Despite the roller coaster weather we’ve been having here in Austin, this is a really fun place to live. Austin City Limits is the annual 2 October weekends of over 100 artists, 6 stages, food, and more. It can be exhausting to try to experience everything ACL has to offer in 3 days, a lesson I learned the hard way the first year I attended. This year’s ACL was my fourth (I skipped last year for a variety of reasons).
Let me be honest, I actually hate certain parts of ACL. First, I’m not very good in crowds anymore. I’m not exactly sure when it happened, but somewhere in my 30s, I got really claustrophobic in large crowds. Maybe it’s because I’m short and can’t see over people. But being smashed into a space with a bunch of other (taller than me) people makes me feel like I can’t breathe. (I’m dying to know if I would feel this way if I was taller than most people in a crowd but a herd of toddlers would give me another set of heebie-jeebies, so sadly we may never know the answer to that…) It’s really freaking weird coming from a woman who used to go to packed dance clubs and general admission concerts (even mosh pits) all the time back in the day. Now, my skin crawls looking at the mobs of people herding around Zilker Park and thinking I’ve got to dive into that scrum to get to the next stage I want to get to.
Second, I seem to be a magnet for the most drugged out young woman on the entire ACL grounds. By that, I mean that a girl (because she is definitely not any older than 22) who has apparently been doing mushrooms and edibles all damn day seeks me out like a heat-seeking missile to body slam her entire 110-lb body into mine…when I’m not looking in her direction…when I’m not braced for impact. Swear to God, every ACL I’ve been to, I get violently run into. And the curse words that erupt from my mouth don’t even make a dent in her haze. And her friends start giving me attitude, like the old sober lady who’s been standing in the exact same spot for 3 hours is the one to blame. Every year I think, I’m going to end up on the news because of this.
And finally the other thing that always gives me pause before I end up buying the 3-day wristbands is the fact that I’m going to be outside for three straight days under the still-strong Texas sun. My second ACL, the security guards tried to take away my sunscreen because it was “too big” and therefore must be a flask in disguise. When I protested that I was allowed sunscreen and there was no limit to the bottle size, I got nowhere. It wasn’t until I made them call a supervisor over and explain that as a melanoma patient, by not letting me into the grounds with enough sunscreen to protect my cancer-making skin, they were violating some ADA requirement (sadly, I made up that argument because ADA doesn’t cover my scenario but it totally should in situations like this). The security bag checker people are completely inconsistent with their bag checks so it hasn’t been a problem for me since then. But I get a little irritated thinking I’m going to have to defend myself for bringing in a vat of sunscreen when everyone else seems to be able to bring in more weed than there is in the state of Colorado. (And rando question, what is it with the vape things that look like flash drives? I was dumbfounded the first time I saw someone sucking on that until I realized exactly what it was. I swear, this is how I know I’m getting old when I can’t keep up with what the young kids are doing these days.)
But earlier in the year when the 2018 ACL line-up was posted, I realized that despite my misgivings I was going to go. Paul Freaking McCartney was one of the headliners! How could I pass up the opportunity to see a real, live Beatle in the flesh? Even though I’m more of a Rolling Stones kind of girl, it’s Paul Freaking McCartney. And Metallica was one of the other headliners, so I knew right then it was a no-brainer to get the 3-day wristbands, even though I wasn’t keen on the final headliner (mostly because rap never translates well to an outdoor stage; don’t get me wrong, I love some hip hop and rap artists but seeing them live is always a total let-down for me).
All in all, it was a great ACL for me, even with the crowds and the underaged drugged-out body-slammer who found me yet again this year (during the Paul Freaking McCartney show, no less). I’ve seen Metallica before and as always, they put on a great show. I was way more strategic about how much time I spent at the festival and despite the crush of people at the Greta Van Fleet stage, I was able to stop hyperventilating long enough to enjoy it. At the end of every ACL, I always say, I’m not sure about next year. And until they release the line-up, I won’t be sure. But it is a cool experience and I’m really glad I went this year.
And next weekend is the Formula One race here in Austin. While I love the racing (actually I think I love qualifying more than the actual race), the weekend also has two big name concerts that are part of the package. I swear, sometimes I get more excited about the concerts than the racing because we all know how this weekend will go – the Ferrari and Red Bull teams will make a push for pole but Lewis Hamilton will win because he wins every damn year here at COTA, which kind of takes the suspense out of it. This year, I’m doubly excited because I will get a chance to see Bruno Mars on Saturday and Britney Spears on Sunday! The crowds at COTA are usually far less aggressive than at ACL (although when Taylor Swift played, the gaggle of pre-teen girls were oddly pushy on their way to the concert lawn).
Hopefully the weather won’t make this weekend a total wash-out and I can add two more artists to my “saw them live” concert list…