Dripping Springs adopts limited Founders Day rule: two political party booths, no candidate booths allowed

City attorney presented a draft policy April 7 to manage limited vendor-booth space at the 2026 Founders Day Festival and to limit political campaigning at vendor booths. The draft treats political-party organizations differently from individual candidates: the city will approve a maximum of two political-expression vendor booths to be assigned to qualified party organizations, not to individual candidates or political action committees.

Under the adopted approach for 2026, candidates may participate in a party booth with party consent and may appear in the parade only if registered participants; however, non-political vendor booths are restricted to their approved, non-political purposes and may not be used for organized campaigning or distribution of campaign literature. The policy also clarifies that elected officials acting in an official capacity (for example, as a city-hosted representative at a city information booth) must refrain from campaign activity while using the official platform.

Council members debated whether to adopt the full draft (which also addressed parade participation and official-capacity issues) or to confine the new rule to vendor booths for the 2026 festival. Several members said the timing — with application deadlines already passed — made last-minute changes undesirable; others argued the city needed an enforceable rule because staff already told at least one applicant they could not have a candidate booth. By council vote, the policy was adopted for 2026; staff will refine the policy language and enforcement procedures for future festivals.