The festival offered many water related events such as a 150-mile canoe race, fishing contests, a sailing regatta and an illuminated night time parade on the lake.
The central location for many of the events was "Festival Beach," a small park on Town Lake between the city-owned power plant and a residential neighborhood.
The crowds were starting to overwhelm Festival Beach causing traffic congestion, parking problems and security concerns for the residents plus the noise of the events, especially the drag boats.
Also in 1969, Bergstrom Air Force Base, on the southeast edge of Austin, began an open house in conjunction with Aqua Fest and titled it Aero-Fest.
The new decade saw Aqua Fest's continued growth with the addition of more new events such as a photography contest and motocross in 1971 and the Pet Parade in 1972.
By the end of the decade, the drag boat races were gone from Town Lake and pressure was on to find a new location to hold other Aqua Fest events.
The festival organizers signed up corporate sponsors and local radio stations to co-sponsor the entertainment and began booking national acts.
The opponents of the festival were able to force a non-binding referendum to move Aqua Fest to Lake Walter E. Long in far east Austin.
The measure passed but promised corporate support to build a new facility went away as Texas entered an oil bust in the middle of the decade.
The festival organization exhausted its cash reserves and asked its largest creditor, the City of Austin, for permission to pay off its debt in annual installments.
In 1994, Aqua Fest returned to its roots with more local acts and an all volunteer staff and in 1995 brought back the popular theme nights.