Over the rainbow

Celebrate Austin Pride with fabulous brunches, after-parties, and happy hours all weekend long

This year's Austin Pride schedule is more packed than ever.

Photo by James Cano

Take those vitamins and get lots of rest —Austin Pride is back requires all the energy possible to survive the rainbow blur. With brunches and parties galore, it’s going to be nonstop until Sunday. Don’t miss a minute of it with our essential guide to the weekend’s best events.

Wednesday, August 8

Community Night Spotlight: LGBTQ Family Pride at The Thinkery
Celebrate all families at this affordable event with a suggested $1 donation. From 4-8 pm, take part in cooking classes (rainbow fruit kabobs!), a colorful chemistry show, story time with Jakarta Rimes and Sha’Nyia Narcisse, a mini Pride parade, and samples from Lick Honest Ice Cream.

Portraits of Pride at Space24 Twenty
Pay homage to queer icon Marsha P. Johnson from 7-9 pm at this happy hour hosted by Unbounded Agency and #bossbabesATX. Throughout the event, portraits will be taken, developed, and hung by clothespins as a dynamic installation exploring LGBTQ+ visibility. The free event also includes beats from Mosaico Experiencia and complimentary light cocktails.

Thursday, August 9

A Pride Celebration at Spider House Cafe & Ballroom
Looking for a chill evening before the weekend’s party starts? Head to Spider House between 6-9 pm for free tunes from Bird and Sam Howden Research Group on the patio. Trumer Pils will be offering beer samples and a portion of bar sales will go to Equality Texas.

Official Austin Pride Comedy Show at The North Door
America’s Funniest Comics alum Keisha Hunt and local favorite Carina Magyar headline this inclusive event with show times at 7:30 pm and 10 pm. Hurry up to score a seat, tickets are selling fast.

Friday, August 10

Drip Drop 2 at Scratchouse
Don you best Empire realness for this blowout from Austin Black Pride. Starting at 9:30 pm, enjoy hip-hop, house, bounce, and trap DJs; dancers; signature drinks; and the city’s premier twerking contest. Scoop up tickets before August 10 to enjoy the discounted pre-sale price.

Glow at Sellers Underground and Rain on 4th
Fourth Street transforms into a neon jungle for the official Pride men’s party from 10 pm-2 am. Be warned, however, there will be plenty of glow paint involved, so save your Sunday best for an after-Pride brunch.

Planned Parenthood After Dark at Cheer Up Charlies
Bring the whole crew to this special edition of the fundraising series benefiting Planned Parenthood Texas Votes. The all-night dance party features Beatrix Lestarnge as emcee, GirlFriend ATX spinning, and performances from Drag Out HIV — a Rio Grande Valley troop dedicated to raising awareness about HIV. Advanced tickets come with two drink tickets and a chance to win a raffle for cool prizes.

Year of the Womxn at Fourth Street and Congress Avenue
From 8 pm-1 am, Lesbutante and the Boss are taking over the parking lot next to Speakeasy for their largest womxn’s party yet. The diverse cast or performers includes host Angel “SupaStud” Hamilton, DJ collective Chulita Vinyl Club, DJ Citizen Jane, DJ GiiQ, and plenty of professional dancers. The VIP ticket gets access to a swanky lounge and a killer swag bag.

Saturday, August 11

20GayTeen at The Vaughn
LGBTQ+ youth empowerment organization The Q Austin hosts this rooftop party from 10 pm-2 am with music from DJ Konsept. The free event is 18-plus, but guests over 21 can enjoy drinks from Tito’s, Austin Eastciders, and Montucky Cold Snacks. RSVP here.

Austin Pride Festival
Yes, Fiesta Gardens gets hot — but there will be plenty of shade coming from the stage. This year’s stellar lineup includes sets from RuPaul’s Drag Race queens Stacy Layne Matthews and Jiggly Caliente, Dragula stars Vander Von Odd and Loris, rapper CupcakKe, celebutante Amanda Lepore, and ’80s hitmaker Jody Watley. Inflatable games, carnival rides, food and drink vendors, and drag queen story time round out the all-ages fun. The festivities run from 11 am-6 pm.

Austin Pride Parade
Kicking off at 8 pm at the Texas State Capitol, the parade is one of the largest celebrations of the LGBTQ+ community in Texas. Cheer the floats along from anywhere on the route or grab a spot near the emcee stages at The Paramount, Rain on 4th, or the intersection of Congress Avenue and Fourth Street. To watch in style, purchase a VIP seat near the grand stand.

Equality Disco at The Line Austin
Boogie on down to Austin’s newest luxury hotel from 7 pm-midnight for this after-party featuring a mix from troublemaker Times and a special live set from Austin songwriter Julie Nolen. VIP ticketholders get a complimentary drink, a light buffet, and free all-day valet parking.

Unofficial Pride After Party at Irene’s
Get hydrated after the parade at this shindig co-hosted by Richard’s Rainwater. Entertainers from the eatery’s regular drag brunch series will perform as attendees toast the evening with rainbow jello shots. The event starts after the parade at 9 pm and runs until 2 am.

