Austin is best known as the Live Music Capital of the World, but it is just as defined by a few other things: a tech boom that earned it the nickname Silicon Hills, a food identity built on barbecue and breakfast tacos, the University of Texas and the pink-granite state Capitol, an outdoor life centered on spring-fed swimming holes, the bats under the Congress Avenue Bridge, and a stubborn, self-aware weirdness captured by the slogan Keep Austin Weird. Here is what each of those actually means.
The Live Music Capital of the World
This is the one Austin made official: the city trademarked the phrase in 1991 after a count found more live music venues per capita than anywhere else. There are still more than two hundred venues, a long tradition from the Continental Club to the clubs on Red River, and the long-running Austin City Limits television show, the longest-running music program in American TV history. Music is the thing the city organizes its identity around.
Silicon Hills, the tech boom
Austin is one of the most important tech hubs in the country, nicknamed Silicon Hills. The University of Texas drew early giants like IBM and Motorola, Dell was founded here, and the last decade brought a wave of relocations and expansions, including Tesla, Oracle, Apple, and Google. That boom is the engine behind the city’s explosive growth, its rising cost of living, and a lot of the new construction.
Barbecue and breakfast tacos
Austin is a serious food city, and two things anchor it: Central Texas barbecue and the breakfast taco. The barbecue runs from the hours-long line at Franklin to a cluster of Michelin-starred pits, and the breakfast taco is a genuine daily institution, not a novelty. Add a deep Tex-Mex and taco-truck culture, and you have a city that eats very well for the money.
The outdoors and the springs
For all the music and tech, Austin’s daily life is lived outside. Barton Springs, a three-acre, spring-fed pool that holds around 68 degrees year-round, is the heart of it, joined by the Barton Creek Greenbelt, the trail around Lady Bird Lake, and the Hill Country at the city’s western edge. The mild climate and the swimming holes make a year-round outdoor culture that surprises newcomers.
The Congress Avenue bats
Austin is home to the largest urban bat colony in North America: around 1.5 million Mexican free-tailed bats that roost under the Congress Avenue Bridge and stream out at dusk on warm evenings from spring through fall. The nightly emergence draws crowds to the bridge and the lawn below, and the bats have become an unofficial city mascot.
SXSW and ACL
Two festivals put Austin on the global calendar. South by Southwest (SXSW) takes over the whole city each March with music, film, and technology, and the Austin City Limits Music Festival (ACL) fills Zilker Park across two October weekends. Between them they bring hundreds of thousands of visitors a year and a lot of the city’s outside reputation.
The University of Texas and the Capitol
Austin is a college town and the seat of Texas government at the same time. The University of Texas at Austin, with more than fifty thousand students and its burnt-orange Longhorns, shapes the culture, the research economy, and the football Saturdays. A few blocks away, the pink-granite State Capitol, built taller than the US Capitol on purpose, anchors downtown and the state’s politics.
Keep Austin Weird
The unofficial city motto started as a call to support local, independent business, and it has come to stand for Austin’s self-image: creative, offbeat, and a little proudly strange. As the city has grown and gotten more expensive, the slogan has also become shorthand for an ongoing tension between old Austin and new Austin, which is a very Austin thing to argue about.
And a few more things
Austin is also known for Formula 1, which races the United States Grand Prix at Circle of the Americas each fall; for being the birthplace of Whole Foods; for a strong coffee scene (recently named the number-one coffee city in America); and, increasingly, for being one of the fastest-growing big cities in the country, with all the traffic and change that brings.
- What is Austin, Texas most known for?
- Live music. Austin trademarked the slogan Live Music Capital of the World in 1991 and still has more than two hundred venues. It is also known for its tech industry (Silicon Hills), Central Texas barbecue and breakfast tacos, the SXSW and ACL festivals, the Congress Avenue bats, Barton Springs, and the Keep Austin Weird ethos.
- Why is Austin called Silicon Hills?
- Silicon Hills is the nickname for Austin’s tech sector, a play on Silicon Valley set in the Hill Country. The University of Texas drew early players like IBM and Motorola, Dell was founded in Austin, and recent years added Tesla, Oracle, Apple, and Google, making the city one of the country’s major tech hubs.
- What food is Austin known for?
- Central Texas barbecue (from the famous line at Franklin to several Michelin-starred pits) and the breakfast taco, which is a daily staple rather than a novelty. Austin also has a deep Tex-Mex and taco-truck culture and, more recently, was named the number-one coffee city in America.
- What is the Keep Austin Weird slogan about?
- It began as a campaign to support local, independent businesses and grew into the city’s self-image: creative, offbeat, and proudly a little strange. As Austin has grown and gotten pricier, the phrase has also come to represent the tension between old Austin and the fast-changing new one.
- Is Austin a good place to live?
- Many people think so, which is why it has been one of the fastest-growing big cities in the country: strong job market (especially tech), live music and food, a year-round outdoor culture, and no state income tax. The trade-offs are rising housing costs, high property taxes, summer heat, and traffic. See our neighborhoods guide for where each type of person tends to land.
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