What a year it’s been at Waterloo Park! Thank you to everyone in the community who came out for an event this year, from yoga and dance classes to children’s outdoor learning programs to concerts and festivals. While we are already in gear preparing wonderful programming and park activities for 2025, we also want to take a moment to reflect on the past year and the many activations we enjoyed together at Waterloo Park in 2024.
Park Activities & Programs
Waterloo Greenway is committed to helping people of all ages connect with nature and reap the well-documented benefits to physical and mental health, social well-being, and cognitive development. Park visitors have enjoyed a variety of interactive workshops, immersive experiences, wildlife sightings, and outdoor nature play activities throughout the seasons.
Some of the brightest days at Waterloo Park are the days we host children’s programs, such as Morning Glories and Wild Waterloo! There’s always music, singing, dancing, and lots of jumping, as well as reading, exploring, and learning about native Texas flora and fauna. Our community partners at these events provide outstanding learning opportunities for our little park visitors. 2024 partners include Families in Nature, Texas Book Festival, Asian American Resource Center, Monarch Sanctuary Project, and Armstrong Community Music School, among many others.
This summer, Waterloo Greenway hosted a “BioBlitz,” where citizen scientists of all ages learned to identify plants and wildlife within Waterloo Park, using the park as a natural laboratory for studying diverse ecologies within our urban ecosystem. This is just one way Waterloo Greenway helps to build more awareness around Austin as a sustainable city and the park as a place to find beauty, wonder, and relaxation for urban dwellers.
Fitness, dance, and yoga classes energized and inspired park visitors throughout the year, in partnership with Castle Hill Fitness, Aging is Cool, Esquina Tango, and many others. These classes provide a unique opportunity to be active, out in nature, and with like-minded community members, while building physical capabilities like cardio, flexibility, and strength, and cultivating self-care and relaxation through yoga, meditation, forest bathing, and sound healing.
Waterloo Greenway was honored to serve as the venue for The Universe in Verse celebration of the total solar eclipse in April, supported by the Simons Foundation as part of its “In the Path of Totality” initiative. Created and hosted by writer Maria Popova, the gathering was a celebration of science, wonder, poetry, and music. Audience members at this free event were treated to poems and commentary from beloved cultural icons including musicians and writers, artists and astronauts, physicists and poets. David Byrne, Krista Tippett, Jad Abumrad, Rebecca Solnit, and Roxanne Gay were just a few of the well-known names from the incredible line-up.
Concerts & Festivals
On April 7, 2024, Moody Amphitheater and Waterloo Park hosted a ticketed afternoon concert DURING the total solar eclipse! Vampire Weekend packed the park to celebrate this awe-inspiring moment. Despite spotty cloud coverage, the band and thousands of their biggest fans were treated to a few moments when the clouds broke, and they witnessed the once-in-a-lifetime moment when the moon completely covered the sun!
In addition to the total solar eclipse moment at Waterloo Park in 2024, there were countless other awesome experiences at concerts ranging from youth pop to 80s icons to punk and rap music. There was something for everyone! For those who love the blues, the Austin Blues Festival returned to Waterloo Park for its second year. This two-day event featured Buddy Guy, Brittany Howard, Jimmie Vaughan, Blind Boys of Alabama with Bobby Rush, Dumpstaphunk, Pinettes Brass Band, James Hunter, and Sue Foley, among others.
Another highlight from this year – Moody Amphitheater at Waterloo Park was honored to be among the finalists and then go on to win the Austin Young Chamber’s FAVE Awards in the Arts, Brand, & Culture category!
Also taking place in April: Our Texas, Our Future Festival enlivened the park just before Earth Day. This free community event was presented by HEB and featured a celebration of Texas’ beautiful parks and resilient wildlife, as well as the Texans helping protect them for future generations. The festival offered interactive exhibits, wildlife demonstrations, sustainability workshops, guided garden tours, and a variety of hands-on art and STEM workshops. Additionally, HEB presented a film screening of Our Texas, Our Future, a docuseries bringing attention to important work to protect delicate wildlife habitats and threatened animal species, and to showcase the wonders of the Texas outdoors.
Later in the year, Waterloo Greenway was thrilled to bring back our signature events, Glow in the Park, Día de los Muertos, and Creek Show!
We can’t wait to see you in Waterloo Park for more wonderful experiences in 2025!
Check out our 2024 Recap Part 2: Art, Nature, & Phase II at this link.