Austin City Limits Music Festival at Zilker Park in Austin, Texas on October 9, 2026. (Photo: Ralph Arvesen)
For 25 years, Austin City Limits Music Festival has turned Zilker Park into something much larger than a collection of concert stages. Inspired by the long-running Austin City Limits television program and launched in 2002, the festival has grown into one of the country's major music weekends, now spread across two three-day weekends in the center of Austin. More than 100 performances fill nine stages, and the festival says roughly 75,000 people can pass through the park on a single day. Despite that scale, ACL has retained enough of its Austin identity to feel different from a festival that could simply be packed up and dropped into another city.
The music remains the reason most people arrive, but a full day at ACL has long involved much more than moving from one stage to another. ACL Eats brings local restaurants and food vendors into the park, while art, merchandise, photo installations, sponsor activations and shaded areas fill the spaces between stages. Austin Kiddie Limits gives families with younger children their own corner of the festival, while Bonus Tracks expands the schedule beyond conventional concerts. The grounds also included places such as The Big Shade, The Big Chiller, The Big Tent, The Grove and Y'all Mart, giving people reasons to slow down instead of spending 10 straight hours fighting for a position near a stage.
That mixture of huge crowds and family tradition remains one of ACL's more endearing qualities. Children wearing hearing protection ride on shoulders next to teenagers seeing their first festival and adults who have been making the October trip to Zilker Park for years. There is an entire generation in Austin for whom ACL is now part of the calendar rather than simply another concert. The festival may change stages, sponsors and artists, but the ritual around it has become remarkably familiar.
Weekend Two also served as a reminder that no two ACL weekends are necessarily identical. The biggest change at the top of the lineup was Kings of Leon, who replaced Weekend One-only headliner Skrillex on Friday. The second weekend also brought exclusive appearances from artists including Sienna Spiro, Natasha Bedingfield, Houndmouth, Bella Kay, Łaszewo, Ethan Regan, Charlotte Lawrence and Bad Nerves, along with a substantial group of emerging and local performers such as Common People, lluvii, Montclair and Almost Heaven. For people who attend both weekends, those changes are enough to keep the second trip through the gates from feeling like a replay.
The weather made the distinction even more obvious. Weekend One became "MudFest" after rain soaked Zilker Park, leaving portions of the Great Lawn difficult to navigate and delaying Saturday's opening. Weekend Two brought something much closer to the traditional ACL experience: bright sun, temperatures around 90 degrees and plenty of dust. Sections of the damaged grounds had been covered with artificial turf and protective pathways to make traffic through the park easier. Before even reaching the entrance, sunscreen was already mixing with sweat and finding its way into eyes, but once inside the shaded approach and occasional breeze offered some relief. It was hot, uncomfortable and completely familiar.
Few moments capture the anticipation of an ACL morning better than the music that plays as the festival comes to life. Hearing Star Wars music and watching people suddenly take off toward the stages has an almost childlike quality to it, no matter how many festivals someone has attended. Some are racing toward barricades they hope to occupy for hours, others are simply caught up in the excitement. Years from now, it would not be surprising if hearing that music somewhere else sends former festival kids straight back to memories of running across Zilker Park with their friends.
The three days of Weekend Two offered distinctly different finales. Friday ended with Kings of Leon on the T-Mobile Stage and Charli xcx on the American Express Stage. Saturday paired Lorde with RÜFÜS DU SOL, while Sunday closed the entire festival with The xx and Twenty One Pilots at opposite ends of the park. Those choices are part of ACL's appeal and occasionally its frustration. It is impossible to see everything, and that is exactly why people leave already thinking about coming back. The best ACL weekends are not remembered as a checklist of completed sets. They become a collection of discoveries, missed opportunities, long walks, unexpected guests, familiar songs, tired legs and moments that could only have happened in that particular field on that particular weekend.
Friday made it immediately clear how different Weekend Two would be. Gone were the gray skies and mud that had dominated much of the conversation a week earlier. The sun was out and the afternoon heat settled over Zilker Park, forcing people to make the usual ACL calculation between finding shade and getting close enough to the stage for the next artist. Musically, the first day moved from soul and pop into punk, hardcore, electronic music and eventually two very different headline choices.
