Creek Show Moves Downstream This Year. Here's the New Stretch of Waller Creek It's Lighting Up.

At the corner of East 4th and Sabine, where the Lance Armstrong Bikeway meets Waller Creek, a cypress grove now marks a trailhead. From there a path drops toward Lady Bird Lake. It passes under the Red River Street bridge, crosses the water on three lattice bridges and follows an 800-foot boardwalk set right into the creek, so walkers never wait at the Red River or Cesar Chavez intersections. The stretch opened to the public on June 6. From November 13 to 21 it hosts Creek Show for the first time.

Since June, Waterloo Greenway has had a finished end on each side of downtown. This November is the first time its fall calendar runs the full length, opening at the north end and closing with its biggest event at the south.

The greenway now has two ends and an unrestored middle

According to the Waterloo Greenway Conservancy's visit page, the park system covers more than 24 acres along a 1.5-mile line from the Capitol to Lady Bird Lake. Waterloo Park and Moody Amphitheater make up the north end. The new 13-acre section runs from 4th Street to the lake. The creek between 4th and 12th streets is still in design and hasn't been restored. So you can't yet follow the water from one end to the other. Between the two finished sections, the route is city streets.

Creek Show has tracked each new section as it opened. It started on Waller Creek downtown in 2014 and later moved up to Waterloo Park. This year it moves to the new section, which the Conservancy calls The Confluence. The November calendar uses both ends:

KXAN's rundown of the fall lineup put the same three events at the center of the season.

The north end opens the month

Día de los Muertos at Moody Amphitheater has a full lineup. The Akins High School Mariachis Band opens at 4 p.m. Native Texan Two Step teaches cumbia at 4:15. Mariachi Corazon de Tejas plays at 5, Danza Azteca Guadalupana performs at 6 and Ballet Folklorico Maricruz closes at 7. Teoxochitl Design is building the main ofrenda, and artist Nikki Diaz is making an Alebrijes Altar for pets. Tamale Addiction, Texas Drip BBQ, Peached Tortilla and YAPA Artisan Empanadas are among the food vendors, and the Mercado y Más artisan market fills out the evening. The altars stay up through Monday, November 2. That evening, a Día de los Muertos edition of Waterloo Wellness: Yoga & Sound is held among them.

Diwali follows on Saturday morning, November 7. CapMetro has posted that the Veterans Day Parade closes Congress Avenue from the Congress Avenue bridge over Lady Bird Lake up to 11th Street that morning until about 1 p.m., with detours on several downtown routes. If you're heading to Waterloo Park from west of Congress, plan around the closure.

After that, the action moves about a mile south.

What Creek Show uses on the new stretch

The ten installations at the south end are built for this stretch of creek. Several of them only work because of the bridges, boardwalk and drainage outfalls The Confluence added:

• Sacred Datura by SOM/Playhou.se projects animations onto the Red River Street bridge, while fabric flowers unfurl along the creek path.
• drip-drop by Lord Aeck Sargent sends light down from the underside of a bridge to a stone in the creek.
• Moon Tower 15.1 by HKS Architects and DPR Construction is designed to be seen from the Confluence bridges and nearby hotel towers.
• NOT IN MY RUNOFF! by UNS grows out of the drainage pipes in The Confluence.
• Fractal Time Fish: Portals of the Confluence by WarrPaint hangs glowing steel-and-film fish over the restored waterway. The Conservancy says they attach only to existing structures.
• Shadow Current by Charlie A uses moving shadows to depict the washerwomen who lived and worked along Waller Creek from the years after the Civil War into the 1950s.

The remaining four are CONTACT by BRR Architecture, Nocturnal Garden by Yuliya Lanina, Petri-chord by Creek Freaks and Waller Wildings by Kick Punch Bite, LLC.

Moon Tower 15.1 is the one with the most local history behind it. The Conservancy's Creek Show page says the original Moon Tower 15 stood less than a block from the sculpture's site for a hundred years, was relocated once, was promised restoration and is "still awaiting its reemergence." The sculpture is a stand-in for a moonlight tower that hasn't come back yet.

Picking a night

Each of the nine nights has a theme, and some are a better fit for certain people:

General admission tickets come with a timed entry window of 6–8 p.m. or 8–10 p.m., and you need to be in line by 9:30 to see everything. Children 5 and under don't need a ticket. A Fast Pass is sold on top of general admission, and a discounted 4-pack covers four people on one night. The show runs rain or shine. Monday's Community Night is the only free night, and the Conservancy asks people to reserve early.

If you're going on dog night, the year-round park rules ban off-leash pets on the greenway.

Getting in and getting dinner

The main entrance is at 4th and Sabine, 703 1/2 E. 4th St. Parking nearby is limited. The Austin Convention Center garage at 601 E. 5th St. charges $5 from 5 to 10 p.m. on Creek Show nights while spots last, and the Conservancy also suggests rideshare. Anyone who lives within walking distance has an easier option, since the trail connects to the Lance Armstrong Bikeway, Rainey Street and the Ann and Roy Butler Hike-and-Bike Trail.

For dinner beforehand, Alteño at 96 Red River St. inside 1 Hotel Austin was on Eater Austin's September 2026 heatmap and sits at the lake end of the new stretch. Creek Monster Cove also sells food and drinks inside the show. Rainey Street is about to get a new seafood option too. The Statesman reports that The Charles Oyster House is planned for 78 Rainey St. Community Impact lists its opening as spring 2027.

The stretch after November 21

The installations come down after closing night. The Confluence stays open every day and free, according to the Conservancy's grand opening page. Park hours are 5 a.m. to 10 p.m., though the Conservancy notes they can change on event days. Besides the 4th Street gate, there are six other entrances:

1. 3rd Street and the I-35 frontage road
2. 2nd and Sabine, near Fairmont Austin
3. Cesar Chavez near Trinity
4. Red River and Davis, in the Rainey Street Historic District
5. The Hike-and-Bike Trail near Trinity
6. The Hike-and-Bike Trail south, near the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center

Lakeview Terrace and Explorers Garden are the shaded, family-oriented spaces. The Lagoon Overlook and Leaf Deck sit at the lake's edge. A biofiltration pond treats stormwater runoff from 26.2 acres of the city. The section is also cooler than the streets around it. Community Impact reported that temperatures on the trail run about 5 to 7 degrees below street level, according to the Conservancy's John Rigdon.

Some things here are still in progress. The Conservancy's visit page lists a playground and public restrooms at Waterloo Park, not on the new stretch. The City of Austin is rerouting part of the Butler Trail on the north shore near The Confluence from June 2026 through March 2027 for Austin Energy underground electrical work. Sir Swante Palm Neighborhood Park, next to the stretch, is still in design and permitting. The City's schedule has construction starting in 2027 and finishing in 2029.

Downtown's December plans head back west to Congress Avenue. The Downtown Austin Alliance's 32nd annual Holiday Sing-Along & Stroll takes over Congress on Saturday, December 5, from 5 to 8 p.m.

The walk from Creek Show's entrance at 4th and Sabine to a Lady Bird Lake overlook takes a few minutes, and a lot of new downtown is packed into it. At Walker Residential Group, we watch how projects like The Confluence change daily life on the blocks around them, and they're part of how we price homes downtown. If you live near the creek and want to know what your home is worth now, start with an Instant Home Valuation.