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The original ACL Live Stage has been hallowed ground for famed artists and Austinites for decades. (CC)
Lucky buyers got to "own a piece of Austin history"—for a price tag of up to $80,000—after Austin City Limits sold 20 separate sections of the original backdrop from the historic television series in an online auction.
The piece, which depicts Austin's ever-growing skyline and includes landmarks including the University of Texas and the Texas Capitol, was sold to 20 separate buyers for over $265,000.
While some less visually appealing panels of twinkling Austin lights sold for as low as $1,500, the panel depicting the Capitol sold for over $80,000. Similarly, the glowing University of Texas tower panel sold for $45,050.
Austin PBS sold the pieces as part of a farewell to Studio 6A, where the original set for ACL's television program was shot. Icons including Willie Nelson and Loretta Lynn have played in front of the backdrop for years since it was instituted in 1982. The panel was put out of use in 2010.
Bidding began on Monday and ended Friday morning at 10 a.m. All proceeds went to Austin PBS and will be used to help the production company move locations in 2022.
The panel may be sold, but it will see one last hurrah as famed country artist Garth Brooks takes the stage on July 20-21 for another fundraiser to help with move out expenses.
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Popular
Kristina Gonzalez, director of sales and operations at Party at the Moontower Event Rentals, minces no words about what the cancelation of this year's Austin City Limits Music Festival means for event vendors: "That's basically saying no one in events makes money for a full year."
Party at the Moontower has outfitted VIP areas at ACL in past years and partnered with hotels for conferences. Together with South by Southwest, ACL can keep event vendors afloat through the leaner months of the year.
"Event vendors—we all function off the flux of tourism, and the two biggest times of the year when all these people come in are October, with ACL, and March, with South By," Gonzalez explains.
In the wake of their cancelations, local business owners are bracing themselves for a year that has now been effectively stripped of its two peak tourism seasons.
Restaurants reel from the impact of canceled festivals
Many restaurant owners are feeling a similar financial burden, such as Sue Davis, owner of Austin vegan staple Counter Culture. Davis estimates that 30% of her annual business comes from tourism, and March is always her "busiest month of the year by far." She had just finished redesigning her menu and training extra staff for SXSW when the festival got canceled.
"Every South By, I'm like, 'What can we do better next year?'" Davis says. "And this year I felt like we were in a great position to just kill it, and it didn't happen."
Owning a brick-and-mortar restaurant doesn't put Davis in an enviable position right now; Counter Culture's dining room is still closed, and she's "paying rent for a building that we're using 20% of" as she pivots to takeout and delivery.
But food truck owners are also reeling from the cancelation of Austin's two premier festivals. Hope Green, owner of Emojis Grilled Cheese Bar, says her food truck does big business catering private events when corporations come to town for SXSW and ACL.
"Our SXSW events typically bring in a good $40,000 to $60,000 for us," Green explains. "So having lost that revenue, if we're doing $15,000 to $30,000 a month, we've lost like 62% of the revenue that we would've normally done by this time of the year."
That lost revenue doesn't just hurt Green. She works with homeless teens who have aged out of foster care, training them in the food truck to give them work and management experience. She usually subsidizes those programs through her festival season revenue, and consequently, she's had to pause them.
"If I just wanted to do this business by myself and just take care of myself, no problem," Green says. "But it's all of the other stuff—the things that I want my business to be about—that takes that financial engine to keep that going."
Finding new streams of revenue
If there is a silver lining to COVID-19 wiping out SXSW and ACL, it's that local business owners have an opportunity to evaluate what's working and implement new strategies. Green is working toward partnering with apartment complexes for dinner runs, while Davis has added a grocery section to her menu to sell excess inventory and partnered with various nonprofits to donate meals.
Party at the Moontower Rentals has pivoted to furnishing small events, like backyard parties and socially distanced weddings. That includes the ongoing Little White Chapel Pop-Up, which unites over a dozen vendors to host Vegas-style weddings at Austin's Mercury Hall.
"I think the pandemic has really made people think about the way that they do business and how planning and strategy is also just as important as doing," Gonzalez says. "You have to fall in love with the problem."
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Organizers of the State Fair of Texas announced Tuesday that this year's festivities, expected to draw 2.5 million people to North Texas over three weeks in the fall, are canceled out of concern for the coronavirus.
The last time the fair was canceled was during the WWII years, 1942-1945. It was canceled three times before that: during World War I (1918), and planning for the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition and 1937 Pan American Exposition at Fair Park (1935 – 1937).
The 2021 State Fair of Texas is scheduled for Friday, September 24 through Sunday, October 17 in historic Fair Park in Dallas.
"We believe the spirit of the Lone Star state lies in every Texan's ability to care and look out for their neighbor and it is with this in mind, we have decided to keep our guests, staff, and partners safe and healthy during these uncertain times," the organization's website says.
The announcement left open the possibility of still having the Cotton Bowl football match-up if the seasons were allowed to begin.
Read the entire press release here.
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