Amyl and the Sniffers did not seem particularly interested in conserving energy for the weather. Lead singer Amy Taylor came onto the American Express Stage with the restless movement that has become part of the band's identity, performing directly into some of the strongest sun of the afternoon. Heat that had people looking for water and shade did little to soften the band's pace, creating a sharp contrast between a crowd trying to manage the temperature and a group performing as though the conditions barely mattered.
One of Friday's more notable Weekend Two additions was Sienna Spiro, whose appearance drew one of the day's largest crowds for an artist outside the headline slots. She had not performed during Weekend One, and some people had specifically chosen the second weekend to see her. Wearing a spotted dress with a distinctly 1960s character, Spiro did not need an elaborate production around her. Her voice carried the set, particularly as the crowd waited for Die on This Hill, the song that dramatically expanded her audience over the past year.
The character of the day changed as the afternoon moved toward evening. BUNT. introduced his set by asking, "Are you ready for some German techno?" and eventually brought The Chainsmokers onto the stage. Rather than keeping the moment confined behind the barricade, the artists went into the crowd and helped open a mosh pit, blurring the usual division between an electronic set and the kind of physical crowd activity happening elsewhere in the park.
That physical energy reached another level with Turnstile. The band's presentation opened with video emphasizing the idea that "Hardcore is Love," showing the culture surrounding the music rather than treating the audience as scenery behind the band. Mosh pits opened among a crowd that stretched well beyond hardcore regulars, with younger and older festivalgoers bouncing and moving together. At a festival where pop, indie rock and electronic music often dominate the highest-profile spots, Turnstile made a persuasive case that heavier music belongs on one of ACL's largest stages.
Later, The Chainsmokers found a completely different way to expand the sound of an electronic set by bringing the Austin-based SoCo Women's Chorus onstage. Hearing a large group of live voices against electronic production created a contrast that could easily have felt mismatched but instead gave the music another dimension. By nightfall, Friday had moved through punk, soul, pop, techno, hardcore and EDM before splitting the largest crowds between the rock of Kings of Leon and the pop spectacle of Charli xcx. It was the kind of genre-hopping day that continues to make ACL difficult to summarize with a single musical identity.
Almost Heaven
Almost Heaven performing at the Austin City Limits Music Festival in Austin, Texas on October 9, 2026. (Photo: Ralph Arvesen)Austin duo Almost Heaven opened Friday at ACL Fest with a mix of post-punk, electronic pop and indie dance. Vocalist and producer Stefan Barraza and drummer Jaelyn Valero have developed the project within Austin's independent music scene, bringing together electronic textures, live percussion and songs that lean toward the darker side of alternative pop. Their ACL appearance marked another step forward for a local act that has already appeared at events including SXSW and Austin Psych Fest. Performing early in the day gave Almost Heaven the difficult job of helping bring Zilker Park to life while much of the crowd was still arriving, but it also put an Austin band at the beginning of one of the country's largest festival weekends.
Brigitte Calls Me Baby
Brigitte Calls Me Baby performing at the Austin City Limits Music Festival in Austin, Texas on October 9, 2026. (Photo: Ralph Arvesen)Brigitte Calls Me Baby combines modern indie rock with a romantic style that frequently reaches much further back into pop history. Led by vocalist Wes Leavins, the Chicago band balances sweeping melodies, ringing guitars and a dramatic vocal delivery that can recall classic crooners as readily as post-punk and new wave. That mixture gives the group an unusual identity on a festival lineup. The songs can sound polished and nostalgic without becoming a simple recreation of an earlier era, and the band's move from smaller clubs to increasingly large festival stages has happened quickly. At ACL, Brigitte Calls Me Baby brought a distinctly different kind of guitar music to Friday's early schedule before the day moved toward heavier rock, electronic music and its major headliners.
Radio Free Alice
Radio Free Alice performing at the Austin City Limits Music Festival in Austin, Texas on October 9, 2026. (Photo: Ralph Arvesen)Melbourne's Radio Free Alice has emerged from Australia's active guitar scene with a restless combination of post-punk, alternative rock and melodic songwriting. Their music favors wiry guitars and urgent rhythms, but there is enough melody underneath the tension to keep the songs from becoming purely abrasive. Releases including Empty Words and What's In Between helped introduce the band beyond Australia as touring opportunities expanded internationally. ACL provided another chance for the young group to reach listeners who may have encountered them for the first time while moving between stages, exactly the kind of discovery that remains one of the benefits of arriving early at a large festival.
