A Guide to This Year’s Texas Tribune Festival
The free, the grave, and the delightful at the annual, Texas-centric meeting of minds
By Abe Asher, Fri., Aug. 30, 2024
The 2024 edition of the Texas Tribune Festival is set to begin Sept. 5 in Downtown Austin, two months before an election that could have a seismic impact on American democracy. Festival organizers are well aware of the timing.
“What remains core to the festival is bringing Texans together in conversation around issues that matter to them and our communities,” said Matt Ewalt, senior director of events and live journalism at the Tribune. “This year certainly, in one of the most unpredictable presidential elections in recent American history, there’s a lot to process and understand together. So there’s a timeliness of a festival that comes just a couple weeks after the Democratic National Convention.”
The festival, which is now in its 14th year, has become one of the most notable in Austin and one of the most prominent on the festival circuit for American politicians and newsmakers more broadly. This year’s edition will feature more than 300 speakers who will participate in more than 100 events across the festival’s three days. Headlining speakers will include U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Liz Cheney, while Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Gov. Glenn Youngkin of Virginia will deliver the opening and closing keynote addresses, respectively.
Generally, TribFest is expensive to attend – tickets for the general public cost $350 – but the final day of the festival, held on Congress Avenue, is free. The blocks between Seventh and 11th will be closed to traffic and will feature a number of interactive experiences along with panel discussions and appearances from some of the festival’s biggest names.
One event of note will take place in the Palo Duro tent at 1pm on Saturday, where state Rep. Joe Moody and Uvalde CISD Board Member Jesse Rizo will discuss how Texas can lead the way in preventing mass shootings. Rizo, the uncle of Jackie Cazares, one of the students who was killed during the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School, ran for and won a seat on the school board earlier this year. The discussion will also include A.J. DeAndrea, a former deputy police chief in Colorado who responded to the Columbine High School mass shooting and two other mass shootings and now provides training and consulting for active-shooter response.
That 1pm slot will also feature a discussion about the reality of conditions at the border in the midst of an election season that has seen both political parties call for increased border militarization. That discussion will feature U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, who has represented a border district in Congress since 2017, as well as El Paso County Attorney Christina Sanchez and others.
There is no shortage of panels, booksignings, and events at TribFest that address the presidential race and the political climate at large. But if you’re looking for something slightly different, there are also plenty of arts and culture offerings. One will take place at 9:30am on Saturday, when the Palo Duro tent features a panel on mariachis and their place in Texas. Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Lyle Lovett and television producer Terry Lickona will discuss the 50th anniversary of Austin City Limits at 12:30pm, while later in the afternoon famed Austin director Richard Linklater will join Reservation Dogs co-creator and showrunner Sterlin Harjo and Fargo creator Noah Hawley for a conversation on telling stories about the United States.
“The real power of TribFest comes from Texans gathering together and engaging each other in conversation,” Ewalt said. “The more Texans, the better.”
The Texas Tribune Festival
Thursday 5 - Saturday 7, Downtown Austin
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