Austin City Limits Music Festival
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The Austin City Limits Music Festival is an annual three-day music festival in Austin, Texas's Zilker Park. The Festival brings together more than 130 bands on eight stages, including rock, country, folk, indie, Americana, hip-hop, reggae, and bluegrass, and attracts a crowd of more then 65,000 visitors each day. Named after the legendary PBS concert series, the festival is produced by C3 Presents, who also co-produce the Lollapalooza festival.
In a very short time the Austin City Limits Music Festival has joined Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, and Coachella as the United States’ premier rock festivals.[citation needed]
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[edit] Festival policies
Concert goers that have three-day pass wristbands can leave and re-enter at any time. Those with one-day passes cannot re-enter. Allowed items include: Two 32oz sealed water bottles, umbrellas, and folding chairs (there is a restriction on how close chairs can be moved to the stage). There is no car parking near the festival. Most concert goers park downtown and take free shuttle buses. Bicycle parking is available, though cyclists must provide their own locks. Outside food is not allowed inside the festival; however, vendors provide food and alcohol inside.
[edit] Weather
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Although the average high in Austin for the last two weeks of September is 88 degrees Fahrenheit, recently the event has endured above average temperatures and humidity. The high temperature for 2004 during the festival was 96 degrees. In 2005 the highs were 99 and 108 degrees. The temperatures reached 99 degrees in 2006. ACL has worked with the City of Austin to install a massive irrigation system to eliminate dust concerns during the Festival. In 2006 they also targeted dust patches by putting down mulch, ending most of the dust problems. Tents and other stations have been set up and equipped with fan misters. Organizers had historically not wanted to move the festival into October due to conflicts with hotel room availability on UT football weekends, increased chance of rain, and the reduced chance of booking bands on summer tour. However, festival took place in October for the first time in 2009. The 2009 ACL Fest experienced strong rain on Saturday, and clouds on Sunday, resulting in muddy grass, and many umbrellas.
[edit] Location advantages
Austin City Limits is a very popular event in Texas for rock, indie, blues, world/ethnic contemporary and traditional, reggae, eclectic, fusion, electronic, soul, folk/Americana and almost all other music fans. Major metropolitan areas Dallas, San Antonio and Houston are each within a 3 hour drive of Austin. Zilker Park also features nearby Nature City and its gardens, the botanical gardens and Barton Springs pool, beach volley ball courts and a rock formation in Zilker park. The festival is located near downtown Austin, where many artists perform after-shows after they play at the festival.[1]
[edit] Relationship to television series
The historic Austin City Limits television series focused for many years on Texas singer/songwriters, country and folk performers, and instrument specialists. That is changing as the award-winning television series now resembles the Festival lineup and spotlights artists of every musical genre from rhythm and blues to rock, jazz, and alternative. Performers who have appeared on both the PBS show and the Festival in recent years have included:
[edit] 2009
The 2009 festival took place on October 2–4, 2009. Performers included:
[edit] 2008
The 2008 edition took place September 26–28, 2008.
Official Lineup
[edit] 2007
The 2007 Austin City Limits Music Festival occurred September 14 15, 16 in Zilker Park. Several acts, including Amy Winehouse The White Stripes and Rodrigo y Gabriela cancelled their appearances at the festival due to health reasons, the latter two on very short notice. The scheduled performance by Saturday headliner, The White Stripes was replaced by moving already scheduled Muse into the headlining slot.
Other notable moments include Friday when a propane tank was ignited and a fire broke out in the service area, burning down two trailers and several port-o-potties. Four people who were working at the festival were injured, two of them seriously. A second fire broke out on the speaker stack at the AT&T stage during Björk's set, but it was quickly extinguished and no injuries were reported.[2]
The following artists performed at the festival:
[edit] 2006
[edit] Highlights
- Ben Kweller suffered a nosebleed during his set. He attempted to stem the flow by inserting a tampon, thrown to him by an audience member, into his nostril. The tampon expanded painfully and then he removed it. Kweller performed two more songs until he had to leave the stage.[3] The next day when The Flaming Lips performed, lead singer Wayne Coyne asked the audience to throw tampons at him to help mop up his signature fake blood. It continued to rain tampons on the band for well over two songs.
[edit] 2006
[edit] Lineup
[edit] 2005
The 2005 Austin City Limits Festival won Pollstar's Festival of the Year Award. This was also the infamous "Dust Bowl" year where dust kicked up by the festival crowd made it difficult for audiences to breathe. The following year, sprinklers were installed in Zilker Park to remedy this problem.
[edit] Lineup
Last minute replacement acts included:
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Several acts were scheduled to appear, but cancelled due to transportation issues arising from Hurricane Rita, they included:
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[edit] 2004
The 2004 festival had eight stages, and, on the second day of the festival, a top attendance of 75,000 people.
[edit] Lineup
[edit] 2003
[edit] Lineup
[edit] 2002
2002 was the inaugural year of the festival. Unlike subsequent years, it was a 2-day event only.
[edit] Lineup
[edit] See also
- South by Southwest (SXSW), another music festival in Austin
[edit] References
- ^ Austin American Statesman
- ^ austin360.com
- ^ Rolling Stone, The 10 Best Shows at Austin City Limits
[edit] External links
Coordinates: 30°16′3.216″N 97°46′1.776″W / 30.26756°N 97.76716°W