Leon Knight
Leon Knight performing at the Austin City Limits Music Festival in Austin, Texas on October 9, 2026. (Photo: Ralph Arvesen)Leon Knight took one of Friday's early spots on the BMI Stage, a part of ACL that has long been devoted to developing performers who may be playing to the largest audiences of their young careers. Knight's music falls within an alternative singer-songwriter space, pairing melodic writing with a modern rock and pop approach. The smaller BMI setting can be particularly useful at a festival dominated by enormous stages because it allows unfamiliar artists to establish a connection without competing against a production built for tens of thousands of people. Knight's appearance fit that role, offering an early-day introduction before Friday's schedule began filling with more established names.
S.G. Goodman
S.G. Goodman performing at the Austin City Limits Music Festival in Austin, Texas on October 9, 2026. (Photo: Ralph Arvesen)Kentucky singer-songwriter S.G. Goodman has built a distinctive place between Americana, country and indie rock by writing about Southern life without simplifying it. Her songs can express affection for home while also examining religion, politics, identity and the contradictions that exist within rural communities. Goodman's expressive voice is equally important, capable of sounding fragile one moment and rough-edged the next. That combination sets her apart from more traditional country performers. Guitars can turn abrasive when the songs need them to, while quieter passages leave room for the writing to carry the weight. At ACL, Goodman's music offered something more introspective amid a Friday lineup that increasingly moved toward high-energy punk, dance music and large-scale pop.
Bella Kay
Bella Kay performing at the Austin City Limits Music Festival in Austin, Texas on October 9, 2026. (Photo: Ralph Arvesen)Texas-born singer-songwriter Bella Kay arrived at ACL during an important period in her young career. Her music blends alternative pop with confessional writing, often addressing heartbreak, loneliness and the uncertainty that accompanies relationships and growing up. Songs such as The Sick helped expand her audience, while the album My Reckless Abandon gave listeners a fuller picture of her songwriting. Playing ACL also gave Kay something increasingly rare on a festival lineup filled with performers from around the world: a connection to Texas. Her music is far removed from traditional Texas country, but that contrast reflects how broadly the state's music scene has expanded. Her Friday appearance placed another emerging Texas artist in front of an audience far larger than a typical club crowd.
Faouzia
Faouzia performing at the Austin City Limits Music Festival in Austin, Texas on October 9, 2026. (Photo: Ralph Arvesen)Moroccan-born and Canadian-raised singer-songwriter Faouzia has built her music around one of the most technically impressive voices in contemporary pop. A pianist and multi-instrumentalist as well as a vocalist, she combines mainstream pop production with influences drawn from the Arabic music she heard growing up, giving her melodies and vocal phrasing a character that separates her from many singers working in the same format. Songs including Tears of Gold and Minefields introduced Faouzia to an international audience, but her voice becomes even more central in a live setting. The range, control and power behind it allow quieter passages and bigger choruses to coexist naturally, making her Friday ACL set less dependent on elaborate spectacle than on the performance itself.
Bo Staloch
Bo Staloch performing at the Austin City Limits Music Festival in Austin, Texas on October 9, 2026. (Photo: Ralph Arvesen)Austin-born singer-songwriter Bo Staloch has developed a sound rooted in folk and Americana while keeping the writing personal and contemporary. Now based in Nashville, Staloch favors acoustic textures and storytelling over dense production, allowing his voice and lyrics to remain at the center of the songs. Returning to Austin for ACL gave the appearance an additional connection to the city beyond simply being another tour stop. His quieter approach also offered an effective contrast to many of Friday's increasingly loud and energetic performances, showing the range of music that can occupy the same festival schedule within only a few hours.
Sienna Spiro
Sienna Spiro performing at the Austin City Limits Music Festival in Austin, Texas on October 9, 2026. (Photo: Ralph Arvesen)Sienna Spiro was one of the most anticipated performers exclusive to Weekend Two, drawing an unusually large Friday crowd for an artist appearing well before the headliners. Some festivalgoers had specifically chosen the second weekend because she was not part of Weekend One. Wearing a spotted dress with a distinctly 1960s feel, Spiro looked visually suited to music that often draws from the dramatic vocal pop of earlier generations. The attention surrounding Die on This Hill has accelerated her rise, but Spiro's appeal reaches beyond one successful song. Her voice carries a maturity and emotional weight that can seem surprising for such a young performer, favoring sustained melodies and expressive phrasing rather than heavily processed pop vocals. The turnout at ACL suggested that her audience is expanding almost as quickly as the stages she is being asked to fill.
