To be honest, this year I didn’t even look at the lineup until the day before! While some people boo and hiss about a festival lineup, for me it’s all about being outside in the sun with friends, feeling the rhythm, running into people I know, and just having a good time out there on our precious park land. I went the second weekend with my good friend from high school, Maggie, who just moved to Austin which made it all the more thrilling. It’s always faster to enter the park on the north west entrance right by Mopac (just set your uber to Austin High School and walk across the bridge). You barely wait in line and then just swiped our three-day wristbands and entered into the arena. I also love that you can load your credit card onto these things so that when you buy food or drinks, you just tap, tap, tap-aroo and don’t have to deal with taking out your wallet or what not. I always discover a band I hadn’t heard of, a restaurant, or a beverage I haven’t had. This year, the most exciting *new* to me part, was chilling in the Tito’s Lounge which was connected to their smaller stage. This way you could go on in, sip on free flowing Tito’s + Soda, even a yummy Espresso Tini, enjoy clean bathrooms, a shaded area to rest, an Essentials Station with sour patch kids (obviously), mints, some other treats, a glam bar, and even TV’s for the Texas OU game. This was one of my favorite parts of the weekend not only because I love Tito’s Vodka, but it was just so much fun to run into so many friends and people I work with that I hadn’t seen since before COVID. It felt like our own private bar that at one point, we realized that we needed to get ourselves out of there and to the music! We did, however, take advantage of the access to their stage and see Lane 8 DJ. He really got the crowd riled up and feeling slick. It was such a joy to feel the beats, even though I missed Austin’s very own Black Pumas at the same time, like I said for me ACL, is all about who you are with. I got to jump up and down along side the musician right on the stage and that energy is exactly what I’m looking for on these kind of days. Then we scurried over to Jon Pardi ( I was clearly with my country loving friends). At the T-Mobile stage, you are in the center of Zilker and can see all the stages at either end along with the iconic ACL flags waving away in the center. That cotton candy sunset with a slew of caramel sliding in distracted me away from the music. It was SO gorgeous and as we popped our cans of Vizzy Hard Seltzer, which I’d also never had, it just felt like the best place to be listening to, again, another band I wouldn’t have gone to see. For the record, the Pineapple Mango flavor is awesome! John Pardi revved up the crowd and made me miss the days where I listened to country music in elementary school. It was at this concert, we decided we needed to make it to Shania Twain’s residency in Vegas this next year.
