Austin City Limits 2024 Delivers on All Fronts! [Photos]

Earlier this month, I had the chance to check out one of the biggest music festivals in the U.S.A., Austin City Limits (ACL). ACL is definitely one of the biggest music festivals I’ve ever gotten to cover for V13.net, and when I say big, I mean big. On day one, I clocked in about 13 miles, and that was just me walking around. It’s that massive of a fest, but with over 100 acts and nine stages, it’s not surprising that I was basically doing a half marathon every single day, trying to cover all of the artists I could.

The weekend started off with A Sleep at the Wheel, taking on one of the main stages and getting the party going with their brand of country music. Apparently, these guys always open the festival, and I can see why. They had great energy and really set the tone for the weekend.

After that, I headed to the other side of the festival to check out The Saint Cecilia on the other main stage, which, let me tell you, was a WALK. It probably took a good five to ten minutes to get over there, and that’s accounting for me being a 6 foot 5 giant.

Saint Cecilia really killed it, though, with their classic pop-rock sound of the early 2000s, quite reminiscent of Jet. For the rest of the day, I just bopped around to different areas of the festival and tried to survive the heat of the Texas sun. One highlight of that day was Mannequin Pussy, which brought a much-needed raw punk sound to the event.

I also caught Connor Price, who blew me away with his sound and energy. It felt like I was watching a manifestation of a can of Red Bull because he was so energetic. Blink-182 was also a delight to finally see live after I’ve been a fan of them for about 20 years. Their opening set was also incredible, with them playing one of my favourite songs, “Man Overboard.” After they finished their set, I went home and rested my tired dogs in preparation for round two.

Day two began with some emo legends, Something Corporate, who sounded flawless and had an insane amount of energy for being 20 years deep into their music career. They even played “Konstantine,” which surprised me given it is over nine minutes.

Another highlight would have to be Still Woozy and Renee Rapp. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting, but they had so much intensity, and both sounded incredible. The artist that really impressed me that day would have to be Benson Boone and the spectacle he put on. Within the first three songs, he did a back flip and a back handspring flip. While that was shocking, the craziest part would be his breath control and how he didn’t miss a beat even after backflipping off of his piano.

Finally, it was the last day, and I was almost ready to give up, but the show must go on. I got to experience a ton of artists, but the ones that stuck out the most to me were Orville Peck, Bakar, Chappell Roan, and Dom Dolla. Chappell put on a stunning performance, and I think they might have had one of the biggest crowd turnouts for ACL, as I saw from videos later on.

I think the act that surprised me the most was Dom Dolla. I’d never heard of him before, but he definitely won me over, particularly with all of the pyro he uses. It was astonishing just how much and often he used it during his set and how much I was sweating from the heat.

Out of all of the acts I saw, I wanted to say the most impressive were those by Chappel Roan and Benson Boone. The hype for Chappel is real, as there were tons of people dressed up for her on Sunday. And the reason why I chose Benson as my other favourite artist was how incredibly entertaining his live shows were. The guy did about three flips in the first three songs of his set. He also sang flawlessly after doing one of his flips, which was beyond impressive.

After everything was said and done, I would say that ACL turned out splendidly. I got to see so many new artists that I had no idea about, and I was really blown away by each performance. Every new artist I saw won me over as a new fan, and every act I knew previously astonished me with their talent.

ACL is definitely a world-class festival, and I hope everybody gets to experience something like it once in their lifetime.

Austin City Limits @ Zilker Park (Austin, TX) on October 4th-6th, 2024

186 photos