Austin City Limits Festival

Last weekend we headed up go Austin for something I'd been waiting on for years. I was so excited about the line-up for 2009 & so glad we bought our 3-day passes just a few days before they sold out! They started the Austin City Limits Festival the year I moved away from Austin & it had been held on the weekend of my sister's birthday in all the previous years. It has been on our 101 List & might be one of the last things we accomplish before our 1,001 days are up. However, this year, things just weren't meant to be....



I really wanted to see John Legend Friday afternoon, but work commitments kept us in Houston too late to get to the show. We did enjoy a really nice dinner in Austin, and prepared to head to Zilker Park on Saturday. However, the forecast had other plans for us.



We were totally unprepared for the rain. It had been REALLY hot in the last few years & I knew it was going to rain, but we still weren't properly prepared to sit in the rain for hours and trek through giant mud pits while fully enjoying the festival. The main stage is set in front of the beautiful Austin skyline- I can't believe how many new residential high-rises there are now!



It rained on and off most of Saturday. We donned rain coats & held our little umbrellas, while sipping on wine from a sports bottle. This was as close as we actually got to any of the stages. There were people sitting and standing everywhere & we just didn't feel like fighting the crowds.



The food court was yummy! Lots of delicious stuff & a few picnic tables to relax at, especially the ones with an umbrella.



The one and only covered stage was a very popular one all weekend.



We enjoyed about an hour without rain on Saturday and then we were back to reality. Most people just hunkered down in place. We had ground chairs, but nothing to elevate us up off the grass.



We lasted about an hour chilling out under our umbrellas before we need to go brave the restroom lines.



Ugh....not good! They had, what appeared to be, tons of port-a-potty's, but maybe we just picked the wrong set at the wrong time. We waited almost half an hour & missed most of a set. If you have a wristband, there are some right outside the exit that were never being used.

We were sissy's and didn't make it to the main act on Saturday night- Dave Matthews Band. I was less than impressed with their last performance at the Woodlands & we were just too tired to fight the crowds and more rain.



We returned on Sunday to find Zilker park rain-free, but a giant mud pit. I'd consider the grassy patch above a good area to actually sit, the rest was solid mud. We arrived just in time to catch the end of the B-52's act.



We wore our flip flops for about 5 minutes before giving those up and just going barefoot. It was really gross and disgusting, but probably the best choice since we didn't bring any rubber boots or other appropriate footwear.



People were packed on the grass islands to escape the mud any place they could reasonable find and still hear the music. This particular spot was nice because it was so far back from the main stage that you had pretty good views to the adjacent stage, where they were alternating concerts every hour.



I would compare it to walking through pudding and poop mixed together. And it occasionally smelled really bad. And sometimes they threw some hay over the top of it which made another interesting smell.



We finally found a patch of grass on Sunday to set up & we could hear the main stage pretty well and occasionally had this view of the screen depending on who sat in front of us. It was a pretty big let down overall. Mostly because of the weather and conditions, but also because we didn't have a better plan for coping with the conditions and weren't really mentally prepared to fight the crowds. I'd love to go back next year though!


GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Fall is officially here- it was 55 this morning and I love it! I'll take Mia for a little run now that she is 4 months old.