ACL 2013...Austin City Limits Music Festival

Yep...I won two 3-day wrist bands for the 2nd weekend of ACL!! 2 weeks ago I received an e-mail from SiriusXM that went out to approx 27,000 Austin area subscribers to win 2 3-day passes to ACL. All you had to do was click the link in the e-mail at 3pm and if you were fast enough you won tickets...luckily I'm a fast clicker and won!! I was so excited because I rarely win anything - but maybe my luck is changing?? I guess I was really lucky considering I cancelled my SiriusXM subscription several months ago :)

For different scheduling reasons we decided it was better if Justin didn't go (since you're not supposed to share wristbands) and luckily Lauren was able to come down and go with me! She arrived around 2:30 Friday afternoon and we promptly headed downtown to try and get to fun. by 4pm.

We decided to try and park west of Mopac near Lake Austin Blvd due to a recommendation from my dad's friend that went to ACL the first weekend. We found a perfect parking spot that I was able to parallel park in (score!) but there was a lady standing in the yard next door staring us down. After a few minutes of deliberating we decided we better not risk it (there were signs that said no event parking in neighborhood) and headed to downtown. Lauren pulled up the ACL parking map so we were looking for a lot/garage near Republic Park where the free shuttle to ACL was running. After meandering through all the downtown construction we ended up at the Frost Bank tower and parked in the garage. It was around 3:25 when we parked so we started booking it to Zilker Park. After a 2 mile walk in the warm afternoon sun we made it to Zilker and sat down at 3:59 just in time for fun. we were SO excited! We were discussing how we would get back to the car since it would be dark and the way we went would be scary so we considered a pedicab or regular cab when all the sudden I realized we could just take the shuttle...duh! Well then 5 minutes later I realized we found a parking garage close to the shuttle so we could take that to the festival...NOT walk 2 miles!! Major DUH! How both of us forgot about the shuttle is beyond me...it must have been our determination to see fun. haha!

Friday Evening we saw fun. Vampire Weekend, Queens of the Stone Age, Muse & a little bit of Depeche Mode.

fun. - Amazing!!
Vampire Weekend - So good!
Queens of the Stone Age - Not my kind of music 
Muse - They were alright (we didn't stay for the whole thing)
Depeche Mode - We listened to them as we were leaving and think we would have enjoyed them more than Muse!

Beautiful day!

Just in time for fun.!

fun.

The ACL moon :)

It rained for about 20 mins during Queens of the Stone Age - our ponchos came in handy!

Muse

Saturday morning Lauren and I went to Top Golf with Justin and one of his friends from work. It was Lauren's first time but you could see the skill from her golf lessons when she was 10 :) Apparently every time we go to Top Golf it's warm and humid...I'm hoping next time we go it's cold - or at least cool!

Manmosa

Bloody Mary - yes that is a beefstick straw! haha

We were excited we got a bay with couches this time!

We headed downtown around 1pm and caught most of Walk the Moon and then turned around and laid in the HOT sun and listened to Delta Rae. After sweating for 2 hours (it's October - can we please cool down Texas?!) we decided to go grab a bite to eat and hung out in the shade by Austin Eats. We listed to Little Green Cars while we people watched.

Walk the Moon - Amazing! My favorite from the weekend!
Delta Rae - They were really good - didn't have a song I didn't like
Little Green Cars - We listed to them while we were in the shade people watching and really enjoyed it
Grimes - We listed to them while we were waiting for Passion Pit - NOT a fan!
Passion Pit - Really fun show!

Day 2 - Bring it on!

SO many bikes!

Thank goodness for Keens! Walk the Moon

We each bought a COLD "bottle" of water when we got there because we were so hot

Water filling station

Lots and lots of food choices

Passion Pit

Passion Pit

My ACL Tips & Lessons Learned

I have never seen so many high waisted {jean} shorts in my life! or shirtless guys for that matter 
There were WAY more kids than I expected...not an event I would bring a child to
Not enough parking - $20/day is ridiculous!
Bring a Camelback and drink water all day for free!
Lots of good local Austin food
No smoking in the festival is a lie! If I could volunteer to be the smoke police I would :)
Wear comfy shoes - just looking at the people in boots made my feet sweat!
Wear comfy clothes - I realized that I could have gone into my closet with my eyes shut and ended up not looking half as crazy as most of the people there!

If you are taking the shuttle and not walking across town...bring folding chairs - they'll save your bum!
If you like to people watch...GO!
Everyone keeps asking if I would go to ACL again if I had to buy tickets. I had a fantastic time but 3 days was too much for me - even if it hadn't gotten rained out yesterday we weren't planning on going. My allergies were bothering me after being outside for 2 days and I wasn't looking forward to paying another day of parking. If they go back to doing 1 day passes and there were a few bands I wanted to see then I would definitely go back! Although if I paid for the tickets I would definitely feel obligated to be there the entire day - it was nice not feeling pressured to get there at a certain time and not feel guilty leaving early! That being said - I am super thankful for the free tickets and being able to experience something so "Austiny" after living here for almost 16 years! ACL 2014? We'll see!