THANK YOU

The Downtown Austin Alliance would like to thank everyone who attended, volunteered or participated in this year's Holiday Sing-Along and Downtown Stroll!! We had a great time celebrating with you!

Each year, we strive to make the event better than the year before. Please take a moment to provide your feedback about this year's event in our brief survey. You can also email additional comments to Melissa Barry.

Stay tuned for event photos and recaps. In the meantime, we hope you will enjoy many of the other holiday events scheduled this season. Visit our Events Calendar for a full list of events.

Holiday Sing-Along and Downtown Stroll : Saturday, December 5, 2009

The Downtown Austin Alliance and KUT 90.5 FM invite visitors to start their holidays downtown on Saturday, December 5 during the annual Holiday Sing-Along and Downtown Stroll! Events kick off at 6 p.m. Help members of the community by bringing a sealed jar of peanut butter for Caritas of Austin. You can drop off your can of peanut butter at the base of the Capitol Christmas Tree during the event.

Help us promote this great community event by becoming our Facebook Fan and Tweeting about the event using the event hash tag #HolidaySingAlong.

Sing-Along: 6 - 7 p.m. at the South Steps of the Capitol

The evening starts at 6 p.m. when crowds gather on the south steps of the Capitol to sing the songs of the season during John Aielli’s Holiday Sing-Along. Want to start warming up your vocal chords? Download the 2009 song book!

Capitol Christmas Tree Lighting: 7 p.m. at the South Gates of the Capitol

As the clock chimes 7 p.m., the countdown begins to the lighting of the Capitol tree – a Cedar beauty rising nearly 40 feet.

Downtown Holiday Stroll: 7 - 9 p.m. Along Congress Avenue

From 7 – 9 p.m. Congress Avenue will be buzzing with holiday cheer during the Congress Avenue Stroll. Shops, restaurants, galleries and museums will be open late and will feature special activities, offers or refreshments to visitors. Performances from The Invincible Czars, Myrna Cabello, Knights of Steel, The Minor Mishap Marching Band and many more along Congress Avenue will be sure to delight children of all ages. Download the Stroll Map and Legend for a full list of performers, activities and more!

Participate in Free, Family-Friendly Activities

Shop Local at the Pop-Up Retail Store at 912 Congress
Shop local this holiday while strolling the Avenue. More a dozen local boutiques and designers will present you with the perfect opportunity to fill out everyone's holiday wish list (including your own!). Visit the latest installment of Shop787 inside 912 Congress starting at 4:00 p.m. on December 5, 2009. Retailers inlcude Meline Collection, Micah Yancey Jewelry, Jenny N. Design, Esther Design, Gypsies Antiques, Ana Brasil, Storyville, and many more!

Shop Pretty at the Dress Shop at 315 Congress
Stop by downtown's newest retailer, the Dress Shop for cocktails, discounts on beautiful dresses and Christmas spirit. Come see for yourself what everyone will be talking about the next morning! Visit their website.

Snag Fresh Produce and Homemade Goods from the Austin Farmers' Market at 11th and Congress
The Sustainable Foods Center hosts a special market right in front of the State Capitol giving all Sing-Along and Stroll attendees an opportunity to sample the best fruits, vegetables, meats and other goodies that Austin farmers have to offer.

Create a Masterpiece at the Artwall at 919 Congress
Come Deck the Walls with an interactive art project brought to you by Art Alliance Austin and local artists. Let your inner artist out as you collaborate with other Austinites to fill in a "wall sized" rendering of our beautiful downtown skyline. Lights, paper, markers provided, people with holiday cheer needed!

Find Your Inner Sleuth with the Congress Clue Caper at 11th and Congress
If you think you're a sleuth, come crack the Congress Clue Caper! Join the Caper and see how well you fare on your own, or put together a team. When you're done, drop your entry form off at the Clue Caper Headquarters - Capital Metro's offices at 321 Congress - for a chance to win prizes.

Create LED Light Sculptures at the Austin Museum of Art Community Room at 823 Congress
Explore light as you create your own sculpture using a LED diodes! Visit the museum galleries for free, learn and play together in the hands-on FamilyLab, and drop in and create in the Community Room!

