Creek Show 2026 in Austin: What's New at The Confluence

When did you last walk Waller Creek south of 4th Street on purpose? Until June there wasn't much to walk. On June 6, 2026, Waterloo Greenway opened The Confluence: 13 acres along the creek between 4th Street and Lady Bird Lake, built for $91.5 million in public and private money. The park is less than four months old. In November it hosts Creek Show for the first time, and this year's installations spend most of their wattage on the creek's history.

Creek Show runs nightly from November 13 to 21, 6 to 10 p.m., with the main entrance at 4th and Sabine streets, 703 1/2 E. 4th St. If your fall plans are built around the Great Lawn coming back after ACL, this is the stretch of downtown worth adding to the list.

A Year Off, Then Twice the Show

If you noticed there was no Creek Show last November, you weren't imagining it. In May 2025 the Waterloo Greenway Conservancy said the show would skip that year and come back in 2026 at The Confluence, which was still under construction. The Conservancy also noted that the show has moved before. It started along Waller Creek downtown in 2014, later moved up to Waterloo Park, and now it's heading downstream.

The 2024 show is the useful comparison. That tenth-anniversary edition ran November 8 to 16 at Waterloo Park with five installations. General admission was $5, Opening Night was $15, and early access cost $10.

This year there are ten installations by local artists, nine nights, and timed entry. The ticket listing for Opening Night currently shows prices from $9.88 to $21.25. The page doesn't say which ticket type costs what, so check the live checkout before you build a budget around it. All proceeds go to the Conservancy, which maintains the 35-acre park system it's building with the City of Austin.

The Art Keeps Looking Upstream, Into the Past

Read through the ten artist statements and a pattern shows up quickly. Most of these pieces aren't about light for its own sake. They're about what Waller Creek was before it became a park, and who used to be there.

• CONTACT, by BRR Architecture, places glowing sculptural hands along the banks to remember people who were displaced from the creek. Touch a hand and its color changes. Touch several at once and you get more variations, so strangers end up working the piece together.
• Shadow Current, by Charlie A, uses moving shadows to depict the communities of washerwomen who lived and worked along Waller Creek from after the Civil War into the 1950s. The figures hold fabric screens as if airing laundry, with images of Austin shifting across them.
• Moon Tower 15.1, by HKS Architects and DPR Construction, is a stand-in for the original Moon Tower 15. According to the installation's statement, that tower stood for a hundred years less than a block from the site, was relocated once, was promised restoration, and is still waiting to come back.
• Waller Wildings, by Kick Punch Bite, carries on the Waller Creek Monster tradition with three illuminated guardians inspired by Japanese designer toys. They react when visitors come near.

The other half of the lineup is about water and the infrastructure under your feet. NOT IN MY RUNOFF!, by UNS, imagines a creature growing out of the Confluence's drainage pipes. Its statement calls Waller Creek the spot where stormwater, normally hidden underground, becomes visible. drip-drop, by Lord Aeck Sargent, gathers light under a bridge into a single falling droplet, a slow loop about water conservation. Nocturnal Garden, by Yuliya Lanina, and Sacred Datura, by SOM/Playhou.se, both take their cues from plants. Lanina's flower sculptures are based on blooms found along the creek corridor. Sacred Datura is built around a native plant of Texas and the Edwards Plateau.

The park itself was designed around the same themes. The City describes The Confluence as rebuilding Waller Creek's eroded banks, making use of the Waller Creek Flood Control Tunnel, and adding downtown's first biofiltration pond, which treats stormwater from 26.2 acres. The art on the banks is about runoff, native plants and the people who once lived by the creek, and the park was engineered to handle the first two. That overlap makes this year's show a decent introduction to how the new park works.

Where the Pieces Sit Is a Map of the Park

If you haven't been down here since June, the installations double as a tour. A few placements are worth knowing in advance.

Sacred Datura's animations are projected onto the Red River Street bridge. Red River is also one of the two busy intersections the park's 800-foot boardwalk lets you skip. Cesar Chavez Street is the other. So you can watch the bridge light up from underneath without waiting for a crosswalk signal.

Moon Tower 15.1 was designed to be seen from the Confluence bridges and nearby hotel towers, and to throw shadows across the Waller Creek Boardwalk. The park has three lattice bridges across the creek, so you'll have a few angles on it.

Fractal Time Fish: Portals of the Confluence, by WarrPaint, hangs a school of geometric fish made of steel and dichroic film above the water. The fish attach only to existing structures and come down with no impact on the creek. Petri-chord, by Creek Freaks, has eight floating blooms and turning spokes that make soft, unrepeatable tones. It's the quiet piece in the lineup, so go when the crowd thins out.

The park's named spaces near the lake are Lakeview Terrace, the Explorers Garden and the Leaf Deck. The Cypress Grove and Trailhead Bridge link the park to the creek at 4th Street, right by the show's entrance. Food, drinks and activities are set up at Creek Monster Cove. No vendors had been announced when this was written.

Picking Your Night

Every night has a theme, and those themes matter more than they did when the show ran five pieces over a long weekend.

Two nights stand out. The Monday Community Night costs nothing, but the Conservancy requires a free reservation, and that night is already listed on the ticketing page. The Sunday Artist Talk is a moderated panel with Creek Show artists and designers whose work has helped build public support for restoring Waller Creek. Several statements this year reference real history, so it's a good night to hear the backstory from the people who built the pieces.

Getting There Without Losing Your Evening

The practical details:

• Timed entry. When you buy, you choose a 6 to 8 p.m. or 8 to 10 p.m. entry window. Be in line by 9:30 p.m. if you want to see everything.
• Fast Pass. It's an add-on to a general admission ticket, not a replacement. A discounted 4-pack covers four people on a single night.
• Kids. Children 4 and under don't need a ticket.
• Parking. The Austin Convention Center garage at 601 E. 5th St. charges $5 from 5 to 10 p.m. each show night, with limited spaces. The Conservancy recommends rideshare.
• Accessibility. The Conservancy says the park complies with the ADA. The City describes the trail as universally accessible and off-street, connecting the Lance Armstrong Bikeway, Palm Park, Rainey Street and the Butler Trail.

If you're biking in on the Butler Trail, the City lists a north-shore reroute near The Confluence and Austin Rowing Club, between Brazos and Trinity streets, from June 2026 through March 2027 while Austin Energy does underground electrical work. Expect the detour on the way in.

You can also walk the full length. The Confluence is the southern end of a continuous 1.5-mile off-street trail from Waterloo Park to Lady Bird Lake, designed so you never cross a busy street. Park near Waterloo Park, walk down the creek to the show, and you'll cover both of Creek Show's past homes in one evening.

The surrounding blocks have changed too. The park borders the Rainey Street Historic District, the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center and the Convention Center. The Waterline tower at Cesar Chavez and Red River is open, and KUT reports it's now the tallest building in Texas. It houses 1 Hotel Austin, which opened September 3, plus a Japanese-inspired rooftop restaurant, a coffee shop, and Alteño, a Mexican restaurant from Michelin-starred chef Johnny Curiel. If you want dinner before a 6 p.m. entry, it's right next to the park.

The park has had all summer to settle in. The Conservancy's opening-day recap describes families, cyclists and joggers exploring it on June 6. Ten days in, The Daily Texan reported that the community had taken over the park. November will be the first time most people see it after dark, lit up by ten pieces about the creek it was built on.

If Creek Show gets you curious about which parts of downtown Austin are changing fastest, or what living within walking distance of the new greenway is actually like, Alli Heller is happy to walk you through it, boardwalk included. Let's Connect.