The first weekend of Austin City Limits Music Festival has come and gone and it will go down as the third year ever Zilker Park was coated in gloopy, yucky mud.
Whether you prefer “RainCL” or “Mud City Limits,” the festival was marked by weather. Hair-raising forecasts warned eight inches of rain may fall in some areas of the city, a flood watch was issued, and attendees waited to see if the festival would end up canceled. Almost two inches of rain were recorded between Thursday and Friday, leaving Zilker Park wet for the fest’s first day.
But despite it all, Austinites and visitors filled the park all weekend long. They clomped through the sludge, donned ponchos as steady rain fell on Friday, and some took it a step further with a mud mosh pit during Turnstile’s set and others straight up rolled around in the goop each day.
Workers spread mulch over mud on Saturday. (Kelsey Bradshaw/City Cast Austin)
Saturday’s opening was delayed by two hours due to the muddy conditions. Festival officials attempted to fix the mud situation on Day 2, bringing in TexasTurf to lay down 60,000 square feet of artificial turf to make it easier to traverse the park. The artificial grass company said they got the call to come out at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday.
Mulch and pallets were laid over the mud, which did not include Dillo Dirt according to the festival, in some areas, too. Tractors shoved mud into piles that were then cordoned off. Trucks laying down pallets and moving mud around could be seen throughout the day.
Austin City Council Member Ryan Alter, who represents a portion of Zilker Park, released a statement saying the company that puts on the festival, C3, needs to be held accountable for the condition of the park.
“ACL is a great event for Austin, its residents, visitors, and our economy but the damage we’ve witnessed to the Great Lawn is unacceptable,” he said.
TexasTurf employees. (Kelsey Bradshaw/City Cast Austin)
What will happen with the mud for Weekend 2 is yet to be seen. But if you can handle being a little dirty, the mud, which did not smell great, wasn’t too bad. It may have even been preferable — we didn’t walk away from the festival covered in sweat and dust with a sunburn. Instead, temperatures were nice and with the right footwear, at least our feet stayed dry.
As for the music, it was business as usual. Love or hate the lineup, but each artist we saw put on a great show. Charli XCX turned the park into our favorite club ever on Friday night. She captivated the crowd with incredible dancing and pyrotechnics. Australian pop star Troye Sivan made a guest appearance, which was a great treat, and was a highlight of the show.
Young Miko was effortlessly cool and mesmerized the crowd with hit after hit, Bleachers had us nostalgic for the 2010s, and Lorde reminded us that she freaking rules.
All in all, ACL Fest was wonderful. It had its quirks this year, but it was as fun as ever and had us feeling wistful about the city we currently live in. How great is it to live here? Here’s to another 25 years of ACL Fest!
City Cast Austin’s Elissa Castles and Becky Fogel contributed to this report.
