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The inaugural Two Step Inn was held in Georgetown this past April.
The Two Step Inn country music festival will be back in San Gabriel Park next year. The 2024 festival will take place April 20 and 21 after Georgetown City Council unanimously approved a renewal agreement with festival organizer C3 Presents on Tuesday, May 23.
“I’ve done a lot of proud things for the city and this is a great, proud moment,” said Kimberly Garrett, Georgetown Parks and Recreation director, while reflecting on this year’s inaugural festival during Tuesday's meeting.
Compared to this year’s event, updates in the renewed agreement include changing the festival’s date, increasing the park’s rental fee to $40,000, increasing the number of tickets available and specifically reserving some tickets for Georgetown residents, Ms. Garrett said.
Next year’s festival will be one weekend later in April compared to this year’s event. The change was made to accommodate other local events, including the potential State soccer tournament that Georgetown ISD could host the prior week.
The Two Step Inn this year also competed for ridesharing opportunities with other large events held simultaneously across the Austin metro. Ms. Garrett said the date change should make ridesharing more available to Georgetown festival goers.
C3 Presents plans to sell 35,000 tickets for each day of the 2024 festival, an increase of 5,000 tickets per day compared to those sold this year. Although all 30,000 daily tickets were sold ahead of the 2023 festival, Ms. Garrett said about 5,000 ticket holders did not check into the festival each day. Increasing the number of tickets sold will improve profit margins with a minimum increase in footprint for more festival space, according to the company.
C3 Presents will also reserve 20 percent of tickets for Georgetown residents when tickets are initially put on sale. These tickets would be marketed specifically in town, and purchases would have to be verified with a Georgetown residential address.
“This was a great event for Georgetown,” Council Member Shawn Hood said to C3 Presents representative. “Thank you for working on making sure more locals can participate.”
Ms. Garrett outlined lessons learned from the first festival as well as the benefits seen by the community.
“We didn't know what we didn’t know,” she said. “Hindsight is 20/20. We will take this all into consideration as we plan for future events.”
Transportation
Overall, Ms. Garrett said the “No Parking” signs stationed in neighborhoods worked well. The biggest increase in police activity, however, was related to parking violations. She said officers walked neighborhoods and responded to calls and complaints during the event.
“You would expect to have higher calls if you have 30,000 people in the community, so overall these numbers are not terrible,” she said.
North Old Town Neighborhood Association president Jen Bradac thanked officers for helping her neighbors during the festival.
However, Ms. Bradac said during the meeting that she felt that the traffic plan for North Old Town didn’t work well, leading to confusion for both local motorists and rideshare drivers.
The festival will look to improve pickup and drop off areas around the park next year, Ms. Garrett said.
The festival also needs more parking for those taking shuttles to and from the site, she said. This year, parking was available at Georgetown and East View High schools but was limited.
During the festival, cell service “was overloaded” in and near the park, Ms. Garrett said, causing communication problems for those at the event contacting their rides. City staff are already working with service providers like AT&T, to make sure service is more reliable next year, she said.
Impacts to businesses
Some businesses in town reported increased customer traffic, and sales tax generation increased overall for the city through the festival weekend, Ms. Garrett said. Last month, business owners on the Square told the Sun they noticed an overall increase in customers, particularly in the evening as the festival wound down.
The city also saw a significant increase in Hotel Occupancy Taxes generated over the Two Step Inn weekend.
“I don’t think there was a hotel room [left available to book] in Georgetown,” Ms. Garrett said about the weekend.
An economic impact study will be released by C3 Presents in the coming months, which will show the results of the festival in greater detail.
However, other businesses, specifically those close to San Gabriel Park, experienced slower sales.
Patricia Crampton, owner of Zydeco Ice on the corner of Church Street and Austin Avenue just north of the park, said her regular consumers didn’t come into the store, likely to avoid festival traffic in the area. The main entrance to her store was blocked by a street closure.
“It didn’t turn out as busy as usual,” she said, noting an 85 percent drop in business.
She said she thought the festival was a good idea, but that promotion of local businesses and clarifying traffic patterns would have helped.
Many businesses also told the city they weren’t aware of vendor opportunities in and around the festival and showed interest in participating in the future.
“I didn’t know about the vendor spots until it was too late, and I didn’t feel comfortable putting employees in that setting,” Ms. Crampton said.
Council Member Amanda Parr asked the city to be more strategic about bringing in local vendors to the festival next year.
Ms. Garrett said the city will expand their pre-event meetings to include more businesses and neighborhoods to get the word out so they can better anticipate impacts and vendor opportunities.
Park use and maintenance
San Gabriel Park has recovered well since the festival last month, and set up and clean up went as anticipated, Ms. Garrett said.
Friends of Georgetown Parks and Recreation received a $1.2 million check from the festival’s organizers May 16 for hosting, which will go to support the city’s parks and recreation efforts including capital improvements at facilities throughout the city, scholarship opportunities.
“We are so grateful to the folks with Two Step Inn for this donation to Friends of the Georgetown Parks and Recreation,” Mayor Josh Schroeder said in a statement. “This funding will go a long way toward improvements to parks and recreation offerings throughout our whole community.”
There were impacts to youth athletics such as soccer and baseball games. Even with the phased approach for park setup, Ms. Garrett said some field access was blocked, preventing sports from taking place.
“We didn’t know how impactful [setup] would be,” she said.
Council gives unanimous support
Prior to approving the agreement, council members shared feedback they had received since the festival.
Mr. Hood emphasized the importance of working with Georgetown businesses ahead of time next year, but gave the festival a good review.
“Almost every response was positive,” Mr. Hood said. “One of the nicest things we heard over and over was that it was over by 10 p.m.”
Ms. Parr said some residents were concerned about the nightly fireworks show associated with the festival and their proximity to the Georgetown Animal Shelter. She asked the city to consider if the fireworks were a necessary part of the festival.
Council Member Jake French said he was pleasantly surprised that the vast majority of feedback from District 6 was positive.
“I’ve been to probably 100 of these festivals,” Council Member Mike Triggs said. “This was one of the best ones I’ve ever attended. The city did a wonderful job.”
Georgetown resident Michael Price, who spoke against the initial festival proposal last summer, provided feedback Tuesday during public comment.
“Good job,” he said. “Most of y’all got an earful from me. I did not want it. I was wrong. I want to see it again next year.”