More than 100 artists, 450,000 attendees, nine stages, multiple lane closures, two weekends, and one crazy city! Austin, Texas has just wrapped up its 23rd live music festival, Austin City Limits!
“A moment I won’t forget was being able to see one of my favorite artists, Sabrina Carpenter, live! It tied the whole ACL experience together for me,” junior, Gisele Turman, remarked.
An annual event since it was first held in 2002, ACL has become one of the most popular, talked about, and looked forward to events of the whole year from music fans around the world. Although at the start tickets were free, and now have gone up to at least 170 dollars, the event is still booming with anticipation and excitement as thousands of people flood Zilker Park for a chance to experience an incredible music festival talked about more than two decades later.
“At night it turns into a very crowded, loud, and fun party with people completely dressed up,” Turman reminisced, “…when we were watching Cage the Elephant, someone came to watch in a full homemade elephant costume!”
ACL is held in either September or October of every year in an outdoor venue; artists and attendees are very rarely greeted with ideal weather. “It was very hot and super dusty,” says Avrie Molina Sindrey, a junior who attended this year’s festival. In the past, ACL has been met with extreme and diverse weather conditions; rainstorms built large mud pits, and droughts resulting in dust storms. Despite this, fans have continued to tough it out for the opportunity to see their favorite artists and enjoy time with friends and family. Sindrey explains she had been looking forward to “watching Empire Sun live, and Luke Combs.”
While our school consists of diverse personalities and interests, there is a shared love for music by many of the staff and students. Among Sindrey, many other high school students and faculty are brought together creating a thriving community sharing social media posts and telling their new stories to their friends when they return back to school.
In an interview, Allsion Mathias explained “I loved spending time with my cousins at ACL, there was amazing music, great food, and so many unforgettable memories made!”
Every year ACL aims to top their last performance by recruiting artists in the highest demand and making the show louder and more extravagant. This year showcased Hozier, The Strokes, John Summit and many more artists from a large variety of genres.
“I loved getting to experience a variety of genres of music at ACL,” reported Mathias. “Experiencing so many new artists and their incredible talent and hard work [it] really deepened my appreciation for music.”
Before the dust settles on the closing performance, people anxiously await the release of next year’s line-up and of course, begin asking the million dollar question: will it be the best year yet?
