Texas MBAs Talk

Something I had been looking forward to about living in Austin was the famous Austin City Limits Festival. Having heard stories of its amazingness from DC friends who had made the trek in years’ past, I began looking into ticket options before I even arrived here. After polling some locals, it seemed that the three-day pass was the best option - tons of music, tons of fun, all weekend long. Since I still had a job (and disposable income), I didn’t think twice about buying the ticket, which I may have found a bit more troublesome once student loans became the full source of my subsistence!

ACL has been the talk of the town for months - second years rave about their experiences from last year. Dean Hirst plays selections from bands coming to the festival each morning before his accounting lessons begin. I was so excited, and carefully planned my ACL schedule, looking to see which bands were playing at which stages and when. I had a bunch of bands on my “to-see” list including Vampire Weekend, Blues Traveler, Foo Fighters, G. Love, Mates of State and Tristan Prettyman, among many others.

I’m not sure what I expected, but ACL definitely exceeded any expectations I could have formed. Although I’ve been to many a music festival, this was not really comparable to anything I’ve seen. The sheer amount of bands and people that were at Zilker Park (walkable from downtown Austin) was pretty amazing. One of my favorite things was discovering new bands as I walked from one stage to another. Since I had a three-day pass, I was there most of the weekend, and found myself at some of the smaller stages more often, where the vibe was a little more relaxed and the space was a little less crowded. The food section was also impressive - smack in the middle of the park, and featuring some of the best samplings of Austin’s favorite restaurants.

Highlights of the weekend included wandering around with some of my favorite McCombs people, trying to figure out which stages would be the show standouts; dancing to Vampire Weekend (the first band I saw play at ACL); Belting out Blues Traveler’s “Hook” with a huge crowd of people; Standing in the fourth row of the Tristan Prettyman set; and staying for the sun to go down one last time over ACL and watching Foo Fighters close out the weekend.

ACL was a blast, and something I fully intend to buy a three-day pass for again next year (student loans shmudent loans). I’d recommend it to all Austinites and visitors alike - definitely something that makes Austin unique.