LP
LP performing at the Austin City Limits Music Festival in Austin, Texas on October 9, 2026. (Photo: Ralph Arvesen)LP, born Laura Pergolizzi, spent years building a successful songwriting career before becoming widely recognized as a performer in their own right. Songs written for other artists helped establish that reputation behind the scenes, while LP's solo career eventually expanded internationally through recordings including Lost on You. The combination of rock, folk and pop is immediately identifiable because of LP's unusually powerful voice and signature whistle. Onstage, those qualities remove much of the need for excess production. A song can move from a restrained passage into a much larger vocal moment without losing its intimacy, while the whistle has become as recognizable as many conventional instrumental hooks. LP's ACL appearance brought an established international performer into a Friday schedule filled with considerably younger artists still making their way toward that level.
Girlfriend
Girlfriend performing at the Austin City Limits Music Festival in Austin, Texas on October 9, 2026. (Photo: Ralph Arvesen)Mississippi native Girlfriend, born Kenya Edwards, has developed her music around contemporary R&B while drawing from the R&B and reggae she heard growing up. Her songs focus heavily on relationships, healing and emotional honesty, with the stage name itself intended to create a sense of familiarity rather than distance between performer and listener. The BMI Stage gave Girlfriend the opportunity to introduce that material to a much broader festival crowd. ACL's smaller stages regularly provide some of the weekend's most interesting discoveries, particularly when an artist has not yet accumulated the recognition that guarantees a large audience. For Girlfriend, Friday offered exactly that kind of opportunity.
Jesse Welles
Jesse Welles performing at the Austin City Limits Music Festival in Austin, Texas on October 9, 2026. (Photo: Ralph Arvesen)Arkansas singer-songwriter Jesse Welles has become one of the most distinctive new voices in contemporary folk by writing songs that deal directly with subjects many performers approach only cautiously. Health care, war, corporate power, poverty and ordinary American frustration appear throughout his work, usually delivered with little more than a guitar and a voice that makes the songs sound conversational even when the subject is uncomfortable. Welles initially reached a much larger audience through stripped-down outdoor performance videos that spread widely online, but the writing has prevented his rise from feeling like a short-lived viral moment. His ACL appearance came during a period of rapid growth that also brought him into the Austin City Limits television studio, connecting the newer songwriter to the institution that gave the festival its name.
Amyl and the Sniffers
Amyl and the Sniffers performing at the Austin City Limits Music Festival in Austin, Texas on October 9, 2026. (Photo: Ralph Arvesen)Australian punk band Amyl and the Sniffers has become one of the genre's most recognizable modern acts through a combination of raw guitars, short bursts of aggression and the relentless presence of vocalist Amy Taylor. The band's music draws on punk and pub rock without treating either as nostalgia, keeping the songs simple enough to hit immediately while allowing Taylor's personality to dominate the center of the performance. At ACL, Taylor pranced onto the American Express Stage with a fiery burst of energy during some of Friday's strongest afternoon heat. Direct sun and temperatures that had much of the crowd searching for shade did little to slow the band. The physical performance matched the music, with Taylor rarely appearing interested in conserving energy for later in the set.
Paris Paloma
Paris Paloma performing at the Austin City Limits Music Festival in Austin, Texas on October 9, 2026. (Photo: Ralph Arvesen)British singer-songwriter Paris Paloma has developed a devoted audience through music that combines folk-influenced arrangements with writing about femininity, anger, relationships and the expectations placed on women. Her songs often feel literary, using mythology and imagery alongside much more direct observations about domestic and emotional labor. That connection became impossible to miss during Labour, the song that introduced Paloma to millions of listeners. At ACL, the crowd fiercely chanted the lyrics back to the stage, turning an intensely personal song into something communal. It was one of those festival moments where the volume of the people in front of the stage became nearly as important as the person performing on it.
BUNT.
BUNT. performing at the Austin City Limits Music Festival in Austin, Texas on October 9, 2026. (Photo: Ralph Arvesen)German electronic project BUNT. has built an audience by combining dance production with melodic influences that often reach into folk and acoustic music. The result is generally brighter and more song-driven than the darker side of club-oriented electronic music, making it particularly well suited to large outdoor festival stages. "Are you ready for some German techno?" provided a fitting introduction to the ACL set, which eventually became more chaotic than the recordings might suggest. The Chainsmokers joined BUNT. onstage before the performers headed into the crowd and helped open a mosh pit. It was a collision of EDM and rock-show behavior that fit naturally into a Friday already moving between punk, hardcore and electronic music.
