austin venues that opened decades ago and are still booking acts.
A festival that outlasted the boom it helped build is still filling Zilker Park, two weekends at a time.
The track outside Del Valle turned a motorsport gap into a subsidy-dependent anchor of Austin's events calendar.
A crack in a rebuilt bridge let a million bats move in. Austin eventually decided that was an asset.