While high heat means good business for local sno-cone vendor Sno-Beach at Austin City Limits Music Festival, the high foot traffic this year nearly led to running out of spoons. Luckily, Sno-Beach owner Elizabeth Newsom said other vendor community friends at the festival pulled together enough spoons for the business to get through.
ACL offers a variety of local food vendors to festival goers in the ACL Eats and ACL Sweets area. Some are smaller businesses that started out as food trucks while others are more well-known Austin staples with multiple locations. Though the space offers obvious business and exposure, owners say value lies in the network building through working with C3 Presents (ACL Fest’s producer) and other local vendors.
Newsom said Sno-Beach has been a vendor at ACL since 2017. She said working the festival also removes their need to take on other jobs in the month of October. Newsom also said having good experience working the festival grants them access to receiving vendor applications for other festivals C3 Presents is involved in, such as Two Step Inn in Georgetown, Texas.
“There’s a real sense of camaraderie between businesses that you might not otherwise really interact with, and you feel like you’re in the trenches with each other,” Newsom said.
Owner of JP’s Pancake Company, JP Udenenwu, said the festival also provides his company more relationships with local vendors and local event opportunities. Through such relationships, the company has transitioned into profiting primarily on events and festivals as opposed to its food truck, formerly in West Campus.
“It’s harder for businesses, having a spot that is kind of set. You’re forced to find new tactics, new ways to market to social media,” said Udenenwu. “If we do an event for 100 people, we know exactly how much money we’re going to get, how much money we need to pay people, etc. It’s a more clear bottom line. Versus being at West Campus, as much as we love it, are you gonna get 20 people? Are you gonna get 30 people?”
Tiny Pies owner Amanda Wadsworth said working ACL proves great for Tiny Pies’ brand marketing and revenue with the exposure to over 200,000 in the course of the festival. Wadsworth said the close proximity to fellow local vendors at ACL opens the door to additional opportunities.
“It’s great for B to B marketing because we’re surrounded by all these other local vendors,” Wadsworth said. “It’s great to meet people, and then we do collabs (or giveaways) outside of this.”
Newsom said such relationships prove lasting over the years of working at ACL alongside the same vendors.
“That’s the neatest part behind the scenes, making those friendships,” Newsom said. “Even if you don’t talk to each other throughout the year, every year you get back together and you’re like, ‘There’s JP!’ And he asks about your family and stuff like that.”
