Described as “a once in a lifetime experience … two times a year,” the Austin City Limits music festival had an electric opening weekend. Under the blazing Texas sun and kicked-up dirt, over 100 artists performed across nine stages, attracting hundreds of thousands of festivalgoers.
Held in Zilker Park in Austin, the two-weekend event attracts music lovers and fans from not only around the country — but the world. This year’s headliners include Chris Stapleton, Blink-182, Dua Lipa, with an exhilarating closing led by Sturgill Simpson and Tyler, The Creator.
Beyond the music, the festival has booths for businesses and vendors, eats for days, endless photo-ops and green initiatives to broaden their sustainability practices, including — and very much needed — hydration stations for reusable water bottles. Though ACL is in the heart of Austin and smack in the middle of “enemy territory,” not all Aggies consider it that.
For biology sophomore Lauren Peterson, the festival has become an annual tradition — and a home base for reunions.
“ACL is honestly my highlight because so many of my friends went out of state for school, but we all come home for ACL,” Peterson said. “So I get to see all of my favorite people when I come home, including my family.”
Former students Julia Tisch, Class of 2019, and Mayra Yundt-Pacheco, Class of 2020, have also attended the festival for several years. The former roommates both received their bachelor’s at A&M and master’s at the University of Texas.
The house-divided friends said they were excited to see Foster The People and Chappell Roan, just two of thousands of attendees there to see the Midwest Princess.
Angel Tarrant Boyd, Class of 1987, has attended ACL with her husband almost every year since it began in 2002, only missing the first one.
The live music lovers said they’ve seen The Eagles, Paul McCartney, Alanis Morissette and more impressive names in previous years — this year, they looked forward to adding Roan to that list.
Unsurprisingly, the “Good Luck, Babe!” diva attracted what is believed to be one of the biggest crowds in ACL history. A sea of festivalgoers flooded Zilker with mostly pink cowboy hats or camo caps, some even camping out for hours in preparation.
With tens of thousands in attendance, it’s not uncommon to spot an Ag or two, like what happened to the Tarrant Boyds.
They’ve lived in Austin for 30 years and have Longhorn friends but are always excited to spot other Fightin’ Farmers there who flock to the Boyds’ A&M flag.
“There’s a lot of Aggies here,” Boyd said. “We’ve had at least three or four people take their picture with the Aggie flag, and we hear a lot of ‘Gig ‘ems.’ So we’re pretty happy about that. They need to come on out.”
Along with Roan, several other artists made their ACL debut this year, including Hudson Westbrook. After playing at ACL again this Friday, Westbrook will make his way to Snook to play at the At The Station festival on Saturday.
“I’m hyped for At The Station,” Westbrook said. “I’m excited to go back to College Station. We haven’t been back since we played The Tap … I’m excited to open for people that I look up to. It’s like Wyatt Flores and Megan [Moroney] and Turnpike [Troubadours]. Those dudes are, the girls and the guys — all those people are killing it right now.”
After he saw the ACL invitation hit his inbox, Westbrook said it was an exciting dream gig for his first year of performing.
Although he’s never been to the festival before, he said his band’s first stage performance is what broke him into the groove instantly, making him more comfortable with the ACL crowd.
“The people are great,” Westbrook said. “The stage is great. The crowd’s great, and it’s a little hot but worth every bit of sweat while we were up on stage. But it’s been a good festival. We did Cotton Fest in Lubbock, and that was fun, but this definitely tops that.”
Westbrook has new releases coming out in November and revealed he’ll be back in College Station to play a show soon.
“I love the College Station audience,” Westbrook said. “It’s one of the top two for sure. My hometown [Stephenville] was great. College Station was sick. People are there to have a good time. They love the music. They’re there to support … Anytime my booking agent asks if I want to do a gig in College Station, I say yes.”
The Texas Tech Red Raider said he’d tune in to the football game against Mizzou on Oct. 5 — something he does regularly.
“I might be from Lubbock, but I’m all for the Aggies,” Westbrook said. “I’m all for both. I’ll support both … I’ll always come back and play in Aggieland no matter what … And I hope that they have a good football season, always.”
