The Cactus Cafe is celebrating its 45th anniversary with a number of local artist-produced shows open to students and Austin residents through Feb. 22.

The anniversary series, including shows from Uncle Roy & Spice, UT student band West 22nd and the university’s songwriter emeritus Darden Smith, is part of a greater effort to re-engage the UT and Austin music community. 

“The idea behind booking these 10 shows is to highlight and showcase some of the acts that originally helped put the Cactus on the map, some newer faces that haven’t had an opportunity to play the Cactus … and then welcome a bunch of new folks,” said Andy Langer, the senior director of live music entertainment at the Cactus. 

Since the pandemic, the Cafe has made efforts to draw students to the listening room. The anniversary series, titled “Then, Now, and Forever,” joins the list of initiatives to attract campus listeners. 

“It’s a little bit of an education process, reminding and educating students that this is there for them,” Langer said. 

For students and Austin locals alike, the Cafe serves as an intimate space to watch and engage with performers. 

“It’s where people come and they’re there almost solely for the music,” Langer said. “It’s a unique place for musicians to play where they have that kind of attentive audience. It’s obviously a small room, and over these 45 years, nothing has replaced it as Austin’s best listening room.” 

Performers that have played the stage at the Cactus Cafe have also reflected on its longstanding community-based focus. 

Darden Smith, one of the ten acts in the anniversary shows, said his career started at the Cactus. 

“I was a student at UT when I first started playing there, and it’s been a place that’s been so welcoming to songwriters and musicians of all kinds,” Smith said. “It was sort of a home base.”

Smith can recall the history he’s lived through within the listening room. 

“As I was walking from the office towards the stage, I could kind of feel the history of it, I can kind of feel how many times I’ve done that walk,” he said. 

Smith said the reception following a show he performed at the Cafe in 1989 with Boo Hewerdine was the best he had ever received. 

“The applause after the show was the loudest applause either of us have ever heard at one of our shows, ” Smith said. “That’s cool.”

The Cactus Cafe is part of American music, Smith said. 

“It’s one of those places like McCabe’s in (Los Angeles) and the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville,” he said. “These smaller clubs that were key in building careers. … It’s what those clubs are there for, and they serve this in the ecosystem of music. They’re very important.”

For Langer and Smith, the 45th anniversary serves as a way to remember the Cactus Cafe’s history while ensuring that it is around for many years to come. 

“(The anniversary is meant to) represent each era of the Cactus, but also very much look forward too, because we’d like to celebrate another 45 years in the Cactus.”