Austin360 blogs > Almost Urban > Archives > 2007 > July > 25 > Entry
Still not urban at all (The annual ACL Fest rant)
I’ve resigned myself to the fact that ACL Fest is not geared towards people like me. Straddling the line between indie hipness and adult-contemporary safeness, the promoters consistently seem to overlook anything urban. Out of the 130 bands playing the fest there are about six to seven acts scattered through the three-day event that I’m intrigued by, certainly not enough to buy a ticket for myself, or anyone I kick it with on the regular. And in a sense I suppose that’s fine. The promoters know their demographic, the fest consistently sells out and the people who go seem to enjoy themselves. More power to them.
The thing that irks me is the name. Calling the fest Austin City Limits suggests that the event provides some sort of microcosm of our city. It does not. I went to ACL Fest for the first time last year to check out Gnarls Barkley. It was a surreal experience, watching Dirty South hip-hop legend Cee-Lo Green performing to a sea of white faces. I’m not trying to hate. As I wandered around the fest I was truly charmed by the idyllic musical campground pitched in the park, musicians and music lovers sweating it out together in the ungodly September heat. It’s a beautiful thing. But I was also totally weirded out by the absence of brown people.
It can be argued that Austin isn’t a hip-hop city, despite the fact that there is enough interest in urban music to support two large-scale commercial hip-hop/R&B radio stations within the city limits, but the Latino influence on our culture is undeniable. According to 2006 Arbitron ratings Spanish-language radio station La Ley was the top radio outlet in Austin last year. So where is the Musica en Espanol at ACL Fest? It’s a little strange to me that a music fest named after my city so deeply fails to represent the sounds that made me fall in love with Austin. It doesn’t quite sit right.
Last week promoter Charles Attal addressed the lack of hip-hop at ACL Fest in the Austin Music Source blog. He explained that the fest doesn’t get every artist they attempt to book, and apparently all the hip-hop artists they contacted were busy this year. Consequently, we at Camp 360 have been scratching our heads trying to figure out why big-name hip-hop artist Common was booked for an official ACL afterparty, but not for the fest itself. With his broad cross-over appeal, Common seems like an obvious choice for ACL and a refreshing alternative to Bob Dylan in the Sunday headline spot. Who knows, maybe his name will end up as a late-addition to the Sunday ACL bill, or maybe this is just a concession prize to those of us who gripe about the fest’s lack of diversity.
On the bright side, hip-hop fans can catch Common in the relative air-conditioned comfort of La Zona Rosa for just $30, which is certainly nothing to complain about. Another exciting side party is the Stephen Marley/Zap Mama show at Emo’s for $25. I’m all over that one too, I’ve been wanting to catch Zap Mama for years. So yeah, I’m not going to hate. I do appreciate the promoters’ effort to bring diversity to the Austin scene during ACL, even if there’s something about it that smacks of separate and not quite equal.
Comments
By Rob
July 25, 2007 2:53 PM | Link to this
The festival is named after the TV show Austin City Limits. It has been on the air for 31 years so everyone should know what to expect. When I go to the Bob Marley fest I don’t expect to see country music. Likewise, the Austin Urban fest doesn’t book indie bands.
I’ve never heard of Common and I certainly wouldn’t see him over Bob Dylan, or Bob Schneider for that matter. I have a feeling most of the other 55,000 people that buy tickets to ACL feel the same way.
By Huston
July 26, 2007 10:28 AM | Link to this
Deborah:
We very much wanted Common to play at ACL but unfortunately, he did not decide he was coming towards Austin untill after all the slots at ACL 2007 were booked. He is touring on a new ablum and while we tried to get to him, when we first approached him the timing did not work for him and his routing. When that changed, it was too late an all spots were filled. We were fortunate enough to have Common on Lollapalooza last year and he was amazing and while we too are disapointed the festival play did not work out, we are expecting an epic show at La Zona.
Deborah responds: Word.
By Beronica
July 26, 2007 10:55 AM | Link to this
LOL. Cant we just all get along? Guess not, thats why each year we have to throw seperate parties thru out the year for everyone to get a chance to enjoy the music scene of Austin. I will say I was extremely impressed with SXSW this past year and look forward to next year. All the rap shows gave me a reason to attend, something never before!
By Pat
July 26, 2007 11:01 AM | Link to this
Not to mention metal or punk music. The “live music capitol of the world” owes a bit of it’s fame to Austin’s crunchy granola-cowboy crowd to be sure, but it was the DIY/punk/new wave scene in the late 70s and early 80s that made Austin a town to be reckoned with among the national music scene. Hardcore and experimental music has been thoroughly ignored by Attal etal. You’d never know that Emos or the Red River district even existed as Austin institutions if ACL was your only exposure to Austin.
By kisp
July 27, 2007 3:31 PM | Link to this
I was born and raised in Austin and when I left to got to college in 1994…there still wasn’t a decent hip hop station…so coming back home to the sounds of the Austin Urban Festival and a few non-community based urban radio station tells me that Austin has come a long way, baby. But to be the live music capital of the world…much more needs to be available.
Too bad I’m more into alternative now.