Waller Creek Magic

Watch Waller Creek light show magically transform downtown Austin

Waller Creek Show 2016 The Creek Zipper by Kory Bieg

Photo by Daniel Cavazos

The third annual Waller Creek Creek Show is currently underway in downtown Austin. The free light show, which launched November 10 and runs through November 19, features five mesmerizing installations from local architects, landscape architects, and artists. The idea? To transform the creek between Fifth and Eighth streets, celebrating its natural beauty and looking to its future.

Peruse our gallery of the magical transformation, and catch the show, open nightly from 6-10 pm.

Photo by Daniel Cavazos

The third annual Waller Creek Creek Show [https://www.creekshow.com/?preview=1] is currently underway in downtown Austin. The free light show [https://austin.culturemap.com/news/arts/10-20-16-waller-creek-creek-show-2016-sneak-peek/], which launched November 10 and runs through November 19, features five mesmerizing installations from local architects, landscape architects, and artists. The idea? To transform the creek between Fifth and Eighth streets, celebrating its natural beauty and looking to its future. Peruse our gallery of the magical transformation, and then catch the show, open nightly from 6-10 pm. --- The Creek Zipper, OTA+ Zipper-like strands extend the length of the creek between Sixth and Seventh streets.

downtown inspiration

Get Mesmerized

Buzzy art collective Mesmerize opens new immersive space in Austin

A woman walks up the exhibit's rainbow stairway to the clouds.

Photo courtesy of Mesmerize.

Living Dream features over 14 interactive, psychedelic art installations, like this dreamlike stairway to the clouds.

On November 13, a new immersive art experience in South Austin officially opened its trippy, dream-like doors. It's by Mesmerize, the team that operated a similar and hugely popular exhibit from 2020-2021 at the now-closed Native Hostel on 5th Street.

Living Dream is a series of mazes and more than 14 installations created by local artists. Guests can move through, interact with, and of course, take psychedelic photos with the space. It's sort of like Meow Wolf, but smaller and with a different storyline and theme.

In Living Dream, the story is that this regular, rather plain-looking warehouse facility in South Austin has been fractured by a strange force of nature: the eight-foot-tall Colossal Crystal. Now lines between ordinary Austin life and fantasy are blurred, and Austinites are welcome to explore it.

See on Instagram

Aside from this crystal centerpiece, other art installations include a dreamy, rainbow mural that you can step inside by artist Inne Aguilar; a projection-mapped room featuring Bill Tavis's signature psychedelic painting style; a tufted hidden crawlspace by Hannah Buserkus; the nightmarish but whimsical "Mulligrub Meadow" by artist Liza Fishbone; and a rainbow stairway to the clouds.

Of course it wouldn't feel right to walk through such a dreamy space in utter silence, so the creators brought in musicians like Alex Scott, A.M. Architect, Austin Ray, Andrea Magee, and many more to create an original score for the experience.

Mesmerize Living Dream Mesmerize shared this photo thanking Inne Aguilar for her work.Mesmerize/Instagram

This multi-sensory and family-friendly adventure may be one of Mesmerize's most in-depth. It operated its Native Hostel exhibit, This Is Mesmerize, for nine months, and racked up countless Instagram posts. The exhibit closed in 2021, about two years before Native Hostel closed. Mesmerize has also collaborated with various artists and and collectives over the years to throw some of the trippiest art parties in town.

Living Dream by Mesmerize is located at 820 Shelby Ln., and is open Wednesdays through Fridays from 3 pm to 11 pm, and Saturdays and Sundays from 11 am to 11 pm.

interactive exhibits immersive