Our Huckleberry View in a nutshell:
Music 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵
Sound 🎵
Lighting 🎵 🎵 🎵
Layout 🎵 🎵 🎵
Vibe 🎵 🎵 🎵
Food 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵
Overall 🎵 🎵 🎵
From Sea.Hear.Now we raced through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Nebraska to get to Denver, CO in time to see the Revivalists at Red Rocks. What an awesome venue. Check out some pics and videos on our Events page. Then we meandered our way through Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Texas to finally end up in Austin for Austin City Limits. We had a fabulous trip and we have included some pics and videos from our journey. But what we are really hear to talk about is ACL. And we have some things to say. We set up camp on Thursday night at the Pecan Grove RV Park which was ridiculously close to Zilker Park where the festival was to be held. Immediately, we started having trouble. We spent an hour trying to figure out why we couldn’t get power from the site’s electrical hook-up until finally we realized the power source at the site was messed up so we had to request a new site. Luckily they had one. So we broke down camp and moved to the new site, only to have the high water pressure from the site’s water source make a hose burst on our RV – which we did not realize until a camping neighbor knocked on our door to tell us we were leaking something. After some investigation, Mike had to catch a Lyft to Home Depot to buy the materials to fix it. Thank goodness he is so handy! Finally, we could go to bed tonight knowing we had water and electricity. We finally got our butts out to Barton Springs Road and grabbed some dinner at Juliet Italian Kitchen. We were feeling much better after a bottle of Barolo. The staff there was great. Our bartender, Javi, we learned was a full-timer at Pecan Grove, so we were practically neighbors. And we met a nice couple from the area, Meghan and (oh man, we can’t remember his name). Meghan has been to tons of ACL festivals, so she got us excited for the weekend. We were going to make a point to stop at Juliet’s at the end of each night to download. We were finally ready for the festival.
Day 1
Or so we thought. It had been pouring in Austin which had been a bummer for us, but they really needed the rain here as they had been in somewhat of a drought. Well, bigger bummer for us as the new vent that the Campers Inn folks put in this past spring to replace the broken one started to leak. Badly. Mike had to make another trip to Home Depot to get some silicone and tape and then had to borrow a ladder from the RV Park folks (thanks for helping us out with that, Pecan Grove) to stop the leak. So, we had to miss seeing the early bands we wanted to catch, but at least now, yes we have water, but only coming in through the faucets and not through the roof.
As we approached the venue, we were met with folks giving out lots of free stuff…coffee, energy drinks…we spun a wheel and Mike won a bandana and Colette won a free appetizer at the new restaurant Oria. We also were handed a flyer for a dispensary across the street that sold pre-rolls, flower and…mushrooms? For being a conservative state, Texas certainly is free-wheeling with the mind-altering drugs. This should be an interesting festival… (postscript…the mid-term elections proved that perhaps Texas is not so conservative after all!!).
We breezed through the VIP entrance. After all, it was a Friday in the early afternoon and it had been pouring. We entered the VIP Grove East and were immediately impressed. First of all, all beverages were complimentary, including beer, wine and mixed drinks. We had forgotten about that VIP perk! Also, the food options were extensive. We grabbed some hummus with beef brisket and pita bread to hold us over. Delicious.
We headed upstairs to check out the stadium seating in the VIP section. It’s a first come, first served kind of set up but there was plenty of space up there this early in the day. We had a great view from afar of CMAT on the American Express stage. They were having a blast up there and the crowd loved them.
After wandering around the expansive VIP area in the East, which sported some lovely outdoor furniture as well as a large, covered, air conditioned space where you could take a load off, we decided to wander out into the main festival area.
It was definitely getting muddy. Thank goodness we brought our mud boots that we bought way back when on our trip to the South Star Festival in Alabama. By the end of the day, our boots were covered as well as a good portion of our calves!
So, at least on Friday, this was a young person’s festival. We had to look high and low to see anyone who came close to being near our age. And there were lots of places to take selfies. And there was a lot of selfie picture taking going on. And we mean A LOT! We have never seen so much posing since…well, like, ever.
We made our way over to the VIP Grove West. Along the way we saw LP on the Snapchat Stage. LP stands for Laura Pergolizzi. Not only is she a powerful performer, but she also is a prolific songwriter and has written songs for the likes of Rihanna, Christian Aguileara, the Backstreet Boys and Celine Dion. Quite a talent!
Speaking of Snapchat, they had a super long line at their vendor area which, we guess, had a booth for taking a picture and from there…we have no idea. They post the pics on Snapchat? We will never know because we would never stand in a line that long, especially just for a pic.
