Description
Austin Aqua Festival 1963,1964, 1957 Regatta Trophy. Selling all three with<br>provenance. These two Aqua fest Trophies will be the highlight of any Austin<br>Aqua Fest Collection. They are rare, one of a kind, the type of holy grail<br>collectibles that you don't even consider the existence of until you encounter<br>it. I'm including the 1957 trophy because it provides interesting provenance to<br>the two aqua fest trophies. They are all from the same estate and were won by<br>the Same man. I'm including a screenshot of his obituary. He was 40 when he won<br>the 1957 trophy, 46 for the '63, and 47 for the '64. Provenance is not something<br>usually considered with these types of collectibles, but it is interesting in<br>this case. I'm selling the lot for one price. If you're in Austin which the<br>future owner most likely will be, I've met locally to sell earlier skipper pins<br>and other rare Austin Memorabilia.<br><br>The Austin Aqua Festival was created in 1962 to promote Austin and the Texas<br>Highland Lakes as a top vacation area and to boost the local economy in what was<br>normally a slow period. The first Aqua Fest occurred Aug. 3-12, 1962. Art<br>Linkletter was the headliner for the event.<br><br>The festival offered many water related events such as a<br>150-mile canoe race, fishing contests, a sailingregatta and an illuminated night<br>time parade on the lake. There were many land based events also including the<br>Miss Austin Aqua Beauty contest, a twilight land parade, a<br>daytime military parade,<br>a rodeo, golf tournament, concerts, dances and fireworks.<br><br>Patrons of the fest could purchase a book of discount tickets to get into the<br>various venues. The tickets were called Skipper Script. The next year, the<br>script gave way to the Skipper Pin, which was purchased and pinned on the goers<br>clothing, letting the workers know that the wearer was eligible for discounts on<br>tickets.<br><br>The central location for many of the events was "Festival Beach," a small park<br>on Town Lake between the city-owned power plant and a residential neighborhood.<br>The city had originally created Town Lake as a cooling pond for the power plant.<br><br>In 1964, the festival added one of its most popular and controversial<br>events, drag boat racing on Town Lake. It also added a water<br>skiing championship, kite flying championship and an Austin Grand Prix - sports<br>car racing on city streets.<br><br>The 1966 Aqua Fest started out with the world premiere of Batman, with Adam<br>West and other actors from the movie in attendance. 1966 also saw the start of<br>the "Battle of the Bands", in which unknown rock and roll bands were judged for<br>awards and recognition. Battle of the Bands would become the festival's top<br>draw. The United States Air Force air demonstration squadron,<br>the Thunderbirds first performed at the Fest the same year.<br><br>By 1968, an estimated crowd of 150,000 watched the night lighted water parade,<br>which had been renamed to Rio Noche parade in 1964. The crowds were starting to<br>overwhelm Festival Beach causing traffic congestion, parking problems and<br>security concerns for the residents plus the noise of the events, especially the<br>drag boats. However, the mostly Hispanic community had very little political<br>clout to get anything changed.<br><br>Theme nightsEdit<br><br>Theme nights began in 1969. Various nights of the festival would highlight<br>different cultures of Texas. This first year there was<br>Western, German, Czech and Jazz and Rhythm and Blues nights. Throughout the<br>years the theme nights varied as new ones were tried and unpopular ones not<br>repeated. These included Mexican, Black Heritage, Italian, American and<br>International nights. Toward the end of the festival's life, the theme nights<br>had settled to multiple nights with Western and Mexican themes.<br><br>Aero-FestEdit<br><br>Also in 1969, Bergstrom Air Force Base, on the southeast edge of Austin, began<br>an open house in conjunction with Aqua Fest and titled it Aero-Fest. In addition<br>to the Thunderbirds performing, the gathering showed off many<br>military airplanes and other hardware. A crowd favorite was a C-5 Galaxy, which<br>visitors would walk through to get to the main display area. Aero-Fest was an<br>instant success and in just two years it was drawing 80,000 people to the base.<br>Aero-Fest ceased when the base closed in 1993.<br><br>1970–1979Edit<br><br>The new decade saw Aqua Fest's continued growth with the addition of more new<br>events such as a photography contest and motocross in 1971 and the Pet Parade in<br>1972. But the growth of the event brought confrontation with the neighborhoods<br>surrounding Festival Beach. Complaints had gone unheeded and people finally took<br>to the streets in protest. The anti-Fest coalition was led by Paul Hernandez and<br>a group calling itself the "Brown Berets." Protesters were arrested and they in<br>turn sued the City of Austin and Aqua Fest. By the end of the decade, the drag<br>boat races were gone from Town Lake and pressure was on to find a new location<br>to hold other Aqua Fest events.<br><br>1980–1989Edit<br><br>Due to continued protest and growing crowds, Aqua Fest was moved from Festival<br>Beach to Auditorium Shores, a larger park along Town Lake about a mile to the<br>west of Festival Beach. This larger area meant the festival could now have<br>multiple stages for entertainment. The festival organizers signed up corporate<br>sponsors and local radio stations to co-sponsor the entertainment and began<br>booking national acts.<br><br>The City of Austin, which had subsidized Aqua Fest in its early years, now<br>believed the Fest was self-sufficient and withdrew its financial support. The<br>city began charging the festival for use of Auditorium Shores.<br><br>In 1985, attendance at Aqua Fest peaked at 252,000. More criticism came at the<br>festival for lack of parking, excessive noise and alcohol abuse issues. This<br>time the rebuke was from residents of the Bouldin Creek neighborhood just south<br>of Auditorium Shores. The opponents of the festival were able to force a<br>non-binding referendum to move Aqua Fest to Lake Walter E. Long in far east<br>Austin. The measure passed but promised corporate support to build a new<br>facility went away as Texas entered an oil bust in the middle of the decade.<br>Aqua Fest stayed at Auditorium Shores.<br><br>1990–1998Edit<br><br>With its multiple stages for entertainment, Aqua Fest changed from a civic event<br>to a live music event. The organizers began to book bigger and bigger acts, even<br>paying premiums to get popular acts such as Dolly Parton in 1992. This drove<br>ticket prices up and attendance down. By 1993, the festival only drew 44,000<br>people and as a result lost $722,000. The festival organization exhausted its<br>cash reserves and asked its largest creditor, the City of Austin, for permission<br>to pay off its debt in annual installments.<br><br>In 1994, Aqua Fest returned to its roots with more local acts and an all<br>volunteer staff and in 1995 brought back the popular theme nights. They also<br>tried drag boat races again, this time at Lake Walter E. Long, but the races<br>drew little interest. It was all too little, too late and the Austin Aqua<br>Festival folded in 1998.
