ACL 2022 Weekend One

Austin City Limits is an exciting, live music festival in Austin, Texas/Zilker Park. Every year crowds fill Zilker Park to see their favorite artists perform each weekend, Oct. 7-9 or Oct. 14-17. Austin City Limits is the longest-running music series in television history. The festival is a staple of the city and weekend two is right around the corner. Each weekend lasts Friday, Saturday, and Sunday with shows lined up daily. ACL 2022 has a lineup with headliners such as Lil Nas X, Paramore, SZA, and many more. The festival is also an amazing time to hang out with friends while expanding your musical taste. 

Many Westlake students go to ACL to listen to their favorite live music. This festival could be a nice weekend for any group of people excited to see artists that came to Austin to perform.

“I would rate this ACL 6/10,” Freshman Caroline Kimbrell said. “The line-up just could’ve been better and the weekend just felt dragged on.” 

“ACL was tiring because my friends and I were walking around a bunch and sitting in the heat,” Caroline said. 

According to multiple WHS students, Lil Nas X was the best performance of the weekend. 

“The crowds were crazy when he got on stage,” sophomore Saige Piefer said. “We were all pushed against the barricade.” 

Saige has been to ACL for four years in a row, not counting the covid year.

 “I would give this year’s ACL an 8/10 because it had some artists that were geared to younger generations, but most were geared toward older generations,” Saige said.  “Also, ACL this year had many smaller artists perform.”

Having the smaller artists perform was a lovely part of ACL for Saige because she got to find more genres of music to enjoy. Another part of ACL that was very important to many people was ACL eats. 

“The food was very expensive,” Freshman Berkely Kirk said.

 There are many food stands that consist of Austin’s local restaurants. This line of vendors has every meal you could think of, but they seem to be too-overpriced while at the festival. For example, someone could get a basket of 3 nuggets for $20 and that’s it.

 “I was guilty of buying from the food stands constantly because everything was just really good. I even found out that I liked some new restaurants,” Berkeley said. 

There is no denying that the food meets every expectation. Austin City Limits shows how unique Austin is as a city.