Continuing the 23-year-long tradition of attracting music lovers everywhere to Texas, Austin City Limits Music Festival kicked off its first weekend on Oct. 3 — guest starring the Texas sun and stirred-up dust — along with plenty of notable artists.

Taking place over two consecutive three-day weekends in Zilker Park, this year hosts over a hundred artists across nine stages. The headliners are Hozier and Luke Combs on Friday, The Strokes and Sabrina Carpenter on Saturday, with John Summit and The Killers closing the festival on Sunday. 

The festival had vendors throughout the park, a new layout with re-branded stages, Eats and Sweets, Drag Bingo and practices to preserve Zilker and the city. As festival-goers braved several obstacles last weekend, none were as prevalent as the blazing heat.

With highs reaching the 90s, the festival added precautions to help cool the dense crowd, like passing out drenched cooling towels and spraying water on attendees with handheld pump sprays as staff walked in between the barricades. 

With green initiatives to broaden their sustainability practices, organizers had hydration stations available throughout the park to fill up water bottles, but still passed out boxed waters to the crowds. 

Weekend one brought the energy and notable moments like Role Model bringing out Hilary Duff as “Sally,” Sabrina Carpenter and Shania Twain dueting “That Don’t Impress Me Much,” Carpenter arresting Djo before “Juno” and Hozier advocating for the rights of underrepresented communities, followed by a performance that flashed the names of impactful artists with their songs that called for change, action and human rights. 

But there was another memorable milestone, as several artists made their ACL Fest debut this year, including Austinite, Dylan Gossett ‘21. After graduating from Texas A&M with a bachelor’s in sport management, Gossett began working in operations at Circuit of the Americas in Austin. 

After posting on YouTube and Instagram, it was his TikTok platform that shot him to stardom in 2023 after his single “Coal” went viral on the app, with which he says he has a “love-hate” relationship. Gossett flashed his Aggie Ring on Friday, Oct. 3, as he made his festival debut, performing on the biggest stage both weekends for a midday set.

“The transition into music was kind of just like a purposeful accident, I guess you could say,” Gossett said. “I was posting online, like hoping something would happen, but never thought anything would, to be honest with you. I was just doing it kind of for [the] fun of it. And then yeah, it just kind of popped off. … It’s kind of just been crazy ever since.”

With music as his passion long before his breakout, he finally released his debut album “Westward” this summer. Gossett loved seeing fans’ responses and said it’s a dream as an artist to put an album out, and said it’s everything he hoped it would be. 

“I’ve been writing songs on that album for years, but I guess I didn’t really know I was maybe working towards it when I was, you know?” Gossett said. “I mean, a lot of the songs were written a week before I submitted it. And then a lot of the songs were written like two years before.”

With shows lined up the rest of the year around the country, Gossett said that although touring comes with difficulties, it has its bright spots. Constantly on the road with his group, he said it’s fun and that it feels a bit like college, but with more extensive work. 

“You’re never home, you’re never really comfortable, you’re always finding things to eat or you’re sleeping in a moving car for every single night,” Gossett said. “… It’s a lot of hurry up and wait. You get to a venue and you’re just sitting there … until your show, and it’s like a dopamine hit, and then you’re back in the green room and it’s quiet. So it’s a challenging thing to figure out, but I think I just have the best support group around me with all the band and all those guys.”

Coming from his biggest headline show yet at MGM Music Hall at Fenway in Boston a week before his ACL set, Gossett said that show and his gig at the late Hurricane Harry’s in 2024 have been some of his favorite venues — even though it was one of the hottest shows he’s ever played because the AC went out. 

He also said Red Rocks and Wolf Pen Creek Amphitheater are two venues he wants to check off his list — hinting at the possibility of returning to Aggieland next year. 

Gossett said he wants people to know that the journey has been a laborious effort, and that although it’s seemed like overnight success, he’s been playing and pouring his soul into music his whole life.

“It’s always been a dream of mine, and this is just the route that we took,” Gossett said. “ … The thing that means the most to me is my lyrics, and that everything we do is just super organic. Like our album had seven total people on it, you know? It’s stuff like that. … It’s just special. I just hope people can kind of take away something personable from it and know that it’s like a real thing.”

While an annual outing for some Austinites, this hometown show is Gossett’s first time ever at the festival. A homecoming for him and some of his band, he said it was a cool experience to be able to come to something that is “so Austin.”  

“It’s so ingrained in Austin, and it’s just special,” Gossett said. “I’m sure I might spot some friends out there, you know? So I’ve been getting DMs, my phone’s being blown up by just all sorts of people, you know? So it’s gonna be a high school reunion out there for sure. So I’m excited.”

Before every show, Gossett said he and his band always say a prayer together, and then break out. Personally, he’ll take some time alone and say a prayer to himself — then it’s show time. Now comfortable in front of thousands echoing his own words right back to him, Gossett said he feels more confident in his craft the more he does it. 

“The more and more you play shows, it becomes your job,” Gossett said. “You kind of know how a crowd receives it. If you’re confident that you’re playing a good show, that’s all that matters. At the end of the day, it’s not like you’re going into a hostile environment. You’re not going into, like, Death Valley [Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge] and everyone hates you and wants you to do badly. Everyone just wants you to play good and have a good time. Everyone’s on the same page. I just feel like I’m going up there and playing karaoke. It’s just fun.”

Gossett will take the American Express stage again this Friday, Oct. 10, as the musician continues to add to Aggie history.