The Austin Aqua Festival began in 1962 as Aqua Fest, a ten-day festival that featured local music acts and a variety of water-related events, held in August to boost tourism during a normally slow season. Most events took place on the newly-formed Town Lake and "Festival Beach," a park along the river just east of Interstate 35. The festival included parades, a variety of races, a beauty pageant, and theme nights. In 1980, major Aqua Festival events were moved to the larger Auditorium Shores park, where multiple stages for entertainment shifted the focus of the festival towards ever larger musical acts and away from local talent and water sports through the 80s and 90s. After a few years of higher ticket prices and dropping attendance, the last festival was held in 1998.

Willie Nelson was born in Abbott, Texas on April 29, 1933. He is a world-renowned country music singer and musician as well as an actor, activist, and author. His most famous country albums include Shotgun Willie (1973), Red Headed Stranger (1975), and Stardust (1978). Nelson popularized the “outlaw country” subgenre along with Merle Haggard and Waylon Jennings, and has written some of the most famous country music songs ever recorded, including Patsy Cline’s “Crazy,” which he wrote at the ripe age of 19, “On the Road Again,” and “Pancho and Lefty.” His primary musical collaboration is with Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, and Waylon Jennings, performing as the Highwaymen, among many others. Nelson was named the honorary chairman of the advisory board of the official music charity of the State of Texas, the Texas Music Project, for his philanthropic work in and outside the music community. He was also inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1993 and received a 1998 Kennedy Center Honor. 

Nelson founded the annual fundraiser Farm Aid, which benefits the local, American, small farmer, and has featured multitudes of musicians of different genres.