ACL Lessons Learned

Austin City Limits was my very first music festival.  Somehow, I've gone 30 years without attending one.  And quite honestly, I was ok with that.  Now that I've attended, there were a few lessons I learned.  Also, now that I've attended, I can mark it off the bucket list and be good with never attending another again.

1. I am not a "festival" person.  I don't like crowds, smoke, porta-potties or the heat.  I also know next to nothing about music produced in this decade.  In the photo below, I was only about 20 minutes into the first day, and I was already skeptical about this weekend.

2. Texas Heat doesn't mess around.  Now, I'm usually ok with this.  However, even I was more than too hot sitting in the middle of 50,000 people in a park with little to NO shade.  Thank goodness for free water stations - however, would it have killed you to provide ice?

3. At music festivals, it's perfectly acceptable to dress like hippies, in Native American Headress (offensive, BTW!), as Santa Claus, or in the case of the super cool dude below, a banana...

4. While the name Nate Ruess, doesn't sound familiar to anyone (well, not me anyway, I'm guessing not everyone lives under a rock), he is in fact, the lead singer of Fun; which means he sings some of my favorite songs.  Thank goodness it was too darn hot to leave our spot after the McAbees, or I never would have recognized the voice and the tunes.

5. Two years old, is the appropriate age to attend your very first music festival.  It's also a great idea to let said 2 year old wander around while 50,000 people are walking around not paying attention to little people possibly getting under their feet.

6. Music festivals attract a whole darn lot of people.  Those ridiculous numbers of people descend on the city and make getting around, and getting a restaurant table next to impossible.

7. This particular music festival's saving grace was the ridiculous amount of food from awesome vendors and chefs.  Thank goodness for delicious food!  Since I wasn't feeling the music, at the very least I could stuff my face. 

8. Hozier is awesome!  I may not have known anyone else, or cared if I saw any other act, but thankfully I managed to see Hozier.  Not on purpose mind you, my friend really wanted to see them so I followed along because in a sea of 50K people, where else was I going to go? I'm so glad I did, because his music was amazing!  He even covered "Blackbird", which is an all time favorite of mine.  

While music festivals may not be my thing, I have to say, Austin most definitely was.  Can't wait to go back  minus 50K of my new acquaintances, of course... : )