Aquafest started in the 60's at what was then Festival Beach next to the power plant. There was an amphitheater facing the lake where you could watch the drag boat races, and a water skiing competition. There were floating waterski jumps in the lake which was pretty cool to watch. Other events during the 10 days were, golf tournaments, fishing contests, canoe races, the Austin Grand Prix, Miss Austin Aqua Beauty Contest, night time illuminated raft and boat parade, kite flying, tons of food, carnival rides and games, Aerofest (which took place during Aquafest) had plane exhibits you could climb around in, and an incredible air show. Then there were fireworks, and of course, the music. They had 'Theme nights' such as German, Mexican, Western, Czech, Jazz, R & B, ect... When I got here in the early 80's, the fest had already moved to Auditorium Shores because it had gotten so huge, over 250K in attendance. This was basically my welcome to Austin. There was so much to do and see during Aquafest that I took a week of vacation every August to get in as much as I could. It basically celebrated the lakes and the 'River City'. The raft race was my favorite part. Hundreds if not thousands of people built homemade rafts out of just about anything from simple foam floats to pirate ships to multilevel platforms many with water cannons. They would launch around Mopac, and just ride the current pass I35. Imagine LBL with hundreds of colorful rafts loaded with thousands of drunks squirting each other with water guns and cannons. It may be hard for most of you to believe, but Austin was a beautiful city even without all the tall buildings we have now. In its peak, it was the grandest of any festival Austin had or will ever have including SXSW and ACL because of the huge amount of variety of things to see and do. It was a party for all of Austin and all ages, until many of the fun events were canned, basically everything except the music. And even that ended in 1998. But for me it ended when all the other stuff went away. Man, that was one cool fest... Sorry for the long description, but even so I probably left off a lot.
Last edited by the Genral; Jun 21, 2012 at 2:16 AM.
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