Friday, October 23, 2015

14th Austin City Limits Music Festival Shines Brightly

Fall has arrived in the "Live Music Capital of the World" and that means it's time for our yearly tribute to all things music with the 14th annual Austin City Limits Music Festival.


Barton Springs at entrance to Zilker Park


Once again this special get-together took place in beautiful Zilker Park on the shores of Lady Bird Lake in downtown Austin, Texas on the weekends of October 2 - 4 and October 9 - 11. On these dates, the city welcomed tens of thousands of music fans from around the world.


South Gate of ACL Fest on Barton Springs Road

Overall view of Samsung Stage with downtown Austin skyline

Photo op location

Crowds enjoying ACL Fest 2015



Once again the crown jewel of our city's magnificent parks' system was transformed into a huge concert venue complete with 8 performance stages, a farmers market, a beer hall, a food court, and an art market. Festival goers could indulge in an array of local craft beers while dining on foods from many local eateries including Amy's Ice Cream, Austin's Pizza, Lonesome Dove Western Bistro, P.Terry's Burgers, The Salt Lick BBQ, Tiff's Treats, and Torchy's Tacos, to name a few. 


Beer Tent This Way

Relaxing at the Beer Tent

Food Court

Art tree and Rest area

The colors of ACL Fest 2015


There were an estimated 75,000 people in attendance on each day of the festival and 151 different acts could be seen performing during the course of the six day festival. This year's stages were sponsored by Samsung, Homeaway, BMI, Honda, Miller Lite, Austin Ventures, Tito's Handmade Vodka, and Lifeway (Austin Kiddie Limits).


Miller Lite Stage

HomeAway Stage

Honda Stage
Samsung Stage


BMI Stage


Performances were staggered throughout the park all afternoon and evening during each day of the festival. Every genre of music imaginable could be heard including: rock, folk, rap, hip-hop, EDM, gospel, soul, country and pop. There was even an elementary school choir and children's performers. Pretty much anything the festival audience would want to experience was there for them.

Fans enjoying one of the many acts performing at ACL Fest 2015

EDM group Flosstradamus entertains the crowd

Houston, Texas soul band, The Suffers 



There were world renowned acts that have been performing for many years, like Billy Idol, and Ray Benson and Asleep At The Wheel, and new acts hoping to pick up more followers, like Amason, Borns,  and Lion Babe. 


Billy Idol

Ray Benson of Asleep At The Wheel

Garrett Borns

Jillian Hervey of Lion Babe

Amanda Bergman of Amason



This year's headlining acts included Foo Fighters, Disclosure, Drake, Deadmaus, The Strokes, The Weekend, and Florence + The Machine.


Guy Lawrence and Howard Lawrence of Disclosure

Drake

Julian Casablancas of The Strokes


Florence Welch of Florence + The Machine


Other big-name acts performing at ACL 2015 included: Gary Clark Jr, Hozier, Walk The Moon, A$AP Rocky, TV On The Radio, Dwight Yoakam, The Decemberists, Alabama Shakes, and rising country star, Sturgill Simpson.  

Gary Clark Jr

Colin Meloy of The Decemberists

Tunde Adebimpe of TV On The Radio

Brittany Howard of Alabama Shakes

A$AP Rocky

Andrew Hozier-Byrne of Hozier

Sturgill Simpson
Misterwives


While it would be impossible to show you everything that took place on those 6  jam-packed fun-filled days, here are some of the scenes Limelight Images captured during ACL Fest 2015.


Jesse Lacey of Brand New

Joshua Tillman of Father John Misty

Alejandro Rose-Garcia of Shakey Graves

Tame Impala

Chance The Rapper

Sydney Sierota of Echosmith

Of Monsters And Men

Ryn Weaver

Ben Howard

Mike Kerr of Royal Blood

Rupert and Henry Stansall of The Ruen Brothers

Josh Dun and Tyler Joseph of Twenty-one Pilots

Vance Joy 


Happily mother nature cooperated for the 2015 ACL Fest. No rain, just sun, sun, and more sun. It might have been a little toasty on a few of the days, but I know music fans weren't complaining as they all soaked in as much awesome music as humanly possible. 

Festival Atmosphere
Fans rest under the shade of one of Zilker Park's mighty oaks


So that's a wrap for ACL Music Festival 2015. Next year's fest is already scheduled for the weekends of Sept 30 -Oct 2 and Oct 7 -9, 2016, and some of the tickets have already gone on sale.  If you need info about next year's fest check out  http://www.aclfestival.com/

See y'all next year.

ACL Fest 2015