As the beloved KLRU 2002 Austin City Limits Festival morphed from being a locally-produced 3-day event to a 6-day event (in 2013), it was acquired (by the purchase of a controlling interest) by Live Nation in 2014.
That the City of Austin welcomes the opportunity to partner with KLRU's Austin City Limits as an official host of the Austin City Limits Music Festival in Zilker Park.
RESOLUTION NO. 20120816-057, https://services.austintexas.
The City Manager is encouraged to negotiate and execute an agreement with C3 Presents to include an additional weekend event for the Austin City Limits Music Festival.The City Manager is encouraged to ensure that deposit fees by all rental groups for the use of Auditorium Shores are collected and utilized for the maintenance and repairs for any post-event issues.The City Manager is encouraged to ensure that any resulting agreement reflects stakeholders' input to the greatest extent practicable.The City Manager is encouraged to work with C3 Presents to ensure that the Sustainable Food Center's Austin Farmers' Market Downtown can remain open during both weekends of Austin City Limits and to explore strategies for improving access to parking and Republic Square for market vendors and customers.
By 2014, C3 could demonstrate to Live Nation the profits to be earned on the current established business model: 6 days over two weekends, with park rental prices set at 2010 prices when "large events" were smaller. -- And -- with the correct business model for "maintenance fee expense" based on the new Tiered Special Event Maintenance Fee published in the 2014 Annual Budget Ordinance.
By December of 2014, I can imagine what Live Nation saw: A 6-day event set up by locals who could lobby the Parks Department to maintain the status quo: Costs were low and predictable as long at the Parks Department didn't see a need to change the cost structure.
In 2010, a "large event" had over 10K attendees. By contract, ACL is allowed to sell tickets for 75K attendees per day. (Another 5K people are allowed in the park for staff and artists, for a total of 80K daily capacity).
In 2014, an "expensive" ticket was listed as "more than $100." In 2025, the ACL ticket prices looked like this:
- Single-Day Passes:
- Friday, October 3: Started at $223 (including fees).
- Saturday, October 4: Started at $313 (including fees).
- Sunday, October 5: Started at $150 (including fees).
- Single-day VIP: Prices start at $710.
Small town prices for a Live Nation venue
Since 2010, park rental fees have been frozen due to inaction of the Parks Department. The highest increment of attendees for a "large scale event" was -- and remains -- 10,001+ attendees.
The event-day park rental fee hasn't changed to reflect ACL/Live Nation's 75K per day attendance.
Since 2014, the Tiered Special Event Maintenance Fee hasn't changed. The highest tier in 2014 for "sold admission" was $100+ per ticket.
Who imagined daily ticket prices of $223, $313 or $710 per person in 2014?
Probably no one -- except C3 Presents and their new bosses at Live Nation.
Copy and paste contracts
Live Nation purchased a controlling interest of the ACL Festival in December of 2014: This was just two months after C3 could demonstrate their new business model with the Austin Parks Department.
The Austin Parks Department handles the annual renewal of special event contracts in a copy-and-paste mode: If it was correct last year, it is probably good enough for this year. No effort has been made since 2010 and 2014 to adjust large event fees to mirror the rising revenue (higher admission fees, more sales of concessions) earned by C3/Live Nation.
CM Ann Kitchen "called it what it was" in 2021
In a Council meeting on 10-21-2021, CM Kitchen told the truth about ACL: The Parks Department had allowed more days and more area of Zilker Park without explaining this action to Council or the public.
"The previous council with the use of zilker park set in motion acl as an administrative activity in the future. So, there have been additions to acl including adding a second weekend. The location of acl has expanded into surrounding areas, all just the decision of staff without public input and without council input. "
From 2013 to 2014, the number of attendees doubled from 75Kx3 to 75Kx6. This doubled the environmental damage to the Great Lawn starting annually in 2014. By 2023, or possibly sooner, the physical area was expanded to occupy more of Zilker Park: More parking lots on the south side of Barton Springs Road (Polo Field -- possibly for staff and staging -- and Polo Picnic Parking Lot) and more parkland (southeast Lawn and Rugby Field).
I believe that the southeast Lawn and Rugby Field have no underground irrigation. Severe erosion and compaction to many acres is nearly impossible to remediate without consistent irrigation. The Butler Landfill (aka "Stratford Lot") is already a contested cap -- an unpermitted parking lot -- according to the Watershed Protection Department, and it continues to age as it is heavily used by heavy equipment as an ACL staging area. The Moon Tower grounds now look like the surface of the Moon -- and the Parks Department doesn't seem prepared or willing to fix the big environmental issues in the park.
The problem is metastasizing administratively
The problem is metastasizing fiscally
(a) No additional rent revenue for the extraordinary number of attendees above 10,001: The 2010 the Fee Schedule stops at "10,001+ attendees" and PARD has not revised it; nor has PARD made the "large event fee schedule" consistent with the "$1.50 per attendee" structure of fees for smaller commercial events;
Here's the current fee schedule for smaller events: Smaller events pay $1.50 per attendee. Compare to ACL which pays 66 cents per attendee ($5K divided by 75K).
(b) minimal rent -- $500 per day -- is collected for the 4 days between weekends, when the ACL fenced areas of the park are still completely off-limits;
(c) No additional rent revenue was adjusted for the expansion into additional acres of parkland: Polo Field, Polo Picnic Parking Lot, southeast Lawn and Rugby Field;
(d) 14 days of "clean up" are given to the C3 Organizer free-of-charge every year. 14 days FREE.
Note: It appears that C3 does pay the Tiered Special Event Maintenance Fee (about $1.4M annually) to the CoA; this is deposited into the General Fund. However, 2024 evidence shows that PARD charged C3 for about $200K of additional maintenance on March 28, 2025, after the event had concluded. Why? Is something going wrong?
The problem is further metastasizing: We don't see enough Zilker Park maintenance.
The ACL/C3 maintenance payments to the CoA are deposited into the General Fund. The park grounds appear to be intentionally neglected by the Parks Department as a mechanism to enable nonprofits (possibly Zilker 351 and/or APF) to gain access to the park.
Zilker Park's neglected long-term maintenance could be fixed if the Parks Department or Council would simply spend Zilker Park maintenance revenue on Zilker Park's long-term maintenance needs.
Zilker Park earns a lot of revenue for the City of Austin. It's time for the Parks Department and the City Council to show-some-love for Zilker Park.
