Right! It's just a few days to go till the first weekend of Austin City Limits Festival now, I might have another week to wait but the line-up is looking mouth watering! Austin, the state capital of Texas calls itself the 'Live Music Capital of the World' with its 200 music venues and the industry favorite SXSW but ACL is more for the locals as it draws huge acts whilst being overlooked as the likes of Coachella and Lollapalooza who grab the headlines.
Nestled in Zilker Parks 350 acres of greenry with a backdrop of Austin's evolving skyline, neighbouring a lido the size of three football pitches, it sounds like paradise. Austinites love music but they also love food and their community and ACL has that covered too! There's an area dedicated to food at the festival, not the normal festival food of dodgy burgers and greasy chips, they bring in the cities top chefs and street food vendors offering delicious, locally sauced grub.
But, ACL is a music festival and whatever people say about music festivals being 'not being about the music' are just kidding themselves. The other bits are nice additions/distractions but you can eat tasty food outside of the festival fences but you can't enjoy the eclectic sounds coming from the eight stages over three days.
As diversity goes, the bookers for the festival have done a great job as they have picked the cream of the crop from a range of genres. Friday and Saturday headliners are both iconic in hip hop but it is impossible to compare Outkast and Eminem other than their genre. Both have played major roles in taking hip-hop to the masses with chart friendly rhymes. Then there's festival closers Pearl Jam who are legendary as they have influenced rock bands having formed in the 90's grunge scene of Seattle.
Away from the main stage you'll find more big names, Americana individualist Beck performs on the Samsung Galaxy stage on the first night whilst the stages hosts to of EDM's biggest names, Skrillex on Saturday then Calvin Harris on the Sunday, both likely to prove that dance music is no longer boring in a live setting.
If you have a broad taste in music and want to see the best big names you know where to go.
SO excited.
