The Brackenridge Park Conservancy is hosting its Annual Parktoberfest to celebrate San Antonio’s German heritage.

This free event is on September 29, at Koehler and Cypress Pavilions along the banks of the San Antonio River at Brackenridge Park from 4- 7 pm.

Parktoberfest honors the memory of Emma Koehler of the Pearl Brewing family. She donated 11 acres to San Antonio where alcohol beverages could be served in this part of Brackenridge Park.

The event will have German music by Beethoven Mannerchor and jazz music from The Dirty River Jazz band.

The painting event is family-friendly.

The Brackenridge Park Conservancy is asking the public to lend a hand in beautifying the beloved park. The organization is hosting an event Saturday, April 5, where volunteers can paint picnic benches for the park. 

Event will be held from 9 a.m. – 12 p.m. at the Lambert Beach Softball Field parking lot, near Joske Pavilion, at 3700 N. St. Mary’s Street. 

Brackenridge Park celebrates 125 years with ‘Big Brack Bash’

Brackenridge Park celebrated 125 years with a ‘Big Brack Bash’ to mark the founding of the park.

The family-friendly event, which took place Saturday afternoon, featured live music, delicious local food vendors, and a ‘Los Viejitos’ vintage car show. Interactive programs and activities highlighted the park’s history and significance.

A special donation was announced and presented by the Brackenridge Park Conservancy and H-E-B to help improve the park’s Nature Playscape.

The park was founded in 1899 and the land itself has a 12,000 year long history as a gathering place along the beginnings of the San Antonio River.

Ahead of the fishing day, 650 Channel Catfish are being released into the San Antonio River.

A local San Antonio organization is offering a rare opportunity this weekend…to go fishing at Brackenridge Park. 

The Brackenridge Park Conservancy along with several other local and state organizations are hosting the third annual Friends and Family Fishing Day on Saturday, Nov. 1.

A unique new play area for children is coming to Brackenridge Park and will replace a long-closed playground.

Why it matters: The nature-based playscape — a first for San Antonio — will be the first project to undergo new development guidelines in the park that stemmed from uproar over the 2017 bond project and plans to cut down trees.

It’s also the first major project that Chris Maitre, the new CEO at the Brackenridge Park Conservancy, will oversee.

What they’re saying: The playscape will fill an underused space and be geared toward “a population that we’re really underserving, which is the youth of San Antonio,” Maitre tells Axios.

Brackenridge Park is getting a new set of guidelines for future development amid yearslong community uproar that initially stemmed from a plan to cut down more than 100 trees.

Why it matters: The guidelines — focused on respect for people and nature; history and culture; and compromise — would act as a clear rubric to evaluate any future city-funded and landscape-altering proposals in the park to preemptively address residents’ concerns.

What they’re saying: “What you didn’t have two years ago that you have today is certainty,” Terry Brechtel, interim CEO of the Brackenridge Park Conservancy, told residents at a meeting announcing the guidelines. “Because this is a process that’s created certainty of how projects will be evaluated.”

As Brackenridge Park, San Antonio’s beloved 343-acre urban oasis, celebrates its 125th anniversary this year, our community is  coming together to define its  future.

We at the Brackenridge Park Conservancy, a nonprofit that fills the gaps of public park agencies, work to raise funds to preserve and enhance the park’s natural, historic, educational and recreational resources.