20K+ people likely at Austin's New Year's Eve party at Auditorium Shores

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- At least 20,000 folks likely opted to celebrate the welcoming of 2025 at the city's annual New Year's Eve party at Auditorium Shores, according to Visit Austin.

"Looking at estimations for our occupancy rate and our average daily revenue for our downtown hotels, they were slightly above average than the same day last year," said Wesley Lucas with Visit Austin. "So there are definitely some people in town taking advantage of those great deals the hotels are offering."

Festivities officially began at 7 p.m. with live music, with Third Eye Blind headlining.

The city and Visit Austin worked together to put the event on this year.

With larger and later crowds than normal at the park, the Austin Police Department stationed additional officers around, and the department's bomb squad canvassed the area.

The family-friendly event drew folks to Auditorium Shores before the day started.

"No better place to spend New Year's Eve that the live music capital of the world with great music, a national headliner Third Eye Blind, and a great fireworks show to cap off the night," Lucas said.

A look back at downtown safety in 2024

"Austin is still one of the safest large cities in the country and our downtown reflects that, but in some ways, many ways really, this has still been somewhat of a challenging year," said Bill Brice with the Downtown Austin Alliance (DAA).

He said as APD still struggles with staffing numbers, the DAA implemented new measures to address lower priority incidents downtown like harassment, loitering and theft.

"We launched a new downtown safety team, we launched an outreach program to help address non-emergency homeless-related issues without police or EMS resources," he said.

Next year, he's looking forward to working with Austin's new police chief, Lisa Davis, who he has already met with at length to discuss safety.

"In the first couple of months even of Chief Davis being on board, we’ve seen a stronger police presence," he said. "Officers on horseback, more officers on bicycles, more officers on foot."