We ventured into the VIP Grove West area. It is the polar opposite of the East area. It sits between the small BMI stage and the 2nd main stage – the T-Mobile stage. And across the way is the Miller Lite stage. What a sound disaster! The BMI and Lite stages have performances going on at the same time and you can hear them both. You need to be right in front of each stage if you want to hear without distraction from the other performance. This field is just too small to have no less than 7 stages. We harken back to Bourbon & Beyond and the discussion we had with folks there about how the venue had improved because the year before there was distraction from performances going on at the same time. Changing the set up fixed the problem. We don’t know how you would fix the problem here. There is only so much room at Zilker Park. Maybe nix at least one of the stages.
The food options in West were quite limited. As was the seating. There was some comfortable seating along the aisle underneath the stadium seating, but that must get packed later in the evening. We did not stay in the West area long.
There was a nice large covered area in the General Admission area that we decided to check out while Paris Paloma was finishing her set. We had never heard of her, but certainly the young folk around us had. They were singing right along with some of her songs. Once she finished, some spots right up at the front of the covered area opened up, so we planted ourselves there waiting for Brandon Flowers to start on the Lite Stage. We were able to easily listen to Jesse Welles. He had a slew of old protest songs, including War Isn’t Murder. He has a wonderful voice and is a great guitarist. He played his own songs, but also covered folks from Ozzy Osbourne/Black Sabbath to Tom Petty. Quite the range!
Brandon hit the stage to tons of applause and started right away with some country stuff. He then sang a Killers song, which made us happy, then continued on with some more country. Colette HAD to hit the bathroom, so we went to make our way back to VIP East with every intention of returning to watch the rest of Brandon’s set from the lawn…well, mud pit. What a mistake! It was PACKED in front of the Snapchat stage for some electronic performance by BUNT. Mud+Crowd+No walkway = Claustrophobia. We were having flashbacks to our first Boston Calling festival. We finally made it into the VIP entrance, but we knew then we were not going to make it back in time to see the end of the Brandon Flowers set as it took forever to get through that crowd. So we grabbed a chicken pecan salad sandwich to share ($24! It was delicious, but that’s just highway robber!!) and sat down in a comfy seat to enjoy it.
We did venture back because we (thought we) wanted to see Turnstile. There was some loud heavy metal acton going on over there and a muddy mosh pit in the front of the stage. This was not our scene, so we fought our way back to the East Grove to take a load off.
We were excited to see a screen of the stage in the seating area, but lo and behold. It was not the performance from the nearby American Express stage next to where we were sitting. It was the performance from the T-Mobile stage and Turnstile. Once again, competing sound. We decided to bag that and go up into the stadium seating so we could just hear Labrinth on the Amex stage without a competing band in our ear. Well, that wasn’t working out so well, because you could still hear the heavy bass sound coming from the T-Mobile stage, which was quite distracting when trying to listen to the smooth sounds of Labrinth. We would have to get closer to the American Express stage to hear just his performance, but at that point, we were done and decided to head out. And, whoa, there was now a line to get into the stadium seating to see Charli XCX. And some guy was arguing with the security person trying to talk his way into going in the exit. Bonehead. We were gone.
We dropped in to Oria to enjoy a couple of appetizers, including the free one Colette won. The bartender was great and we struck up a great conversation with a gentleman near us who confirmed, yes, ACL is a young person’s festival. We could understand why when we were in Lubbock, Tx and met Rebekah and Jeff from Firefly Vineyard how we should be going to South by Southwest, not ACL. Well, the jury was still out. We will see what the next couple of days brings.
We then stopped back at Juliet’s and got a fantastic hug from one of the bartenders from the night before. He was working the door and made us feel great! We sat at the bar and quickly fell into a conversation with Sheree and Chase. She is an Instagram influencer who promotes things going on in and around Austin. They whisked us away and brought us on an Uber ride to De Nada for Margaritas and Tacos. What a whirlwind. The night ended on a terrific note. We headed “home,” showered up to remove the day’s mud, and settled in to make ready for Day 2. The festival organizers have some work to do to ensure there are not “muddy” disasters. Memories of the cancelled Day 2 of South Star can’t help but swirl around in our minds.
Day 2
Thankfully, the remainder of the festival did not get cancelled, but there was a delayed opening, putting off the start of the festival for a couple of hours so they could deal with all the mud.
When we did walk in, they were still working at it with some pretty awesome mud suck-up trucks. Though the whole place smelled like poop, so perhaps these trucks serve a dual purpose…somedays mud, most days excrement.
Due to the delayed opening, it meant we were going to be getting performances early in the day on a lot of the stages at once. Well, we learned from yesterday, if you want to hear sound from only one stage, you better get closer up. Unlike the other festivals we have gone to, there is no dedicated up close viewing area for the VIP section…that is only for Platinum and above. Which was okay since we found we could get close up at most stages without too much of a problem (we didn’t really give that too much of a go at the main American Express stage).
