Austin's love affair with those delightful little bug-eaters is epic, and is celebrated every year with a bat-tastic festival held right on the Congress Street Bridge, while the honorees sleep below. Bat Fest, although relatively new, has become one of the River City's most noted and well-attended events.

Bat Fest is usually held in late August or early September, when the bat population is at its highest - the females have given birth and the pups are starting to venture out on their own. The bridge is closed to traffic, allowing for the 40,000+ attendees to walk among the tents and kiosks set up on the asphalt. Beginning late, at 2PM, the festival is meant to encourage people to enjoy the festivities during the day, and to enjoy the spectacular emergence of all those bats into the night air at dusk. The revelry continues on until midnight on Saturday, 10PM on Sunday.

On Sunday, early-bats can partake of the Bat Breakfast, when Austin's finest chefs whip up delectable breakfast treats. The savvy participants of this satellite event are treated to the flip side of the celebrated evening launch - they get to view the return of the bats after a night of foraging, to their roosts under the bridge.

Keeping with Austin's other main love, the festival mounts two stages, and bands play throughout the entire festival - up to thirty of the best the Live Music Capitol of the World has to offer can be seen in one weekend. Bob Schneider, Soulhat, Breedlove, and Grady have all appeared, along with many other big names in many different genres of music.

In addition to the Bat Breakfast, food vendors offer savory and sweet treats for sale all day and throughout the evening, and beverages of all kind are available as well. Over 100 of Austin's finest artisans and craftspeople present their wares, including pottery, jewelry, fine art, woodwork, stained glass, metal sculpture, mosaics, dicrylic, photography and much more.

The entrance fee for this exciting and unique event is a paltry $5.00, and the proceeds go to local charities including Bat Conservation International. BCI is already a regular presence on the "Bat Bridge" providing information and selling bat-centric souvenirs, as well as promoting their efforts to educate the public about bats, and to protect the bat population here and throughout the world. They amplify their offering for the festival, presenting educational displays and activities for all ages. The kids will find a wealth of fun in store, including carnival rides, games, interactive exhibits, face painting, and more.

With the beauty of Lady Bird Lake (formerly Town Lake) as a back drop, the Bat Fest is a great celebration of one of Austin's greatest treasures. Done in Austin's inimitable style, the music, crafts, food and fun make this an affordable, one-of-a-kind celebration, the likes of which you won't likely find anywhere else.

Ki is a realtor helping individuals looking for Austin real estate. His site provides information on his Austin real estate blog along with a search of the Austin MLS.

If music festivals such as South by Southwest and the Austin City Limits festival are testament to the city’s reputation as the Live Music Capitol of the World, the Texas Book Festival is proof positive that Austin is a hotbed of creativity in the literary world as well. Founded by Laura Bush in 1995, it has grown to become a nationally important event, featuring over two thousand authors, local, national and international, in twelve years of existence. Exciting, fun, musical and educational, this all-ages event is considered to be one of the premiere literary events in the country.

Located primarily in the State Capitol, the festival takes place every fall, drawing upwards of 40,000 spectators to delight in panels, concerts, demonstrations, and other activities in the House and Senate Chambers, as well as tents and stages erected on the sprawling green lawn of the Capitol grounds. Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and other high-profile politicos have given keynote addresses, and the late Governor Ann Richards was a regular as well. Kay Bailey Hutchison, Jim Lehrer, and Roy Blount Jr., and other such notables have made appearances as well.

A variety of themes are represented at the festival, with panels dedicated to mysteries, biographies, photography, retrospectives, periodicals, journalism, and many other topics. A “Lifestyle” tent hosts discussions and activities including parenting, wineries, birding, and yard art.

In keeping with the interests and expectations of Austinites, the festival emphasizes a high level of entertainment and music, dedicating one tent to musical performances throughout the festival, and hosting events at satellite locations including the legendary Continental Club. A concert featuring Austin’s finest musicians is held on the Capitol steps. Musician authors such as Joe Ely read from their works, as do those who write books about musicians, including Kathleen Hudson and Joe Nick Patoski.

Other aspects of the entertainment world are well-represented also. Actors including Eli Wallach and Marlee Matlin have appeared there, and Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi offered live cooking demos for exotic recipes. Food and cooking are also highlighted, with an entire tent equipped with cooking supplies and dedicated to cookbooks and examinations of food culture.

The Texas Book Festival has raised over two million dollars for Texas Public Libraries, and their commitment to children is clear. With one tent dedicated to children’s authors, one to children’s entertainment, and one to activities for the little ones, this festival is a perfect way to combine books and literacy with a fun and exciting event. Storytimes abound throughout the festival, and activities can include hula dance, puppet shows, drawing, and sing-alongs. When children’s authors are in town for the festival, they often take part in “Reading Rock Stars,” an affiliated program that brings them to public schools to read their works.

A truly Austin event in spirit, the Texas Book Festival is a lively, creative and exciting way to explore the literary world both on a local and national level.

