“Weird” is one of those words which doesn’t translate cleanly from American into British English. In the US, it’s less about the odd, peculiar or undesirable; more about the quirky, creative and avant-garde. And Austin – aka “Weird City” – oozes the latter in spades.
The Texan capital has long been a bastion for the inventive and eccentric; you just need to glance at the profusion of street art, bumper stickers and faded tie-dye t-shirts bearing its ubiquitous slogan – “Keep Austin Weird” – to see that. But over the last decade, it’s become something considerably more: a booming tech mecca with one of the fastest growing populations in the country. Weird City has also become Wired City.
Last year, Elon Musk’s Tesla became the latest big name to relocate to Austin, following in the recent footsteps of Apple