Sunday, August 12

Don’t Be a Drag, Just Be a Queen Brunch at Hotel Van Zandt
Cap off the weekend with a fabulous brunch hosted by Drag Race fave Ginger Minj from noon-3 pm. Recover from the previous night with a menu including pancake skewers, mini pork belly BLTs, popsicle mimosas, and a Bloody Mary bar with all the fixings. Jen Dm from electropop duo Hi Fashion will keep everyone in high spirits with a special DJ set. Proceeds benefit suicide prevention nonprofit The Trevor Project.

Soundwave Pride at W Austin
Bumble and the Human Rights Campaign are teaming up for a splashy post-Pride edition of the weekly Soundwave party. Bop to beats by DJ C-Rail and Bird Peterson on the hotel's wet deck from noon-8 pm. Show your Bumble app for swag and a complimentary drink.

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Belles of the Ballroom

9 Austin bar and venue experts take over popular Old Austin space near UT

29th Street Ballroom/Facebook

Changes are coming at the 29th Street Ballroom, but the goal is to preserve what already makes it special.

The evolution continues at the 29th Street Ballroom, the music venue formerly attached to Spider House Café. It's no secret, Resound Presents CEO and co-founder Graham Williams says, that he and a large team of other industry pros are taking over the space; but now they're ready to talk about what comes next for the venue and adjoining bar.

Although Spider House Café closed in 2020, the Ballroom stayed open, and has continued serving University of Texas students and anyone else who wants to see a show outside of the ordinary: punk shows, burlesque revues, fundraisers, and more. It'll stay open through most of the renovations, scheduled through January of 2025, and is expected to hold a grand opening in March.

Now Resound — one of Austin's top live music organizers, which was itself born from the ashes of another Austin institution — is lending two of its co-founders to managing the space going forward: Williams and Ian Orth. They're joining seven other team members from venues around town, many of them overlapping: Amy Mullins, Brian Tweedy, Jason McNeely, John Yaklin, and Shannon LeBoeuf of Hotel Vegas, Chess Club, Kinda Tropical, Tweedy’s, and Yellow Jacket Social Club, in varying capacities; and Brian Buscemi and Mike Sanchez of the Little Darlin’.

Williams emphasizes that although things will be changing at the Ballroom, the goal isn't to change anything people already love.

"Over the next few months as we kind of ease into the spring, we're using this downtime to revitalize things, decorate, revamp some of the stuff in the venue and the bar, and just kind of get things moving in the right direction," Williams says, "taking what's already popular about the venue and just adding to it, really."

Bar updates
The biggest shift will be turning the bar from an accessory to live shows into its own entity that's open even when there's nothing else going on. Amy Mullins, best known as a co-owner of Yellow Jacket Social Club, is overseeing that transition. She's never operated a venue that is primarily focused on music, and has been enjoying learning more about how to do it; she even worked the door recently when a staff member called out sick.

Mullins echoes Williams in assuring that the change is more about logistics than tone. It'll still feel like Old Austin, but she does express a hope to run more than the "typical venue bar," handing out simple drinks as quickly as possible. She's working on a new menu that includes wine, beer, craft cocktails, and non-alcoholic options like tea, kombucha, or mocktails. Regardless of what's on the schedule on any given night, Mullins says the menu will stay the same.

"There's no drink too complicated for us to make, however busy we are," she says.

Food options
Another goal for the team will be making sure the space works when there's not someone onstage to crowd around. They'll expand the front and side patios and create a food truck food court that features the same trucks that are there now, plus one newcomer. All in all, that includes Yalla Burger & Wings, Gyro Center, Li’l Nonna’s Vegan Pizzeria, Guppy’s Indian Fried Chicken, Waylon J’s BBQ, and Ay Chihuahua Tacos.

The expanded patio will connect to Tweedy's Bar next door, which also has its own food trucks. The idea is to create a space to hang out after shows that feels fit for the purpose. It's possible to stick around after events now, but the layout does create a vague feeling of loitering.

Artist and fan-friendly tweaks
On the entertainment side, Williams says some of the renovations include putting in a new sound system, redoing the green room, updating the facade, and repainting signs. Since the winter is a slower time for live music, they'll be taking advantage of the extra time to work on things before packing the calendar with more events than before. Resound will handle most of the bookings in live music, comedy, and DJ sets, welcoming both national and local talent.

Whatever the details end up being, this team has proved to Austinites that they know how to run venues worth visiting. And since they're all friends and business partners on multiple levels, it sounds like having this many cooks in the kitchen just isn't an issue.

"Some of us have been roommates and known each other since we were young," says Williams. "It's a good mix of people who are all very like minded, so a lot is being brought to the table per decision. So yeah, it's it's really exciting. Sometimes that's not the case. .... But with this project, it's a lot of really great, creative people that are good at what they do [and] they trust each other."

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