Ki is a realtor and a blogger in Austin Texas. He runs his Austin real estate blog writing about market trends in Austin. His site features information about mortgage interest rates and general information about Austin real estate.

Every year, Austin is descended upon by thousands of music, film, and web industry professionals, artists, and fans, all attending the annual South by Southwest Festival. Although it started as a local music festival, as it now enters its third decade, SXSW has become one of the premier industry conferences, and has gained a reputation for launching the careers of the artists involved.

SXSW is comprised of three components – music, film and interactive, but this being Austin, the music events are among the most popular, and it has become one of the most famous music festivals in the world. Dozens of local clubs are enlisted to become dedicated SXSW venues, and local residents can participate by volunteering for tours of duty at the different venues, or at the conference. Besides the talent and the local volunteers, the attendees at the music event number over 12,000 registrants. With this many people visiting downtown Austin, SXSW always heralds an exciting, vibrant time for our fair city, and locals often find themselves dining alongside people from New York, London, Tokyo and Australia – all at once.

Over the last two decades, the number of musical acts featured at the festival has grown to over 1,400, all playing during the four days of the music festival. Although impossible to see even a fraction of the offerings, many of shows are grouped with themes, featuring acts from a country such as Norway, or Japan, or featuring acts that share a label or genre. Headline acts including Morrissey, Pete Townshend, Iggy Pop, and Amy Winehouse are featured alongside up-and-comers including UGK, Blonde Redhead and The Gossip. Local acts must pass muster, but SXSW stays true to its roots by featuring a great number of the best Austin has to offer.

Austin’s burgeoning film industry gets its fair share of attention at the film festival, which features panels, screenings and discussions. Focusing on independent offerings including documentaries, animation, fictional drama and comedy, the film festival hosts many world premieres. The interactive festival shows Austin at its cutting edge finest, featuring top new media and technology entrepreneurs alongside visionary artists, designers and digital creators.

One aspect of the week is the number of free, renegade concerts that take place. No need for a wristband, and often advertised only in fanzines and through word-of-mouth, many of the artists participate in these under-the-radar shows to give back to the community that helped launch them. After all, Austin is the live music capital of the world all year round, not just for SXSW!

Whether you are a local, visitor, musician, auteur or fan, SXSW week is always an exciting one in Austin. Restaurants are jumping, stores are hopping, and music can be heard throughout the city.

Ki helps people looking for Austin real estate and land. His site allows users to search the Austin MLS and provides information on current mortgage interest rates.

With almost two decades under its belt, the Austin Hot Sauce Festival is a time-honored tradition featuring some of the most defining characteristics of life in Austin: hot sauce, hot weather, live music, great food and a fantastic way to give back to the community.

A major fundraiser for the Capital Area Food Bank, the festival boasts free admission, with a donation of three healthy, non-perishable food items or a cash donation to the Capital Area Food Bank of Texas. Always held in late summer, the weather is guaranteed to rival the sauces in hotness, but this popular event consistently draws more than 15,000 spectators to Waterloo Park in downtown Austin - this amounts to a sizeable donation to one of the most community-centric and necessary non-profits in town.

The heart of the festival is the hot sauce competition. The contest, with separate judging for individuals, restaurants, and commercial bottlers, is divided into three categories: red, green, and specialty variety. The festival attracts as many as 350 entries, who each provide a quart of their entered hot sauce – that makes over 100 gallons of hot sauce being consumed annually at the festival itself, let alone all the jars available for purchase. Combined with over 650 lbs of tortilla chips, the sauces are available to be sampled by all participants. The sauces are judged, however, by respected area chefs, and as this festival’s reputation has grown, so has the competition, which is as fierce as the heat.

In addition to sampling the finest hot sauce in the area, spectators can partake of food from many local restaurants, many of whom have entered, and won, the hot sauce competition. The food provided often highlights or incorporates the salsas, and although weighted towards Austin’s renowned Tex-Mex, interior Mexican and BBQ, other ethnicities are often represented. Restaurants that have participated in the past include Curra’s, Dona Emilia’s, Matt’s El Rancho, Ruby’s BBQ, Santa Rita and Suun Garden Shaved Ice.

What would an Austin festival be without live music? Again focusing on our local talent, the festival boasts quite a cross-section of musical genres, with kid-friendly bands, country, jazz, conjunto, and many others. Bands who have played at past hot sauce festivals include, Loose Cannons, the South Austin Jug Band, Los Jazz Vatos and the Gourds.

Getting to try the cream of the salsa crop, eat the best food Austin has to offer, dance to the grooviest bands in town and make a contribution to a worthy cause is one of the highlights of an Austin summer. The Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce Festival is an institution, and one that will face its next two decades in the same spicy fashion.

Escapeso Real Estate helps individuals looking for Austin real estate. His site features a powerful map based search of the Austin MLS along with information on mortgage interest rates.

