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ACL has big impact on businesses in Austin
The city of Austin says about 450,000 people go to the Austin City Limits music festival every year. Those thousands of festival goers have big impacts on businesses near Zilker Park.
AUSTIN, Texas - For festival goers, the Austin City Limits Festival is all about the music, but for the local businesses, the weekend is about tuning in to more sales.
"Incredibly busy," said Devon Lampman, with Barton Springs Bike Rental. "Friday is always the busiest day. That's when most people are coming to pick up their bikes for the weekend, and also we've had every tour booked today."
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First responders prepared for ACL Festival
First responders have been preparing all week to keep festival goers at this year's Austin City Limits Music Festival safe.
Barton Springs Bike Rental has had its shop near the festival for 15 years.
"I feel like it's grown every year," said Lampan. "We've kept getting more bikes every year to keep up with it, and so I feel like it's definitely grown, and we've tried to keep up and grow with it."
Across the street, Baby A's is serving up Tex-Mex as quickly as it can.
"It's been great because we're expecting a lot of people," said Gigi Perez, with Baby A’s. "It's been like a slow season but now with this ACL, you can see a lot of people walking around, and the sales are getting better."
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Perez said business has been slow for the last two months.
ACL is the time to make up for it.
"It was really hard," said Perez. "Maybe because it was too hot, or I don't know if it was the heat or something like that, but, yeah, it was too hard for all the restaurants on Barton springs, but now it's exciting."
With almost half a million people expected in Austin over the next two weekends, the influx is good news for these business owners.
"To the people of Austin, please come," said Perez. "You are more than welcome."
An influx of people will also mean lots of traffic.
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Austin traffic: ACL Festival impacts
ACL Weekend One kicks off today, meaning we need to talk about traffic impacts around town.
There are multiple road closures happening for the festival.
Parts of Barton Springs Road and Stratford Drive around Zilker Park are shut down.
Lanes are also narrowed for Pedicabs and scooters.
For a full list of closures, click here.