AUSTIN, Texas — After decades in Downtown Austin, one of the city’s longest-running festivals has a new home and a muddled future.
The Pecan Street Festival will move to Bee Cave for its upcoming spring festival on May 3-4. The bi-annual festival is traditionally held in Austin on Sixth Street – historically known as Pecan Street.
Organizers of the festival cited that the recent installation of bollards and rubber skirting on Sixth Street would have forced them to significantly shrink the size of the event.
However, while the festival moves to Hill Country Galleria for the spring, its upcoming fall festival in September still doesn’t have a home. In an email sent to vendors on Monday, organizers confirmed they were not sure if the relocation to Bee Cave would be permanent.
“We would enthusiastically return to Austin under the right conditions, but that will depend on future conversations with the city,” the email said.
For vendors concerned about why the change was announced so close to the festival, organizers cited the “redevelopment” of Sixth Street “by private real estate groups” has strained the festival.
Organizers said they were assured by city leaders for months that they would be able to produce the festival “without these impediments.” They added that they were ultimately told the bollards would stay intact, which would eliminate nearly 100 booths from the festival’s floor plan, making it impossible to produce without a financial loss.
The recent changes to Sixth Street have also forced businesses to deal with delivery problems. However, Austin police say they’re prepared to shut down the street as needed for pedestrian or public safety reasons, just like they did recently during South by Southwest.