Text & Photos By Gaby Deimeke
Austin City Limits Music Festival, the annual two-weekend music festival held at Zilker Park in Austin, Texas, kicked off to a great start. Up-and-coming singer songwriter Delacey kicked off Friday with swooning ballads at the BMI stage. Texas local artist Abraham Alexander played his tunes to a sizeable crowd on Saturday, and country artist Randall King brought the steel guitar and honey tonk vibes on Sunday afternoon.
Opening with ‘We are the Champions’ on the Bonus Tracks stage, author Brene Brown and musician Dave Grohl discussed music that moves us and why music is the most powerful driver of shared connection. The Bonus Tracks stage is a relatively new area of the festival for panel discussions, surprise pop-ups, and other music-adjacent events, and it’s been a huge hit so far. Other events hosted there over the weekend were Bob’s Dance Shop, a discussion on art therapy, and a celeb drag show, as well as podcasts from NPR and KUTX.
The weather was a touch cooler in temperature than previous years, which fans enjoyed thoroughly to top-notch sets all weekend. The female artists delivered entertaining and high energy performances. A few highlights of the weekend included Little Simz, who had cool silhouette background visuals at her stage, Suki Waterhouse, who performed a haunting rendition of Taylor Swift’s “Lover” during her set, and Ethel Cain, who at one point jumped into the crowd during her performance.
Nessa Barrett, donning a white cross on stage and platform sneakers, played her hits “tired of california” and “I hope you’re miserable until ur dead,” and Maggie Rogers absolutely rocked her set in a black dress and sunglasses, playing a mix of songs from her first and second albums. She also did a mash up of her song “Retrograde” with the classic hit “I Wanna Dance with Somebody.”
The folk artists also had their moment this year, with Mt. Joy, The Lumineers, and Noah Kahan playing fully packed stages on Saturday, and Hozier and Mumford and Sons closing out Sunday night. Mt. Joy came out as a surprise guest during Noah Kahan, playing the song they wrote together titled “Emily.” To close out weekend two, Mumford and Sons brought out Hozier to sing “Awake My Soul” and “Sigh No More,” which was a huge hit with fans.
The Rock & Recycle program encouraged festival attendees to pick up a bag of recyclables from the grounds in exchange for a specially designed ACL Fest line-up T-shirt. Other activations included a Tito’s lounge, Hulu House, and a beer hall for folks to enjoy local Texas brews. The Amex and T-Mobile stages also had lounges where fans could win wristbands to see their favorite artist side stage.
From the blinged-out, giant pickup truck to the colorful, iconic flags to the ACL Hollywood Sign, the festival was back in full swing with all its staple photo-spots. From Juiceland to Shake Shack, there were tons of food options at the fest, and even a new stand for non-alcoholic mocktails.
Weekend 1 was for the country music girlies, with Shania Twain donning a bright red wig and a sparkly outfit and singing her hits, including “Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under” and “Man, I Feel Like A Woman.” The Weekend 2 slot was replaced with British pop-rock band The 1975, who played “Robbers” “Chocolate” and “The Sound.”
A new highlight of the year was a drone show that lit up the sky during the headliner nighttime sets, spelling out “ACL Festival” in red lights. Every year, ACL continues to add more activations, top musicians, and with no exception, this year at ACL was not to be missed.
