On the heels of January's announcement of the Austin Food & Wine Festival that will be held in April, another inaugural festival will be held in downtown Austin over the same weekend—The Moontower Comedy and Oddity Festival.
The initial list of Moontower's confirmed comedians that was released Jan. 25 includes "Saturday Night Live" actor Seth Meyers, Steven Wright, Aziz Ansari, Matt Bearden and more. The festival will serve as a four-day event at multiple venues throughout downtown Austin that will host more than 60 comedians in all.
"We are so thrilled to be able to bring a world-class comedy festival to Austin, a city that has a premium on funny and odd," said Jim Ritts, executive director of The Paramount Theatre, the sponsoring organization.
Moontower will also include a film festival that will showcase short films from emerging directors as well as classic retrospectives.
While the Moontower festival is scheduled to run from April 25-28, the food and wine festival will run from April 27-29 and is a collaboration among C3 Presents' Charlie Jones, "Iron Chef" champion Tim Love and Uchi's Tyson Cole. A round of celebrity chefs will highlight the food and wine festival, including Marcus Samuelsson, Andrew Zimmern and Gail Simmons. Other local chefs, such as David Bull, Paul Qui and Bryce Gilmore, will also appear on the list of event hosts. The schedule will feature cooking demonstrations as well as food and wine tastings.
Although the two festivals will overlap for two days, Ritts said he feels they will complement each other and offer downtown Austin visitors an eclectic change of pace.
"What I think probably both of us would say is that it's such a great week on the calendar for Austin weather-wise, and events-wise I think it actually works out beautifully because [the Austin Food & Wine Festival] is predominantly at Auditorium Shores, while we're predominantly over by Sixth Street, down to Seventh Street and over by the Mohawk," Ritts said. "I think we'll trade audiences a bit, in a positive way."
Tickets
A limited number of Moontower badges will go on sale Feb. 1 at an introductory price of $99. Ritts said he believed the sale will most likely last for no longer than 48 hours. VIP badges will also go on sale on that date for $799 and will include preferred venue seating, drink tickets, preshow happy hours, VIP concierge service and access to special artist areas. Moontower festival badges can be purchased online.
Two types of Austin Food & Wine Festival tickets went on sale in late January: VIP passes for $850 that include reserved access to more than 40 cooking demonstrations and wine seminars, preferred seating at all events and private grand tastings; and Weekender passes for $250 that include admission to more than 35 demonstrations and seminars, grand tastings and access to the Weekender Lounge. Those tickets can also be purchased online.
