The Austin City Limits music festival is a yearly event in Austin, Texas that thousands of people look forward to each year.
Every fall, over 100 bands play in Austin’s Zilker Park. Tickets often sell out soon after going on sale months in advance.
ACL has grown so popular that one weekend per year wasn’t cutting it for festivalgoers.
For the first time in 12 years, ACL took place over two weekends instead of one.
After nine consecutive years of tickets selling out, the festival planners decided to extend the length of ACL to accommodate more fans.
The first weekend took place Oct. 4 to Oct. 6 and the second weekend started Friday and was scheduled to continue through Sunday.
Headliners for both weekends included Depeche Mode, The Cure, Muse, Kings of Leon, Phoenix, Wilco, Vampire Weekend, The National, Passion Pit, Lionel Richie and other artists.
This year, the second weekend fell over SMU’s fall break, making it the perfect opportunity for students to head to Austin for the three-day event.
“The best band of the weekend was Kings of Leon by far,” first-year Emily Fann said.
“I was initially disappointed when they didn’t play my favorite songs but then a dramatic encore followed by a ridiculous amount of rain made ‘Sex on Fire’ and ‘Use Somebody’ the top performances of the weekend.”
While the rain on Saturday evening made the concerts memorable, it also caused the festival to wrap up early in Zilker Park.
Heavy rain, thunderstorms and flash flooding led the final day to be cancelled.
Over 40 acts were scheduled to perform on Sunday, including headliners Lionel Richie and Atoms for Peace, both of which were fan favorites during the first weekend.
“Sunday being cancelled put a damper on my weekend because I was looking forward to hearing a lot of the artists,” junior Stephanie Lau said.
“There’s not too much to do in Austin when it’s pouring rain since a lot of things to do and see are outdoors,” she added.
Organizers posted on the festival’s website that a third of the ticket price will be refunded to ticket buyers based on the original price paid.
“Our first priority is always the safety of our fans, staff and artists. We regret having to cancel the show today, but safety always comes first,” Shelby Meade, the festival’s promoter, said in the statement.
Despite the fact that ACL was shorter than expected, students still enjoyed Friday and Saturday and look forward to returning to ACL next fall.
“Now I really want to go back next year to experience the full three days,” Lau said.
