Austin Responded to Y2K Hysteria With a Giant Outdoor Music Festival

In today’s era, we worry that machines might take over the planet. But back in 1999, we weren’t convinced they could understand two-digit dates. Y2K panic centered on the idea that when the new millennium dawned at midnight on New Year’s Day, computers would mistake double zeros as a date for 1900 instead of 2000, thereby unleashing global chaos within our electronic systems. 

Ahead of the big night, a local Fox 7 news broadcast reported that there were “60 crews with trucks and equipment strategically placed throughout the city.” The segment continued with a dire warning for local citizens: “Don’t dial out on your phone, and don’t even click on the internet for at least an hour after midnight unless you absolutely have to.”

On the eve of a potential doomsday, Austin responded just how you’d expect—with live music, of course. A street festival event dubbed A2K blocked off a large stretch of Congress Avenue and reportedly drew around a quarter of a million people. Beer and Champagne were sold in the streets, and Austin favorites Shawn Colvin, Robert Earl Keen, Lyle Lovett, and others performed on two outdoor stages. Hey, if the world was going to descend into chaos, at least it would happen to a pretty solid soundtrack.

Local businesses in the vicinity worried about both Y2K and the city’s revelers. “We’re going to take everything out of the windows, and we’re going to put a lot more stuff into the vault than we normally do,” Kruger’s Jewelers owner David Kruger told Fox 7 ahead of the A2K event.

While attendees scaled a few traffic light poles and got a little rowdy, neither Austin’s party animals nor the dreaded tech-pocalypse ended up causing havoc that night. The world passed into the new millennium without much fanfare, except for the fireworks bursting above downtown to close out A2K. 

There’s probably a moral to this story about not letting our collective panic run amok. What was it that President Roosevelt said about fear? But the real lesson here is that if there’s an excuse to book live music alongside something, Austinites will take the opportunity every single time.