Nobody knows what will happen downtown this weekend.
Nobody. And if anyone tells you they can predict the impact of the United States Grand Prix on Austin’s premier entertainment district, they are lying.
Even warnings of apocalyptic congestion are not entirely reliable.
In just the past few weeks, the street festival component has shrunken to an area around the Warehouse and Second Street districts.
Smaller, more exclusive parties should pop up at the W Austin, Four Seasons Hotel, Parkside, Lounge 88 and Ballet Austin studios, among other locales.
Yet just how will Formula One and its global audience blend with Austin’s unique mix of nightlife, music, food, film, arts and other points of social and cultural contact for the fun, fit, smart, kind and open folks who live here year round?
Again, nobody knows.
Not one soul could have guessed the way that South by Southwest helped transform a half-abandoned downtown — as well as social spokes to the south and east — during the 1980s and ’90s.
In 1987, SXSW’s footprint was small, confined mostly to a few clubs near East Sixth Street. Yet its impact was felt around the city.
Luxury hotels and restaurants filled with industry types on expense accounts. Couches and sleeping porches in old Austin neighborhoods sufficed for many of the hand-to-mouth musicians.
Downtown really woke up, if only for a weekend.
Before SXSW, few regular events filled downtown for any length of time: Rodeo Austin before it moved to the Travis County Expo Center, Aqua Fest before it sank to the bottom of Lady Bird Lake.
Sixth Street, at least, lit up for Longhorn home football games, state high school tournaments and rambunctious holidays.
Then SXSW redefined downtown.
As film, interactive and other themes were added during the next decades, hotels and eateries sprang up, retail returned and those visitors taking a break from the festival wandered down South Congress Avenue, helping to spawn hundreds of businesses and an indisputable Austin tourist attraction.
Thus, downtown and surrounding zones were primed for the later ACL Music Festival, Republic of Texas Rally and countless smaller centralized festivals, some of them, like the rally, shared with other nearby locations.
Nowadays, downtown can be subdivided into at least six walkable entertainment areas: East Sixth, West Sixth, Warehouse/Second, Rainey/Convention Center, Far East Sixth and SoCo/South First.
Like locals, visitors should explore them all. Let’s hope they flow with the Austin no-attitude vibe. Then they would be welcome for as many years as they care to return.