Austin weekend essentials — 8 places, chosen by us
Things to Do in Austin at the Weekend
This is not a calendar. It is 8 places that are running every weekend regardless of what is on: a music room from 1955, a dance hall from 1964, two Saturday markets, a spring-fed pool and a trail with waterfalls in it. For whether those waterfalls have water, we keep a live gauge reading on a different page.
8 Austin weekend regulars
Listed in no particular order — the numbers are positions, not rankings
How this list was chosen
By us, by hand, and it is evergreen: everything here runs every weekend rather than on a particular one. We do not operate an events feed, so this page will never tell you what is on tonight. Where we quote a price, it is a figure we hold rather than a live one, and the venue or the city is the authority.
Barton Springs Pool
$South Austin / Zilker · 2201 Barton Springs Rd, Austin, TX 78746
Three-acre spring-fed natural pool that holds roughly 68–70°F all year, and Austin's oldest swimming habit. Guarded swim hours run 8am–10pm, with swim-at-your-own-risk hours from 5am–8am.
Admission is set by the City of Austin, not by us: the figures we hold are $9 adults, $5 seniors, $5 juniors and $4 children, with free entry in winter. This is not a live feed — confirm with Austin Parks and Recreation before you go.
Barton Creek Greenbelt — Twin Falls & Sculpture Falls
FreeSouth Austin · Off Loop 1 (Mopac) — Barton Creek Greenbelt Trailhead
3.2-mile out-and-back trail with two swimming waterfalls along it. Twin Falls is about half a mile in and has the cliff jumping; Sculpture Falls is about a mile and a half in and is the clearer water. Dog-friendly and tree-shaded the whole way.
Whether either has water in it depends on the creek — check today’s gauge reading →Continental Club
$$South Congress (SoCo) · 1315 S Congress Ave, Austin, TX 78704
Live music venue operating since 1955, neon-lit and small. Robert Plant, Wanda Jackson and Gary Clark Jr. have all played it. There is something on most nights of the week.
Broken Spoke
$$South Lamar · 3201 S Lamar Blvd, Austin, TX 78704
Texas dance hall operating since 1964 and self-described as 'the last of the true Texas dance halls'. George Strait and Willie Nelson have played here. Two-stepping is the point, and there are lessons if you cannot.
Banger's Sausage House & Beer Garden
$$Rainey Street · 79 Rainey St, Austin, TX 78701
Live local music every weekend, a very long sausage menu, a very long beer list, and an outdoor beer garden with cornhole. Part of Rainey Street's strip of converted Victorian houses.
SoCo Makers Market
$South Congress (SoCo) · 1511 S Congress Ave, Austin, TX 78704
Year-round open-air artisan market at The Church on Congress — jewellery, ceramics, art, live music and food vendors. Saturday 10am–7pm, Sunday 1pm–6pm.
SoCo Farmers Market / Art Market
$South Congress (SoCo) · 1511 South Congress Avenue, Austin, TX 78704
Saturday 11am–6pm farmers and makers market: local produce, homemade tamales, baked goods, farm eggs, free kids yoga and live music.
The Lawn on South Congress
$South Congress (SoCo) · South Congress Avenue, Austin, TX
Food truck gathering and open-air market — rotating trucks doing crepes, barbecue and pizza, plus jewellery and clothing vendors and somewhere to sit outside.
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Austin weekends, answered
Is this a list of what is on this specific weekend?
No, and it is worth being straight about that. This is a list of places that are there every weekend — a 1955 music venue, a 1964 dance hall, two Saturday markets, a spring-fed pool and a trail with waterfalls on it. We do not run an events calendar, so nothing here is dated, and nothing here will be sold out because a festival ended last Sunday.
Which of these cost nothing?
The Barton Creek Greenbelt: no entry fee, no reservation, free parking at several trailheads. Barton Springs Pool is free in winter and outside guarded hours and charges admission the rest of the time — the City of Austin sets that, not us. The markets are free to walk around and expensive to walk around slowly.
How do I know if the Greenbelt will have water in it?
Check the creek before you drive. Twin Falls and Sculpture Falls only hold water when Barton Creek is running, and the same trail can be a swimming hole or a dry limestone bed depending on recent rain. We publish the live USGS gauge readings for Barton Creek at /flows — that page answers the question, this one does not.
Where should I spend a Saturday if I only pick one street?
South Congress: 4 of the 8 places on this list are on it — the Continental Club, both Saturday markets and The Lawn — so you can park once and do a market, lunch from a truck and a band without moving the car. Rainey Street and South Lamar are the other two clusters, with one entry each.
What is Austin actually known for at weekends?
Live music, breakfast tacos, and swimming in cold spring water in the middle of a city. The three are more connected than they look: the Greenbelt and Barton Springs are how Austin survives its own summer, and the music venues on this list have been running since 1955 and 1964 respectively, which is longer than most of the city has existed in its current form.
Where to go next
Free things to do
The same city filtered by cost rather than by occasion, with the admission status stated on every entry — including the ones that only look free.
Overlooked places
Filtered by obscurity: the quiet park, the 1909 grocery store, the back garden full of welded salvage. Nothing on it is a weekend institution.
Is the creek flowing?
The one page on this site that answers a question about right now: live USGS gauge readings for Barton Creek, before you walk out to Sculpture Falls.
Things to do
The hub for all of these guides, and the map of which page answers which question.
Austin weekends: the evergreen version
Most “this weekend in Austin” pages are a list of festivals that ended two Sundays ago. This one is deliberately the other thing: the places that are running whichever weekend you happen to read it. The Continental Club has been putting bands on South Congress since 1955 and has hosted Robert Plant, Wanda Jackson and Gary Clark Jr. The Broken Spoke has been a dance hall on South Lamar since 1964, calls itself the last of the true Texas dance halls, and has had George Strait and Willie Nelson on its stage. Neither needs a calendar entry to be worth a Saturday.
South Congress carries 4 of the 8 entries here, which makes it the efficient answer if you only want to park once: the Saturday farmers and art market at 1511 South Congress from 11am, the Makers Market at The Church on Congress running Saturday and Sunday, The Lawn's rotating food trucks, and the Continental Club in the evening.
Water is the variable
Barton Springs Pool holds roughly 68–70°F all year, which is the single most useful fact about surviving an Austin August. Admission is set by the City of Austin, is free in winter and outside guarded hours, and is charged the rest of the time — check with Parks and Recreation rather than with us.
The Greenbelt is free and less predictable. Twin Falls is about half a mile in from the Mopac trailhead and is where the cliff jumping happens; Sculpture Falls is about a mile further and has the clearer water. Both are fed by Barton Creek, so both can be a swimming hole or a dry limestone bed depending on recent rain. That is the one thing on this page that genuinely changes week to week, and it is the one thing we measure: the live USGS gauge readings are at flows. Check them before you drive, not after.