We started our day bopping between the Miller Lite and T-Mobile stages which were right next to each other and thankfully did NOT have bands playing at the same time. Though, the end of Temper City’s set at the Lite stage did run into the beginning of Balu Brigada’s set on the
T-mobile stage. No complaints…at least the festival organizers worked it out that most everyone was still able to play their sets. Both bands were great. The proximity to each other had its benefits in that you could head over to the larger T-Mobile stage and still hear the last bit of the band from the Miller Lite stage and it was fairly easy to get from one stage to the other.
We watched Arcy Drive from the covered GA area which is nice and close to the Lite stage. If you get there soon enough, you can get up towards the front…and have a place to put your drink. Win win. Toward the end of the set we zoomed back over to the T-Mobile Stage to experience Suki Waterhouse. She had a lot of young fans who looked a lot like her. She is very well choreographed. She could be taking instagram pictures of herself up there, though the on-stage cameras were doing a good job of that. Something of note…this place is an Instagram selfie haven. We have never seen so many folks stopping to make kissy faces while holding cameras above their heads to get just the right shot.
We went to grab a quick bite before the Bleachers set and lo and behold! Yea, you might be getting free drinks in the VIP area, but they make up for it by cranking up the prices on food. That $24 chicken salad sandwich from yesterday? Over in GA, you could get its own spin on chicken salad WITH jalapeño chips for $15! So, the moral of the story? Drink in VIP, eat in GA. The food around here is actually pretty exceptional with lots of variety, both in GA and VIP.
We also found a better way to travel between the 2 VIP areas. Yesterday, we were slogging through the crowd in front of the Snapchat stage. But you could go BEHIND the Snapchat stage and swing by the Beatbox Stage…with no mud to speak of, by the way. And the area here had even more food vendors, was covered with astroturf, or something quite similar. And when you popped out, you were nearly in front of the Grove East VIP section.
By the way, we did notice that as the day progressed, more and more folks were coming in. We expected it would be getting a bit crowded by the end of the night.
This festival was closest to Life is Beautiful in vibe than any we have been to to date. Folks were dressed like Eve never ate the apple, Colette would have never considered wearing her slip as an actual dress, and wearing white at a mud festival? That’s damn brave.
Bleachers at the T-Mobile stage was excellent. Jack Antonoff knows how to play to a crowd and got every going. He had us getting low to the ground for a couple of songs (man…our knees…) to then pop up and do some fun dancing. And he even brought his dad on stage to play the guitar for one song! Awesome. Someone our age is at this place 🙂
So, the vibe around here is interesting. Certainly it’s a ton of fun for young people. And they generally were quick to engage if you had something fun to say to them (listen to us…it’s like we were talking about some alien creatures). There were a few more older folks (and I mean…like over 30) here than there were yesterday. But certainly, we are not having any meaningful conversations with anyone. Not even back at the campground which is more of a spot for full-timers than festival goers and there is no room to set up any outside space. Not that we would anyway with all the rain and wetness, but still.
But back to the campground we did go because our feet were killing us from walking around in mud boots for 2 days straight. We did make it up to the stadium seating at the Amex Stage before we left to catch Lola Young’s last song of her set which was, thankfully, Messy. All of us knew all the words and she certainly encouraged everyone to sing along for the chorus. So glad we caught her.
So after a late night on Friday, we went back, kicked up our feet, and rested up for a full day on Sunday.
Day 3
Sunday – the day we decided to dig in. Now that we knew the best way to travel around this Park and that to minimize the mix up of sound from numerous stages, we ventured up close to each stage. Even without being close, this is the first musical festival we really felt like we needed ear plugs. It will be our next purchase, especially since the Van’s Warped Tour is next on our list.
On our way to get up close to see Dexter and the Moonrocks on the Amex Stage, we took a beat to listen to Sunday 1994. What a beautiful voice the lead singer, Paige Turner, has. Their genre is “Dream Pop.” That was a new one for us.
We have missed a couple of opportunities to see Dexter and Moonrocks so even though it was raining a little heavier than we anticipated, we joined the crowd in GA section in front of the stage and rocked out with everyone. VIP does not have its own seating area in front of the stage like most other festivals we have gone to..they just have the covered stadium seats…which are great for keeping dry and out of the sun, but you can still catch some sound from other stages up there and unless you can get right to the front of the seating area, your view is obstructed by other peoples’ heads.
