Austin City Limits Festival

Austin has two major music festivals, though there are several smaller ones in and around the Austin area.  South by Southwest (SXSW) , which is also a film and music festival, is held in March and The Austin City Limits (ACL) is held in September.  The ACL is a full blown music festival spanning a motley of music types, over 130 bands on eight stages across Zilker Park  and drawing 65,000 people.  So why would I, resistant to loud music, the heat, and crowds of people attend this event?  Well one should always try new things and this, especially, should be experienced.  Also, I live very close to the event itself now and taking the shuttle was too easy to pass up.

 

Well, it was hot and very dusty as we have not had rain in a while.  And sometimes there were so many people that we could not move.  But since I had prepared both physically and mentally while taking advantage of the shady areas of the festival, I was not miserable and I did not even get burned.  Highlights of the festival for me were Swell Season, Raconteurs, Blues Traveler, and a new favorite Belleville Outfit.  The locale was the best part, a scenic view of the city and Barton Springs just across the street.  My trusty wrist band getting me in and out with no problem. Something signicant about this festival was the amount of effort into being green.  There were recycle bins everywhere there were garbage bins for those necessary bottles of water.  They encouraged others to collect recyclables and gave prizes for full bags.  All the vendors were encouraged to sell food which did not require utensils and utilized biodegradable or recyclable containers.  The food was fantastic, a choice from the popular local restaurants rather than just burgers or pizza, though of that it was good too since it was all local.  It was all very impressive.

I am not saying I am going to do this every year and having just returned from another trip, my exhaustion level was pretty much at a peak.  But having done it once and really enjoyed myself and the music is enough to appreciate it and seriously consider another offer of a three day ticket.