Joe Jordan
Joe Jordan performing at the Austin City Limits Music Festival in Austin, Texas on October 9, 2026. (Photo: Ralph Arvesen)Singer-songwriter Joe Jordan spent years writing and developing his craft before putting greater emphasis on his own recordings. His music favors melodic, personal songwriting, with family, relationships and everyday struggles providing much of the emotional foundation. The Heart Sessions gave those ideas a full-length home and introduced a broader picture of Jordan as a solo artist. The BMI Stage was a natural setting for that phase of his career. Rather than surrounding developing performers with enormous production, the stage allows the songwriting itself to do most of the work. Jordan's ACL appearance placed him in front of listeners who may have arrived knowing little about him, one of the recurring opportunities the festival provides for artists working their way toward larger stages.
Turnstile
Turnstile performing at the Austin City Limits Music Festival in Austin, Texas on October 9, 2026. (Photo: Ralph Arvesen)Baltimore's Turnstile has played a major role in pushing hardcore beyond the boundaries of the scene that originally produced it. The band retained the physical intensity and communal character of hardcore while gradually incorporating melody, alternative rock, electronic textures and increasingly ambitious production. That evolution allowed Turnstile to reach festival audiences without stripping away the energy that made the group distinctive in the first place. Their ACL set opened with a montage of fans centered on the message "Hardcore is Love," placing the community around the music at the front of the presentation. Once the band began, mosh pits opened across a crowd that extended far beyond traditional hardcore listeners. Festivalgoers of different ages jumped and bounced together, giving Friday one of its most physical performances and a reminder that heavy music still has a place on ACL's largest stages.
Leon Thomas
Leon Thomas performing at the Austin City Limits Music Festival in Austin, Texas on October 9, 2026. (Photo: Ralph Arvesen)Leon Thomas has followed an unusually broad path to his current position as an R&B performer. His career began in acting while he was young, but songwriting and production eventually became equally important, leading to work behind the scenes with major recording artists before his own music moved increasingly to the foreground. As a solo artist, Thomas combines contemporary R&B with live instrumentation, soul and a musician's attention to arrangement. That background gives his performances a different character from an artist who works primarily as a vocalist. His ACL appearance on the Miller Lite Stage brought a smoother, more musically layered sound into a Friday afternoon increasingly dominated by high-energy rock and electronic sets.
The Chainsmokers
The Chainsmokers performing at the Austin City Limits Music Festival in Austin, Texas on October 9, 2026. (Photo: Ralph Arvesen)The Chainsmokers have spent more than a decade moving between electronic dance music and mainstream pop, producing crossover hits that helped take the duo from clubs to arenas and major festival stages. Rather than remaining strictly behind the decks, their live shows evolved into larger productions that incorporate vocals, instrumentation and the kind of audience interaction expected from a headline-level act. Friday at ACL included more than one appearance from the duo. After joining BUNT. earlier in the day, The Chainsmokers returned for their own set and brought the Austin-based SoCo Women's Chorus onstage. The combination of choral voices and electronic production offered a particularly Austin-specific variation on their usual festival show, creating an unexpected contrast between live ensemble singing and EDM.
Kings of Leon
Kings of Leon performing at the Austin City Limits Music Festival in Austin, Texas on October 9, 2026. (Photo: Ralph Arvesen)Kings of Leon has spent more than two decades evolving from a rough-edged Southern garage-rock band into an arena headliner with one of the most recognizable catalogs in modern American rock. Built around brothers Caleb, Nathan and Jared Followill with cousin Matthew Followill, the Tennessee group initially earned greater attention in the United Kingdom before songs such as Sex on Fire and Use Somebody transformed its profile in the United States. Their Friday appearance gave Weekend Two a major rock headliner that Weekend One did not have, replacing the slot occupied by Skrillex a week earlier. That change gave the two ACL weekends noticeably different identities at the top of the bill. With a catalog stretching from the urgent early records to the expansive rock that later filled arenas, Kings of Leon provided a fitting full-band counterpoint to the electronic and pop-heavy alternatives closing the first day.
Austin City Limits Music Festival
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