APF celebrates more than two decades of park investment with Austin City Limits Music Festival as festival ticket sales continue to fund park improvements citywide
Austin Parks Foundation (APF) will present Austin City Limits Music Festival’s (ACL Fest) signature greening programs for both weekends of the festival, Oct. 2-4 and 9-11. Each weekend, approximately 750 APF volunteers will run Rock & Recycle, Divert It!, and the Electrolit Hydration Station water refill stations, helping fans reduce, reuse and recycle across the grounds. A portion of every festival ticket also supports Austin’s nearly 400 parks, trails and green spaces.
Through Rock & Recycle, attendees who fill a bag of recyclables from the festival grounds can trade it in for a limited-edition ACL Fest lineup T-shirt. Divert It! volunteers, meanwhile, educate fans about composting, recycling and reducing waste sent to landfills. Electrolit Hydration Stations encourage ACL Fest guests to bring a reusable water bottle to reduce waste.
“Sustainability is built into every corner of ACL Fest, and Austin Parks Foundation is proud to help lead that work,” said Colin Wallis, CEO of Austin Parks Foundation. “As Austin grows, investing in our green spaces matters more than ever, and our community understands that. You see it in the volunteers who give their time and the fans who pitch in, helping collect roughly 4,000 bags of recyclables through Rock & Recycle each year. Every ticket means more volunteers, more programming and more improvements to parks across the city, and the impact of this partnership reaches far beyond a single park, bringing community-driven projects to neighborhoods in every district.”
Fans can see that impact for themselves on the APF Impact Map, an interactive tool showcasing notable projects APF has completed since 2011. Users can filter projects by City Council district, zip code, funding type or keyword to find improvements in their own neighborhood. These projects are possible thanks to the APF and ACL Fest partnership, which began over 20 years ago and generated $8.5 million for Austin’s parks in 2025 and more than $79 million over the partnership’s history.
Beyond the greening programs, APF volunteers will support in a variety of areas across the festival this year. Festivalgoers are invited to visit the APF booth to learn more about supporting Austin’s parks and green spaces. For more information on APF’s programs at ACL Fest 2026, visit austinparks.org/acl-music-