Create Your Piece of the Mural for The Neighborhood Project at 419 Congress
Theatre Action Project invites you to paint a tile that will be added to a gigantic community mural in the Spring and creatively express to Austin what you find beautiful in your neighborhood! The Neighborhood Project is a year-long initiative that allows the Austin community to use theatre and the creative arts to celebrate the everyday beauty we find in each part of Austin, as well as consider where the community might want to make improvements in neighborhoods so they are more ideal places to live.

Get Your Face Painted at 8th and Congress
Add a little holiday cheer to your cheeks! Get your face painted for free by Meagan Chauvot.

View Art Installations In Vacant Spaces, Courtyards and Windows
University of Texas Sculpture Professor Margo Sawyer brings her students' sculptures to Congress Avenue during the Downtown Stroll. These are works are in progress, finished for the moment, given a place to be and become, the challenge of which will influence these young artists for the years to come.

 

Enjoy Performances by Austin's Finest Musicians, Dancers and Actors

The Austin School for the Performing and Visual Arts (ASPVA): Performing at 816 Congress
The Austin School for the Performing and Visual Arts is a place for students who want to pursue academic and artistic excellence where they will be honored by passionate, inspiring teachers while celebrating creativity, community and service. Visit their website. ASPVA performance schedule:
Loose Wheels, 5 member band: 7:00 -- 7:20 p.m.
Georgia Napolitano, singer: 7:20 -- 7:40 p.m.
CLUE, song and dance crew: 7:40 -- 8:00 p.m.
Gabriella and Jordan, singer-songwriters/musicians: 8:00 -- 8:20 pm..
SMG, five member band, 8:30 -- 9:00 p.m.

Ballet Folklorico: Performing at 401 Congress
Using traditional Latin American dances, Ballet Folklorico helps the community become aware of the cultural diversity of our city. Members participate in performances and brings a lively form of cultural entertainment to Austin. Visit their website.

Bric-a-Brac: Performing at 6th and Congress
Vaudevillian junk band, Bric-a-Brac, (and their big french bear) lure you onto a European street corner with a buckled blend of punk cabaret and seasonal pandemonium in topsy-turvy, vagabond style. Visit their website.

Charles Dickens Unleashed: Performing at 617 Congress
Casually interact with characters from The Hideout's newest show "Charles Dickens Unleashed!", playing Saturdays at 6 and 8pm. Will you talk to a polite young lady looking for a suitor? Or perhaps a humble bookkeeper trying to spread holiday cheer. Or maybe even a plucky young orphan, out to sell you a match stick or give you a chuckle for tuppence. These improvisers are sure to delight you and bring a smile to the face of even the meanest Ebenezer Scrooge. Visit their website.

Clickety Cloggers: Performing at 823 Congress
Austin's Clickety Cloggers is a dance club composed of Central Texans who get together each week to perform a uniquely American dance form that is rooted in traditional Appalachian-style clogging - but with a decidedly modern flair. The club is open to anyone who has already learned how to clog dance or who completes our beginner clogging lessons. It is a non-profit dance group dedicated to preserving the clogging heritage and promoting the art of clog dancing. Visit their website.

Sherry Gingras & The Drumsistas: Performing at 6th and Congress at the plaza of the One American Center
This is a twenty-five member all Women's Percussion Ensemble taught and directed by Sherry Gingras of DRUMZ, a World Percussion Paradise at 3700 Kerbey Lane. Sherry is also founder and Musical Director of Austin's popular Drumsong Ensemble, THE DJEMBABES. Sherry teaches hand drumming at her store on Kerbey Lane and the women in her group, The Drumsistas, are all students in her classes. The music Sherry and her groups perform are West African rhythms and songs "Austin-style". Sherry believes this music and these rhythms create magic and she teaches because she believes that "through music we can heal ourselves and the planet, restore balance and create peace on Earth. Through this music our differences fade away and we find our common humanity. Rhythm is the soul of life! This beautiful music from Africa is so powerful and so joy-full and is so aimed at the heart that it is accessible on some level to everyone! African Music is the root of all of our popular music in this country...jazz, funk, hip hop, rock & Roll, rhythm and blues! It is with humility and the greatest respect that I teach what I know of this music and in honor of the teachers and the Continent of Africa for the generous sharing of this music and these rhythms in benefit of all the people of this world. " Join Sherry and the Drumsistas and be ready to dance to the beat of the drum!

