Walked to Zilker Park for day one of Austin City Limits festival.
Made my way to the press lounge and get my mits on everything free, sun cream, smoothies, tacos, snacks and whiskey. Even the food and drink comes from Austin, and yes, it is delicious. Met Jack Antonoff from Bleachers/Fun, Lena Dunham's fella but most importantly the guy who wrote with Taylor Swift on 1989!
Listened to Jimmy Cliff's set whilst waiting for Bleachers on the Miller Lite stage. Jimmy's set was the same as last night and the crowd dug it. Five piece Bleachers powered through debut album Strange Desires with energy and freedom fronted by the charismatic Jack. The perfect performance to get my ACL started.
It was then over to the Samsung Galaxy stage for Paolo Nutini who played a more condensed set compared to last night but still just as flawless. The Scot didn't bother with his jacket this time, probably for the best, his shirt was wet through with sweat as his set was probably during the hottest part of the day. It was another fine performance but not a patch on the previous night, due to circumstances.
America adores Sam Smith. Since arriving I've heard his music being played everywhere. For Brits to break the States I wouldn't have expected it to be this guy but the crowd he pulled on the Miller Lite stage was huge, like ridiculously big. He brought charm and the best bits from his album, In The Lonely Hour as well as a cover of Arctic Monkeys' Do I Wanna Know, from the volume of the crowds screams throughout the set it's safe to say he delivered, I found it a bit dull, it lacked spark but you can't fault his vocals or songs. He's a crowd pleaser and they lapped it up!
It was then over to the Honda stage for something completely different, actor turned rapper Donald Glover, aka Childish Gambino who was so much more fun to snap as he bounced around on stage like he had ants in his pants whilst backed by pyro. I forgot what a tune Heartbeat is. He's pretty slick when it comes to spitting rhymes and so entertaining to watch.
Eminem and Pearl Jam have restricted photographers to those carefully selected for their headline sets, Outkast didn't so it felt pretty special to be in the photo pit for them. I was expecting Andre 3000 to be the one to focus on but it was actually Big Boi who was more interesting to photograph. After the two song allowance we were thrown back into the crowd and I was reminded why I stopped going to festivals. It had been a long day in the heat, my legs ached, the sound was patchy in parts and I couldn't see so I gave up. I'm sure Outkast would have been amazing if you were down the front but when other peoples chat is drowning them out I really couldn't be arsed.
I planned on getting the shuttle bus back in to Downtown but America doesn't really do sign posts and I ended up doing the two mile walk.
