Cheers for a rollicking fest

Festive mood spills out of park as three-day music party ends Sunday night

By Michael Corcoran
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Sunday, September 28, 2008

Ninety degrees never felt so balmy.

In the seventh year the weather gods spared the Austin City Limits Music Festival the record-breaking heat of years past, putting the focus on the music of 130 acts, including a powerhouse set by the Foo Fighters in Sunday's closing slot that some are calling the fest's best ending yet.

Although a few hundred shy of a sellout Sunday, Friday and Saturday nights reached a capacity of 65,000. The ACL mood remained festive throughout the weekend, even spilling out onto Barton Springs Road, where six police cars turned up at 11 p.m. Saturday to break up an impromptu dance party of about 150 people next to the Daily Juice.

"For an event of this size, it's very well run," said April Luecke, 29, of Tampa, Fla., a first-timer at the festival.

ACL Fest veteran Jeff Taylor, 38, of Austin said he's impressed with how little adjustments each year make the festival better. "There was more free water," he said. "And the new program booklet is great: it's been very helpful."

But an old nemesis reappeared this year: dust, though the problem was nowhere near as bad as the infamous dust bowl of 2005.

Promoters C3 Presents have pledged $2.5 million for Zilker Park improvements, including a new irrigation system, which will close the area of Zilker used for ACL Fest for six months in the coming year. Relief for the drought-scorched earth can't come soon enough.

When fans crisscrossed the center of the park Saturday, the hit album "Raising Sand," by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, the most anticipated act of the weekend, could've been renamed "Raising Dust."

The festival seemed as crowded that night with 65,000 people as it had before the capacity was lowered from 75,000 after the 2004 festival. But a trio of friends from Newfoundland in Canada said the dust was a minor irritation in an otherwise pleasurable experience.

Bob Leeman, 53, John Berghuis, 52, and Bob Tiller, 47, said they are longtime fans of the "Austin City Limits" TV show, and when they heard there was a companion festival, they got tickets online and made plans to attend for the first time this year.

"We have similar festivals in Canada, but they're not run as well as this one," Leeman said Sunday. "And the food is fantastic," added Berghuis, who said he was hooked on the chicken avocado cones from the Hudson's On the Bend stand.

One source of complaints in years past, the noise bleed between stages, seems to have become a more acceptable byproduct of presenting continuous live music on eight stages.

"I had a magic moment last night," Tiller said. "I was walking from Beck (on the AT&T stage) to Plant and Krauss (on the AMD stage at the other end of Zilker), and as soon as I got out of Beck's range, Plant and Krauss started doing a Led Zeppelin song, 'Ballad of Nevermore.' "

A ticket to ACL Fest provided passage to a world unto itself, but it was hard to avoid what was happening elsewhere. The logo at the WaMu stage was a reminder of the largest bank failure in U.S. history; federal regulators seized Washington Mutual on Friday and sold most of its operations to J.P. Morgan.

There was also evidence Saturday that a University of Texas football game was in town, a first during ACL Fest, made necessary when concerns over Hurricane Ike caused the game to be rescheduled. Burnt orange, not black, was the T-shirt color of choice.

Friday and Saturday, 311 festival-goers were treated at the medical tent, with three transported to the hospital Friday and 19 getting an ambulance ride Saturday. The most serious were two suspected drug overdoses Saturday, said South West Emergency Action Team supervisor Tannifer Ayres. More than half of those treated Saturday had heat-related problems or lacerations. Almost 80 were treated for asthma/respiratory problems or eye irritations.

The number of people treated is down from last year, Ayres said: "People are doing a better job of keeping themselves hydrated."

It also didn't hurt that temperatures were about 10 degrees cooler than the ACL Fest norm. In 2005, the mercury reached 108.

Environmental concerns continue to influence the festival, which used a biodiesel mix and solar panels to power generators. For the first year, beer was served in aluminum cans instead of plastic cups, and more than 400 recycling bins were spread out over the park.

The food vendors, which included such four-star restaurants as Aquarelle and Austin favorites such as Original Hoffbrau Steaks, Vespaio and El Chilito, were required to use biodegradeable plates and encouraged to serve items that didn't require disposable utensils. One could eat well without ever touching a fork.

Friday, co-headliner David Byrne, dressed in his white stage outfit, was one of hundreds to ride a bike to Zilker. Pedicabs also did brisk business on Barton Springs Road, which turned into a swap meet for head shops, hat and T-shirt sellers, and especially ticket scalpers, who snapped up extra tickets for cheap early each day and typically sold them later at double the price.

One headache for concert-goers was waits of up to two hours for cabs after headliners Manu Chao (Friday) and Beck (Saturday) let out. The shuttle buses seem to run smoother every year, as long as everyone doesn't leave at the same time.

With this seventh campaign, ACL Fest seems to have taken on more of a South By Southwest, all-over-town feel. Longtime SXSW partiers Blender magazine took over the American Legion Hall at 2201 Veterans Drive and converted it into the Music Lounge Mansion, offering gift bags to ACL Fest performers and the stray celebrity. Former "Love Connection" host Chuck Woolery, a resident of Marble Falls and friend of ACL Fest performer Ben Cyllus, visited the Blender "gifting suite" with Cyllus, Actor Bill Murray, who was seen driving himself from stage to stage in a golf cart, did not.

Last week, Charlie Walker of C3 said that the demand for VIP amenities is the fastest growing aspect of ACL Fest. Hundreds paid $850 for such services as massages and spa treatments, plus gourmet organic meals and free beverages, all in the shade of the VIP Grove.

After this year's relatively pleasant weather, and with the promise of the new dust-busting Zilker irrigation system, the VIP section may lose much of its allure. That's a problem ACL Fest organizers will no doubt be fine with.