Austin

Austin is the capital of Texas. It is located primarily in Travis County with a small portion of the city in Williamson County. It is in the central portion of Texas (192 miles South of Dallas, and 162 miles Northwest of Houston) and it is the 4th largest city in Texas.

Not only is Austin the capital of Texas, it is also known as the Live Music Capital of the World. In fact that is the city's official slogan. Downtown Austin is filled with music clubs, and every year the city hosts two of the biggest gatherings of musicians, filmmakers and all sorts of creative types at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival and the Austin City Limits Music Festival (ACL). ACL is one of several annual music festivals for which Austin is well-known in the music community. It is usually held in October at Zilker Park.http://austin.eventguide.com? Literally hundreds of events occur in Austin at any point in time, here is a small sampling of other Annual events in Austinhttp://austin.eventguide.com/:

• Austin Film Festival, held in Mid-October at the Paramount Theater as well as other venues around the city, which includes both indie film makers and top-rated films from major distributors, is considered by many to be one of the nation's top film festivals.
• Texas Book Festival is all about books, but like every other event in Austin includes music.
• Austin Chocolate Festival, held at the Arthur Murray Dance Studio in March each year, this benefit is to support the Austin chapter of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation.
• Austin Home and Garden Show and the Austin Fall Home and Garden Show, these benefit events are held the last weekend in January and in mid- August at the Austin Convention Center. Proceeds go to the Capital Area Food Bank, Austin Humane Society and Austin Habitat for Humanity.
• Halloween on Sixth Street, a tradition each Halloween, of course everyone comes in costume.
• Armadillo Christmas Bazaar, the place to find the most unusual Christmas gifts.
• First Night Austin, the artsy way to celebrate the New Year
• Old Pecan Street Spring Arts Festival and the Old Pecan Street Fall Arts Festival, brings hundreds of artists and crafters, lots of food, and of course, music to 6th street, which was originally known as Pecan Street.

Austin honors the late blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan with a permanent statue (see featured video below). Austin is also home to The University of Texas, and the Texas Longhorns, the UT football team.

• Lance Armstrong

• Sandra Bullock

• Ethan Hawke

• Willie Nelson

• Michael Dell

• Dan Rather