Before Oct. 3, I was an Austin City Limits Festival novice. I’d been to outdoor concerts before, but never to anything on as grand a scale as ACL, and I was a little nervous that it would be too much for me to handle. Now, after experiencing an entire weekend for myself, all I can say is I wish I could go back and do it all again.

The lineup this year wasn’t the best, in my opinion. It was sort of like a replica of the 2014 Coachella lineup, minus a lot of the really cool bands. But really, it was easy for me to forget about the lineup when I was listening to Lana Del Ray’s hauntingly beautiful falsetto or jamming out to Fitz and the Tantrums’ fun, zany concert. Eminem took the cake, though. He gave a powerful performance; the crowd radiated good vibes, and even though my feet were killing me and I was too short to see the stage most of the time, I was still extremely impressed.

All in all, I had a fantastic time. My only regrets were waiting too long to get a T-shirt (they sold out), losing my water bottle in the manic crowd at Childish Gambino (I almost got trampled, so a water bottle is a small price to pay for my life) and not being able to go to weekend two (some of the artists I wanted to see were scheduled in the same time slots and I would’ve liked a chance to see them all). If I’m still in Texas this time next year, I’ll be attending ACL again, only this time as a veteran.