Lifestyle

New and Improved ACL Music Festival

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Tony Maples Photography

 

The Austin City Limits Music Festival (ACL Music Festival)  premiered for its 15th year this past weekend. Already it has become a mecca for so many music lovers. This year’s festival offered a number of new and improved features that made this year even more amazing.

1. Improved Access for Families

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This year the festival offered a separate entrance for families with children. This allowed families to skip the long line at the main entrance and make the road in more accessible for strollers and wheelchairs. Even better, the family entrance led directly into Kiddie Limits. It’s a nice perk for families with children eager to jump right into this kid-friendly aspect of the festival.

2. Fancy Restrooms

The women’s restrooms this year were a cut above. They flushed. There was toilet paper. There were attendants at the ready, cleaning as people came and went. It was glorious.

3. Rock Island

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This year the rock formations were opened up to allow more space for shade and relaxation. It was donned with a new “ACL FEST” sign, reminiscent of the HOLLYWOOD sign in California.

4. More Space and More Shade

As an attendee, the park felt noticeably larger, allowing more space. ACL Fest site confirms they opened up more of the park to allow more room to roam and for crowds to spread out. This also created more spaces for shade, which were necessary retreats for many during the peak times of the day.

5. Wonderful Weather

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While not something that can be guaranteed, this year offered exceptionally good weather. Saturday was especially beautiful with mild temperatures, an occasional light sprinkle, and even a rainbow. Texas sunsets were a magnificent backdrop to the evening.

6. The Bands

Of course, every year ACL offers new bands. This year was no disappointment. There were so many strong performances and as always, a range of musical genres to please the masses. Closers this year were Radiohead, Kendrick Lamar, and Mumford and Sons.

7. Rock and Recycle

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If fans wanted to avoid the high costs of t-shirts they could opt to fill a bag with recycling and get a free shirt. This program is not new, but this year Rock and Recycle offered several designs to choose from and screen-printed it on the spot while fans watched.

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