Austin City Limits Music Festival
Austin City Limits
Surprisingly, ACL is not well known, at least with my group of friends. ACL is a three day, heavy hitter music festival. Organized by the same group who sets up Lollapalooza, this festival is in October every year in Austin Texas. The lineup is almost the same for the two weekends it runs with minor adjustments based on artists schedules. Music starts around noon each day and goes to 10 pm. There are options to buy tickets for individual days but best cost for your money is the three day pass.
There are six stages across the park, 4-5 water stations and similar amount of restrooms. There are multiple beer tents but only one craft beer tent. One large food area with two smaller areas on the other side of the park. This was one of the hottest weekends on record, followed by one of the coldest (weekend 2). We flew in Thursday night and out on Tuesday. I focused this post on the three day festival but if you have time to stay a few extra days and explore the city, I would recommend it.
Day 1
We flew in Thursday night to be ready for the festival. My parents live just outside of Austin.
We drove into the city and ate at Snooze for breakfast. I had a breakfast sandwich and we got a trio of pancakes to share.
Parked at a garage for $10/day and walked about a mile to the festival, arriving around noon.
Our first visit was the merchandise tent to ensure we had all the shirt and hat options. I brought a small running backpack to hold a few things and attached a collapsible water bottle with a carabiner.
We filled up our water bottles and headed to the main stage for the first band.
After the first band, we stood in line to get our ACL frame picture. The line ends up really long later in the day.
We hung out in the craft beer tent (with shade and fans) for a little while.
Before heading to the main stage for the last two big bands, we stopped over by the food tents for a snack. We took a recommendation and went to Tamale Addiction for two tamales. (We didn’t eat again until we got home which was a mistake)
Music: The Amazons, Black Pistol Fire, The Raconteurs, Guns and Roses
Day 2
We got up early (~6:30 am) for the ACL Live Radio show at Antone’s. A $5 donation got you in the door and all donations went to Health Alliance for Austin Musicians. We were one of the first 97 through the door so we also got a free breakfast taco and plenty of swag. We were right up by the small stage and saw Flora Cash, Misterwives, Black Pistol Fire, and Lauren Daigle.
The live morning show ended a little before noon so we arrived at the festival later than Day 1.
We swung by the main stage and then headed to the food for lunch. We ordered Salt Lick BBQ Nachos and Gyro fries.
After music and beers, we grabbed a couple more tamales before the last shows of the night.
Music: Flora Cash, Misterwives, Gary Clark Jr, and The Cure
Day 3
After a few nights of less than 8 hours of sleep, Sunday morning we slept in and then ate breakfast at home.
We parked and then swung by Juice Land for a light lunch.
We watched a few bands and went by the artist merchandise tent.
Late lunch / early dinner came in the form of kimchi fries and brussel sprout salad.
Music: Joseph, Rebelution, Caamp, Third Eye Blind, and Mumford and Sons
Do
Book lodging as soon as you know you are going. If you don’t have friends or family to stay with, it will be hard to find and/or expensive.
Pace yourself! If you don’t have a band you want to see, show up a little late.
If you buy Weekend 1 or live near Austin, go to the Live Radio Show. Great performances up close and the money goes to a good cause. (This also applies for South By Southwest)
Eat at home or a restaurant near the festival to get a bigger portion and fill up. Don’t neglect food at the festival.
See Black Pistol Fire live if you ever have the chance. They were by far the most entertaining band of the festival. Other tops: Gary Clark Jr, Misterwives, Guns & Roses, Mumford & Sons. We had planned on seeing Lizzo but everyone else at the festival had the same idea and we were too far back to see anything.
Don’t
Don’t skip dinner! We didn’t want to leave our spot so we just didn’t eat. I didn’t eat enough over the first few days and it hurt my energy level.
Don’t wear clothes or shoes because they look good! Think about comfort. I wore Sanuk sandals the first two days and tennis shoes the last day.
Don’t try to fly in Friday morning and out on Monday morning. Give yourself an extra day to relax after the festival.
The Cure, The Raconteurs, and Third Eye Blind were the most disappointing performances.
