In an update to the Georgetown City Council on March 14, Garrett said the response to this year’s event has been “overwhelming,” as tickets are sold out. C3 Presents, one of the largest concert promoters in the country, also indicated it wants to extend next year’s Two Step Inn Festival to three days.
“This festival does bring a benefit to our community,” Garrett said. “Two Step Inn is presented by the Friends of Georgetown Parks and Recreation, which is a 501(c)3 nonprofit. As a result, proceeds from the festival, which are estimated to be up to $500,000, will be donated to the Friends to support the parks and recreation department in the form of capital improvements, scholarships and programs.”
The donation back to the parks department does not include costs to repair San Gabriel Park after the event. Per the agreement, C3 must remediate the park back to its same condition or better.
City Manager David Morgan said the city will be looking at financial indicators, such as sales tax data, to help determine the economic impact the festival will have on the city. C3 will also be analyzing the festival and providing the city with data regarding the financial affect.
“And then obviously there’s just logistical factors of how well the festival was handled,” he said. “There will—guarantee—be lessons learned after this event, even if everything goes perfectly. So I think that will be an important evaluation criteria.”
The two-day country music festival includes three stages, with 30,000 ticket holders per day, bringing in musicians, including Zach Bryan, Tyler Childers and more. City staff and C3 representatives have been working since January to plan for the upcoming event. The city will have an interactive map on its website to show residents which sections of the park will be closed, including streets, the recreation center, picnic pavilions and trails.
The parking lot next to the Georgetown Recreation Center—on the corner of Austin Avenue and Chamber Way—will be used as a shuttle drop-off location and for ridesharing drivers. “No parking” signs will be placed throughout the surrounding area to keep festivalgoers from parking on neighborhood streets.
"As much as possible, the policy will go through those neighborhoods,” Garrett said. “We’re going to set up a hotline for residents in that area, and we will staff that at the command center with park staff so we can respond to those individual complaints [and] problems directly.”
Before a special event permit can be granted for the Two Step Inn, a final site plan, traffic control plan, waste management plan and updated insurance certificate must be finalized.
