Parks board does deep dive on Austin City Limits Fest contract for Zilker Park

The city contract with the Austin City Limits promoter, C3 Presents, was put under scrutiny at a Tuesday meeting of the Council of Parks and Recreation, as part of a general review of how parks and entertainment manage more revenue to finance programming and maintenance costs.

At the conclusion of the presentation, city employees and a representative of the Austin Parks Foundation, who annually receives millions of dollars from C3 to improve and expand parks throughout the city, took no action.

During the meeting, it was revealed that the festival paid $ 2.4 million to cover the city's costs for the 2019 festival, including a $ 100,000 usage fee for the Zilker Park created by City Hall, plus $ 1.4 million in six days of revenue per tickets.

PARD received $ 1.6 million of the total amount, with $ 500,000 to attend the Austin Police Department outside the festival, $ 110,000 for the Austin Fire Department, $ 60,000 for emergency medical services, $ 30,000 for transportation fees and $ 20,000 for permits Health.

He also revealed that the economic impact of the 2019 festival was estimated at $ 291 million, an increase of $ 27 million over the 2018 event. The attendance of the annual festival, which exceeds 75,000 people per day, exceeds 400,000 people. During the two-week festival every October, Zilker Park is closed for public use for 25 days to allow installation and dismantling.

The nonprofit Gardens Foundation, which has an annual budget of $ 8.2 million to fund gardening improvements and land acquisition across the city, is expected to receive $ 6.2 million in C3 gifts from last year's festival.