Thankfully we didn’t get too close because a literal mosh pit was developing and we weren’t sure we were quite ready for that. But we enjoyed dancing to the music in our safe space, close but not too close, before heading over to the Lite Stage to catch an act there. But we were stopped in our tracks by Fancy (Jake) Hagood at the BMI Stage. The Stage was very intimate and you could really feel the music. Listening to his music was like listening to music from home in Vermont. Fancy is a country pop artist (we thought it to be leaning more folkish) and his voice was perfection. He was very open with the audience about his life and times and how each song he played came together and represented what was going on in his life during the time. We swear he was standing next to us while we watched Bleachers just based on his openness and whoever that person was in the audience with us was clearly an artist. We could be totally wrong, but we are going with it. We watched his whole set and blew off going to watch the artist we originally planned on seeing.
We grabbed a bite…there are so many options here! We have never seen such yummy food at a festival. Everything from the beef brisket with hummus we had yesterday to elaborate rice bowls to delectable desserts. Delicious.
We made our way back into the crowd to watch Saint Motel on the Miller Lite stage. More dancing ensued. The band is very entertaining and we had a lot of fun. We met a very nice young lady there who was with her dad and there was another nice younger couple next to us. We were quire close to the front of the stage and we tried our best to hold our ground as of course, being a younger crowd, at the last minute there were young folk trying to muscle their way to the front. There is a subset of folks that will pretend they are looking for friends, will text or call on their phone to theoretically try to find them, but then just stand where they land…sometimes right in front of you. We had caught on by this time and did a pretty good job holding our ground, but a couple did slip through the cracks…the VERY aggressive ones.
Something good about the layout. Though the festival is held at this one park, with a lot of stages, it is level and you don’t have to put a ton of miles on your feet getting from stage to stage. We also came upon the Beatbox Stage and watched a musical artist by herself singing to, well, a Beatbox. And the crowd was going wild! She goes by “underscores” and her music is deemed hyperpop/electropop/dubstep. Again, we aren’t too familiar with this type of music, but lots of young folk sure are!!
Also in our travels today we came upon the Tito’s Stage. A band was about to start up there named Rio Kosta. The stage is very intimate so we are sure it was an up close and personal experience in there.
On our way back to the Amex Stage to watch Sofi Tukker, we caught the last set of Cannons. We found out where all the insta-gang is! We have not seen…and would not see… them at almost any of the bands we chose to watch tonight. We were around more folk like us which was very comforting.
To continue on our musical journey, we hung in the back of the crowd to catch a little Sofi Tukker. We knew what to expect from this duo of Sophie Hawley-Weld and Tucker Halpern. They play fun electronic music and thought it best we let the young folk enjoy the music towards the front. We caught their first and last songs, both of which we knew.
We chose to travel over to the T-Mobile stage to watch Geese. We were intrigued by them at Minnesota Yacht Club so we wanted to get a better view and feel for them here where we knew we could get up a bit closer. We are glad we did. We loved them. Perfect chaos.
We were certainly surrounded by compatriots as we watched The War and the Treaty on the Snapchat stage. Again, we were enjoying this festival much more today as we knew more about the bands we were seeing and were surrounded by folks that were at least a little bit older…not everyone around us was in their teens and twenties.
We learned here that it is important at these festivals to go see what you know and like, look for some surprises on smaller stages, and dig in. Surround yourself by the crowed and get as close to the stage as you feel comfortable. And always have an exit plan. Try to position yourself where you can easily get out if you want to leave earlier than the rest of the crowd.
We did just that when we watched Twenty One Pilots, the last act of the evening. Rather than take the easy way out and sit up in the stadium seating (we did give that a shot…we couldn’t get close enough to see anything) we found a place on the field just behind a lawn chair with a top knowing no one could stand in front of us. We ended up being just in back of a group who had a blanket spread out with the chair on it and the momma bear in charge encouraged us to work our way in to prevent others from crowding us. She was a great planner! We had a great spot to watch and were close to a walkway through the mud that we knew we could follow to get ourselves out of the crowd. We watched most of the set. Twenty One Pilots got the crowd going, with fire and smoke…all the theatricals…but we were able to make an easy exit to leave the Park before the crowds. There were a few of us leaving and it was pretty easy to vamoose.
We made our way for a late night snack and a night cap at Juliet’s with our neighbor bartender Javi (probably spelling that wrong) to wind down after a great day.
Knowing now that this festival is so close to downtown Austin, but far enough away that it is hard to work it into festival watching, you may want to plan for a couple more days to enjoy more of the actual city. We unfortunately had to rush home for our annual Columbus Day weekend plans so will have to put off visiting downtown Austin for another day…Perhaps for South by Southwest? Time will tell.
In any case, before venturing to ACL, you should understand your comfort level with being around teen and young adults in various states of dress. And ensure that there are a fair amount of bands that you enjoy. You will be on the older side of things, so make sure you are comfortable with the Austin City Age Limits.