Great Austin Aqua Fest souvenir t-shirt from 1990.

Hanes size Medium 38-40

pit to pit 18"

shoulder to shoulder 17.5"

length 26.5"

The Austin Aqua Festival was created in 1962 to promote Austin and the Texas Highland Lakes as a top vacation area and to boost the local economy'.

The festival offered many water related events such as a 150-mile canoe race, fishing contests, a sailing regatta and an illuminated night time parade on the lake. There were many land based events also including the Miss Austin Aqua Beauty contest, a twilight land parade, a daytime military parade, a rodeo, golf tournament, concerts, dances and fireworks.

In the 1990's, Aqua Fest changed from a civic event to a live music event. The organizers began to book bigger and bigger acts, even paying premiums to get popular acts such as Dolly Parton in 1992. This drove ticket prices up and attendance down. By 1993, the festival only drew 44,000 people and as a result lost $722,000. The festival organization exhausted its cash reserves and asked its largest creditor, the City of Austin, for permission to pay off its debt in annual installments.

In 1994, Aqua Fest returned to its roots with more local acts and an all volunteer staff and in 1995 brought back the popular theme nights. They also tried drag boat races again, this time at Lake Walter E. Long, but the races drew little interest. It was all too little, too late and the Austin Aqua Festival folded in 1998.