Yes. The capital of Texas truly is America’s weirdest city. You heard it right, the capital of conservative Texas is the most quirky, perhaps liberal, city in the United States.
“Keep Austin Weird” initially began as a branding campaign to support local businesses, although the phrase has become the identity and matra of the city as a whole. One walk down the graffiti filled vintage shops of South Congress will make you quickly realize that this is not the town of cowboys and ranchers you thought it to be.
Austin is home to some of the world’s largest art, film, and music festivals, including the eclectic South by Southwest and Austin City Limits festival. It also boasts more improv clubs per capita than any other city and the world’s first wax monster museum, the Museum of the Weird.
But Austin isn’t just full of big city liberals waving around flannel tees, eating kale. In fact, Austin retains much of the small town, southern charm of Nashville and the rest of Texas you hear so much about. The people are polite, albeit unique, but still very charming.
US News and World Report ranked Austin as the number 1 city to live in the United States in 2017. It’s also one of the fastest growing cities in the United States and Austin real estate is highly valued.
Whether you’re traveling down SoCo, hitting up a rodeo just outside of town, or taking selfies in front of the Cathedral of Junk, there’s so many things keeping Austin weird and attracting weirdos from around the world.
10 Reasons Austin is Weird
For a little more context, we’ve compiled this list of the weirdest things about Austin.
- Austin is home to the United State’s largest urban bat colony under SoCo Bridge.
- The locals play bingo with chicken crap at Little Longhorn Saloon.
- Graffiti is legal at HOPE Outdoor Gallery.
- There’s a shop where you can search for uncommon objects called Uncommon Objects.
- A lot of bars at located at old, foreclosed properties that no one bothered to fix.
- Banger’s will pay you to get their tattoo.
- There’s literally music playing somewhere 24/7.
- Brew & Brew serves coffee and beer under the same roof.
- You’ll often find topless women swimming at Barton Springs.
- Teenagers love to hang out at the “Moontower.”
