(Katie Tufts/ The Daily Campus)
After a successful weekend at the Austin City Limits festival, many concert-goers suffer a devastating case of the Mondays.
The Austin City Limits festival, better known as ACL, put on its 10th year of three- day concert bliss at Zilker Park in downtown Austin. Only 200 miles south of Dallas, many students hit IH-35 in anticipation of over 130 bands and over 70,000 fans each day.
This year headliners included Arcade Fire, Kanye West, Coldplay, My Morning Jacket, Manu Chao and Stevie Wonder. A great lineup and a few difficult schedule conflicts, many fans had to choose between Kanye West or Coldplay Friday night, and My Morning Jacket or Stevie Wonder.
Zilker Park was full of eight stages, 30 different food stands and even an art market with arts and crafts and cool local merchandise. The food stands comprised of all local restaurants, and proved to go above and beyond any type of festival food. They strayed away from the typical turkey legs and went straight for five star restaurants like Hudson’s on the Bend’s Mighty Cone.
Friday began with a sudden downpour, which Austin has not seen all summer. Lucky for festival attendees, the rain stopped right in time for the influx of crowds entering late that afternoon. The skies remained overcast for much of the afternoon and evening, and a slightly cool breeze even relieved the crowds. Something ACL has never felt.
Some shows that afternoon included Ray Lamontagne, Foster the People, Kanye West, Coldplay, Nas & Damian Marley, Cold War Kids, Santigold, Sara Bareilles and Pretty Lights. Ray Lamontagne soothed the crowd with his raspy voice and acoustic guitar, playing tunes old and new.
Foster the People wowed the entire crowd, sounding better than their recorded albums, some said. Because of the timing of ACL, Foster the People was just gaining popularity when they signed up to play the festival. As a result, they played on the Google+ stage, which ended up being much too small for the large crowd they drew. Their young band played song after song with enough energy for all of Zilker Park.
Kanye West took over at the Bud Light stage as Coldplay played on the AMD stage, ending the night in very conflicting genres. As Chris Martin of Coldplay thanked the audience for choosing Coldplay that night, Kanye West appeared up on top of a sound rack, going right into “Act I” without acknowledging the crowd. Both ended up being very successful performances.
Saturday came with rain. By late afternoon, the rain disappeared and the weather turned out to be a little damp, but very comfortable. Headliners that day were Stevie Wonder and My Morning Jacket, splitting the crowd into two distinctive halves of the park. Stevie Wonder got the whole park dancing and clapping their hands to all of his top 40 hits he’s held throughout the year. From “Isn’t She Lovely?” to “Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m Yours,” Wonder sang his heart out and even mixed in his optimistic views of life here on planet earth. People smiled and cheered as he declared his political views for all of Austin to hear.
Other artists that day included Cee Lo, Skrillex and TV on the Radio. Cee Lo embarrassed the crowd several times with crude mutterings over the microphone, a strange rendition of the Pussycat Doll’s “Don’t’ Cha,” and even flashed his large belly at the audience. Formerly known as Gnarls Barkley, Cee Lo Green was overly exhausted during his performance that by the time his hit “F#&% You” began, he could hardly get the words out. Instead, he clapped his hands as the crowd sang the song for him.
Sunday rolled around, and just like Texas weather, it was back to the strong sun and lots of heat. Headliners this day were Arcade Fire, Manu Chao and Empire of the Sun.
Marking a successful 10 years of ACL, hipsters, hippies, electro-lovers, or just music lovers in general were able to go home with smiles on their faces. Despite sore bodies and overall exhaustion from the festival, fans went home Sunday evening with smiles on their faces, humming tunes from Stevie Wonder to Jack Ingram to Arcade Fire.
