Austin in April always feels like the city’s trying to win you back all over again. The skies get clearer, the group chats get busier, and suddenly there are five decent reasons to leave the house before noon. That’s when Austin gets dangerous in the best way.
You tell yourself you’ll keep the weekend simple, then somehow you’re in Zilker staring at a sky full of kites, making dinner plans across town, and half-considering a startup meetup you absolutely did not expect to care about. I like the city most when it feels like that — loose, alive, a little unpolished, and very easy to say yes to.
So this week, I built the issue around that version of Austin. Bright, local, a little weird, and worth your time.
This Weekend
Date/Time: Saturday, April 11, from 10 AM to 5 PM
Location: Zilker Metropolitan Park
Price: Free
ABC Kite Fest is back at Zilker on April 11, and it is still one of those Austin events that feels genuinely sweet instead of overly curated. It is free, a little chaotic, and exactly the kind of colorful, old-school spring plan that reminds you this city can still do wholesome without being boring.
Date/Time: Saturday, April 11 at 7:30 PM
Location: Rollins Studio Theatre at the Long Center
Price: Varies
A Bob Schneider show still feels like the kind of night Austin should always make room for. He is at the Long Center’s Rollins Studio Theatre on Saturday, and it is the sort of local weekend pick that makes the city feel smaller in the best way.
Date/Time: | Sunday, April 12, from 11 AM to 4 PM
Location: MLAUF Sculpture Garden + Museum
Price: Free
I wanted one weekend pick that slows things down a little, and this is the one. UMLAUF’s Family Day lands Sunday with sculpture searches, art-making activities, performances, and community partners, and it’s free. That already makes it a good Austin move. But it’s also at UMLAUF, which means you get that tucked-away, green, slightly calmer version of the city that’s easy to forget about until you’re there.
Startup & Tech
Tech & Tequila Meetup
Date/Time: Tuesday, April 7 at 6 PM
Location: BluePeople / Capital Factory
Link: Capital Factory
This is much more my speed than anything that sounds like “disruption summit” copy. Capital Factory describes Tech & Tequila as a mix of fireside chat, tequila tasting, and community collaboration, which honestly feels very Austin tech when it’s behaving itself. A little useful, a little social, a little self-aware. That’s a better formula than most networking events manage.
Out in Tech Austin Meetup
Date/Time: Tuesday, April 7 at 6:30 PM
Location: Station Austin
Link: Capital Factory
This is the new one I’d swap in. Capital Factory lists it for April 7 at 6:30 PM, and I like it because it sounds like an actual community event instead of a room full of people pretending to network naturally. It’s built around conversation, connection, and a welcoming space for LGBTQ+ tech folks, founders, creatives, and allies. Austin’s startup scene is better when it feels more like a city and less like a pitch deck.
Eat & Drink
Why it’s worth knowing: because Austin always needs more places that feel stylish without feeling stiff
Location: Central East Austin
This week’s food pick is Boni’s. Eater Austin’s latest heatmap calls it a vintage-chic tapas-and-cocktail spot from the Lenoir team, which is enough to get my attention immediately.
There are restaurants that scream “look at me” the second they open, and then there are places that quietly make you want to come back with different people for different nights. This feels like the second kind. Which usually means it has a better shot at actually becoming part of the city.
Austin Life
Some people east of Austin are still paying too much for water that barely feels usable
One local story I haven’t been able to shake this week came out of Austin Colony and Hornsby Bend, where KUT reported that residents have dealt with water problems for decades — bad taste, ruined appliances, high bills, and the added cost of home filtration systems just to make the water acceptable.
That’s not glamorous city-growth news. It’s the kind of story that reminds you Austin’s edges are still dealing with very basic problems while the rest of the region keeps talking about the future. Growth looks different depending on your ZIP code.
Only in Austin
We now have a parallel parking competition for charity, which is the most politely unhinged thing I’ve heard all week
Only this city could turn one of the most universally annoying driving tasks into a public event and make it sound kind of fun.
CBS Austin reported on the first-ever parallel parking competition for a cause, and honestly I respect the commitment to the bit. This is the version of Austin weird I still enjoy — specific, unnecessary, community-minded, and just self-serious enough to work. You don’t get that everywhere.
Leave a little room for the plan that wasn’t your plan yet. That’s usually where Austin gets good.
See you next week,
Owen
Owen Callaway moved to Austin in 2015 for a product manager position at a fintech startup. Although the startup didn’t succeed, Austin did. After spending his first year planning to return to Chicago, Owen was won over by tacos, Barton Springs, and the chance to explore new neighborhoods.
Having lived in East Austin, South Congress, and Bouldin Creek, he started This Is Austin to answer the same three questions his friends asked: “Where should I eat?”, “What’s worth doing?”, and “Should I move here?”