Jeff Lofton: Performing at 7th and Congress
"Listen up Miles Davis fans..." from the Austin American-Statesman and "... channels Miles Davis..." from the Daily Texan were some of the early reviews of jazz trumpeter Jeff Lofton when he arrived in Austin in 2007. Mostly unknown to the local jazz scene, word-of-mouth drew people to hear his unique sound at small bars in East Austin. Lofton's Miles Davis Tribute debuted at the historic Victory Grill and was quickly booked at the Elephant Room, Austin's famous jazz bar. Soon his shows were being described as "...crazy good and crazy crowded." (Joe Gross, Austin American-Statesman/Austin360.com). Scheduled for release in the fall of 2009, Lofton's CD titled "Jazz to the People" includes mostly originals with Alex Coke on sax, Red Young on piano, Chris Jones on bass and Masumi Jones on drums. Visit his website.

The Invincible Czars: Performing at 401 Congress
Austin's Invincible Czars have made their mark by creating exceptionally original music: songs and instrumental pieces that are like four-to-five minute "mini-symphonies" chock full of memorable melodies, meticulous arrangements, dynamics, and humor. Their music fuses riff rock, classical/symphonic music, heavy metal, loungey grooves, odd meters, klezmer, country shuffles, punk rock and circusy polka. In the past few years, they have also become known and lauded for their arrangements of classical works such as Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite and Mussorgsky's "A Night on Bald Mountain." Visit their website.

Knights of Steel: Performing at 515 Congress
The Knights of Steel are part of McCallum High School's fine arts music program. They present a variety of styles including calypso, soca, samba, Latin, reggae, jazz, and pop through their use of Steel Pans. McCallum High School's fine arts music program became the first school in the Austin area to offer Steel Drum Ensemble as a daily class in 1998. These groups give numerous performances throughout the year, including school performances, private engagements, and festivals. In the Spring of each year they are featured at the Inside Out Steelband Festival, alongside some of Austin's finest professional musicians and nationally known Steel Pan artists. Visit their website.

Minor Mishap Marching Band: Performing at Capitol, Along Congress and at 3rd and Congress
Minor Mishap Marching Band describes itself as the "sounds of riding a bicycle and playing a trombone the morning after the Russian circus has blown through town. We are an absurd expression of boisterous pandemonium, infernal bicycle-based contraptions and a fascination with borscht and slivovitz." Minor Mishap Marching Band represented the eclectic, indie sound of Austin in New York City this past October and has been praised by the Austin-American Statesman as creating "a musical spectacle unmatched this side of New Orleans or a Mummer's Parade." Visit their website.

Myrna Cabello: Performing at 1006 Congress
Myrna Cabello has over 250 film, commercial, voice-over and industrial credits to her name and is referred to as one of the top bilingual talents in Texas. Some of her credits include being the spokeswoman for Fiesta Food Stores, Mrs. Baird's Bread, and the Texas Dept. of Health. Recently Myrna has added producing and directing to her accomplishments, completing a series of highly-acclaimed Industrials for the Texas Department of Health. Visit her website.

St. David's Handbell Choir: Performing at 6th and Congress
The Coventry Bell Choir of St. David's Episcopal Church helps us ring in the holiday season with tunes that promise to inspire us all. Visit their website.

How to Get Here and Where to Park

The Downtown Austin Alliance encourages you to use public transportation. Plan your trip using Capital Metro's Trip Planner.

Downtown has more than 43,000 parking spaces. All on-street parking is free on the weekends. You can also find a spot in a garage by downloading our map of downtown garages near Congress Ave. Prices range from $5 - $10 per vehicle.

Free and Secure Bicycle Parking by Mellow Johnny's at 11th and Congress and 3rd and Congress
Riding a bike to the event? Great news! Mellow Johnny's Bike Shop will be providing a FREE parking for your bikes while you enjoy the festivities. Think of it as a coat check for your bike, conveniently located and staffed by Mellow Johnny's Bike Shop. Go green this year by rolling into the holiday season!

 

Our Partners

Thanks to our partners for helping to make the 2009 Holiday Sing-Along and Downtown Stroll a success!

  • KUT-FM 90.5
  • Austin Music Foundation
  • Art Alliance Austin
  • Caritas of Austin
  • Launch 787
  • Austin Energy
  • Downtown Merchants and Businesses
  • Ilios Lighting
  • Holiday Stroll Performers and Volunteers
  • Big House Sound
  • Time Warner Cable
  • Mellow Johnny's Bike Shop