Looking for something fun in Austin to do this New Year’s? Tired of late night drunken parties? Perhaps looking something a bit more kid and family friendly? Why not check out First Night Austin? Every December 31st the streets of downtown Austin Texas are transformed into a free performance and visual arts bizarre. The best part is that it is all free. The tradition of bringing in the New Year with a city wide celebration of the arts began in Boston in 1976. Since then, the idea has spread like wildfire to over 120 cities and communities throughout the United States, Canada, and New Zealand. While the first celebration in Boston brought in 60,000 people, now First Night brings in over a million people worldwide. This year the Austin festivities begin at 3pm and continue until just past midnight. There are many stages and events throughout downtown Austin. You may want to start you day over at Auditorium Shores where you could check out the Giant Games furnished by the Austin Children’s Museum. Later in the day the Trouble Puppet Theatre Company will be performing its show "Alchemy and the Wheel of Destiny.” If you enjoy the puppet you may want to head over to the Austin Children’s Museum where the United Way will be hosting a Puppet Making Workshop. What are the RoboSpinArt and the Pongonator? You’ll have to check it out for yourself. The project by the Robot Group will be on display all day at the Buford Tower on Caesar Chavez. The largest concentration of events will take place at the Austin City Hall Plaza on Second Street where Mayor Will Wynn will kick in the New Year at 7:30pm. On the headline stage you can check out a Persian Dance group, music by the Asylum Street Spankers, the Golden Arm Trio Brass Band presenting the work of Graham Reynolds, and Drum Jam. This is also the place to be for the midnight fireworks display. Inside City Hall, the Theatre Action Project takes over the Boards and Commissions Room with their Peace Crane Project. In the Council Chamber you can expect performances by the Chinese School of Dance, the Austin Vocal Arts Ensemble, the Austin Chamber Ensemble, and the Austin Wind Symphony. Whatever you do, be sure not to miss the Grand Processional. This giant parade takes over Congress Avenue at 6:15pm. You’ll be able to see pieces of almost all of the performances as well floats and the infamous "Celebrity Pedi-cab Race." New for this year the HBMG’s Creativity Incubator presents a theatrical showcase underneath the South First Street Bridge. Highlights of the showcase include "The Leash: A Psychedelic Western Operatta” by the Rude Mechanicals and The Debutantes and Vegabonds presentation of "Hubris.” So why not come out this year and join your fellow Austinites in bringing in the New Year with the new tradition of First Night Austin. There are certainly plenty of good times to be had and this year’s offering includes something for everyone. Ki is a realty professional in Austin Texas. His site covers the Austin real estate market and has a search of the Austin MLS for visitors. He also has a blog where buyers can keep up to date on the latest Austin real estate news.

Every March, thousands of music lovers and industry insiders flock to Austin to party, network, and discover the next great band at the annual South by Southwest Music Festival. The weeklong music blowout has been packing them in since it was founded in 1987. Austin was chosen as the site for the annual festival because of its abundance of unique clubs featuring country, folk, punk, reggae, jazz, and rock artists on a nightly basis. In the late 90s, the festival added two new additions.

The SXSW Film festival begins the week before the music caravan roles into town and features first runs and world premieres of new films in theatres throughout the city. The newest addition to the SXSW menu is the Interactive Media Festival. Running concurrently with the Film Festival, the Interactive Media Festival focuses its lens on emerging media technologies. In addition to a three day trade show, the Interactive Media Festival has recently added Screenburn which focuses on emerging video games.

Each year, an estimated 8,000 participants and attendees flock to Austin for the duration of the festival generating millions of dollars worth of revenue to local businesses. With such a large population clamoring to attend the most popular events, access to the festivals multitude of performance and networking opportunities becomes top priority to everyone in town. There are a plethora of admission options designed to accommodate the needs of such a diverse crowd of festival goers. The individual must then decide what admission option best meets their budget, as well as allows them access to the events that they wish to attend.

For industry insiders and those with money to spend, the Platinum Badge offers access to every event including special screenings and panels and runs between $775 - $1050 depending on the date that is purchased. By buying early, you can expect substantial savings on every admission option to the festival. Those wishing to skip out of the Music Festival can purchase the Gold Badge ($500-650) which includes admission to both the Film and Interactive portions of South by Southwest. Those who wish to attend only a single portion of the festival may purchases individual badges for Music ($500-650), Film ($275-400), and Interactive Media ($325-450). In addition, students with valid ID may purchase a student badge ($275-300) for the Film events only. All badges may be purchased online beginning in the September preceding the festival.

The second tier of admission options is the wristband which allows festival goers access to some of the Music Festival showcases. For each event, badge holders are allowed in first, if there is still room in the venue, wristband holders are allowed to enter. This year, SXSW has decided not to make an announcement about when the wristbands go on sale. The sale will be announced on the day the wristbands go on sale. There are only 2000 wristbands available ($120-160) and you must have proof that you are a resident of Austin to purchase one. For those who do not wish to purchase a wristband or a badge, there are a number of free events throughout the city. Also, it is possible to purchase walk up tickets to individual film screenings and music showcases if there is space available after all the badge and wristband holders have entered.

Ki is a broker in the Austin Texas real estate market. To search for homes, you can try his Austin MLS search and read about the current market conditions on his Austin real estate blog.