ACL Festival 2007

Well, in September we celebrated the ACL Festival in Austin in Zilker Park. ACL stands for Austin City Limits. That's the show on Cable TV that has been running for almost 30 years now that features live music from a studio in Austin Texas. The very first ACL show featured Willy Nelson and throughout the existence of the show it quite often has featured Willy's friends or those who perform similar to Willy. However over time the ACL show has included artists of various kinds of music and we've seen everything covered, including hip-hop rap artists. The festival held in Zilker Park every year though has included more rock n' roll music and in the last couple of years has made every effort to gather more young indie performers. Actually ACL has put on a festival every year since the beginning of the TV show but it was small up until about 5 years ago. Then it became big and was placed in Austin's very large Zilker Park. Typically Zilker Park is full of soccer games on the weekends or people enjoying picnics or any number of other outdoor activities. Zilker Park also features Barton Springs, one of the world's largest spring fed pools and it just happens to sit in the middle of Austin Texas inside Zilker Park. Anyway, the Zilker Park location is wonderful for a rock festival. If you notice the photos I have put up accompanying the blog you might notice that Zilker Park and the surrounding area is quite green with a river running right through the middle of it.

What can I say, overall the ACL Festival is outstanding. The people that run it do everything down to the last detail, even including hand sanitizers in front of the portable bathroom facilities on the festival grounds. The sound is incredible. At other outdoor festivals it often seemed that the loudest band would win. However at ACL one can listen to one band on the edge of their area and not hear other bands playing close by. To hear another band one must move to the area in front of that band's stage. I can remember my one trip to Lollapalooza (sp?) when it seemed like Pearl Jam was everywhere when they were playing regardless of what the other bands were trying to do. But the sound at the ACL Festival is great.


ACL is held in September every year. It is still hot here in Austin. Some years the temperature has climbed up over 100 degrees. In 2007 it was a little cooler but nobody really noticed because we have had a very wet summer and it felt warmer die to the humidity. But even though the festival is held at a hot time of year it is comfortable. On the festival site grounds there are tons of places to get fresh cold water. Misting machines are placed all over. There is also tons of shade. I think most people at the festival really don't suffer because of the heat. There is lots of shade, the coolest pool in the world is nearby and cold water is readily available. It's not too bad, anyway.

This year was wonderful except for the last act, Bob Dylan. I suppose someone thought that ol' Bob could entertain 65,000 people with a nasal twang and little pickin on the 'gitar', but it just didn't make it. There were those who set up to wait for Bob from 11:30am in the park and didn't move from their post until his show. I wasn't one of those, I was gone around 4:30 in the afternoon. Bob has not taken good care of himself and he looked like it. Apparently about 10 minutes into his set the crowd was out the door. Bob would have been much better earlier in the festival and at one of the covered stages with less audience room. Actually he had a wonderful show at Stubb's at their outdoor stage on Saturday night.

Who was good? Hmmmmm, Wilco was awesome - they love Austin and always play great shows here, and lots of them. Robert Earl Keen was his usual rockin' self and he did a wonderful show. Josh Stone, The Decemberists (Figure out that name....) and the Reverend Horton Heat were all awesome. I missed Bjork, but I heard only good things about her show. I know Cross Canadian Ragweed and liked them plenty. Most of the shows were very good. In the past everyone has performed well. In 2006 The Flaming Lips felt the need to carry on about their own political feelings but most of the acts have performed outstandingly well.

And for that last show - why not use the Killers? They played on Friday night and tore the place up. Last year we had Tom Petty for the last band. In 2005 Cold Play was the final act but it was good and the accompanying light show was awesome. Earlier the Black Crowes and various other rocking major acts entertained also. Arcade Fire did a great set on Saturday. Half the room was screaming "Arcade" and the other half screamed "Fire". Neat. Anyway, tons of good music. Just wish that last band had been a little better. Some of the old hippies seemed to enjoy him though. Y'all stay tuned. Check out my pics showing the green around the festival. At times at the ACL Festival you feel surrounded by nature even with all the people and the music. It's really far out.