Austin City Limits Music Festival at Zilker Park in Austin, Texas on October 11, 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.
By Sunday, three days of sun, dust and miles of walking were beginning to show, but the final morning also brought one of the small encounters that explains why people keep returning. On the walk toward the festival, a couple visiting from Colorado carried their young daughter on her father's shoulders. Asked how many times she had been to ACL, the four-year-old held up five fingers. Her parents explained that the count was correct. She had attended four times outside the womb and one more while her mother was pregnant.
That story fit a final day that mixed established acts with another group of artists whose ACL appearances may be remembered very differently a few years from now. The Huston-Tillotson University Jazz Collective helped begin the day, while later choices included Saint Motel, Houndmouth, Max McNown, Noga Erez, Geese, SOFI TUKKER, Parcels, Blood Orange and The War on Drugs. By Sunday afternoon, there were still enough overlapping sets that the final day did not feel like a gradual wind-down.
Audrey Hobert provided one of the day's strangest and most memorable entrances. She appeared onstage elevated on stilts, wearing a face covering and playing banjo, immediately establishing that the performance would not follow the usual rising-pop-artist script. During the set she bounced on a small trampoline and moved around the stage in her familiar button-down dress, embracing an awkward, playful quality rather than trying to polish it away.
Some of Hobert's humor also came with a sharper edge. She recalled how cruel children could be when she was young and described seeing a list on which kids had rated one another. She had been given a three. It was difficult to reconcile that story with the confident performer commanding a major festival stage years later, but that contrast was part of what gave the moment its weight.
Near the end, Hobert performed Sue Me, then returned to the song again as her closer. The second time she asked people to put their phones away and experience it without recording. At a festival where thousands of screens can rise the instant a recognizable song begins, the request briefly pushed in the opposite direction. It was an appropriate idea for the closing afternoon of a weekend that produces an almost impossible number of photographs and videos while still depending on the moments nobody captures.
The final night offered another difficult decision. Twenty One Pilots closed the American Express Stage while The xx finished the weekend from the T-Mobile Stage, with strong late-evening alternatives including Parcels, Blood Orange and The War on Drugs leading into them. By then, the heat, sunscreen, dust and walking had taken their toll, but that exhaustion is strangely tied to the experience. ACL asks a lot from anyone trying to see as much as possible, then makes it remarkably easy to forget the discomfort once the weekend is over. For the four-year-old on her father's shoulders, it was already ACL number five. There is a good chance it will not be her last.
The Huston-Tillotson University Jazz Collective
The Huston-Tillotson University Jazz Collective performing at the Austin City Limits Music Festival in Austin, Texas on October 11, 2026. (Photo: Ralph Arvesen)The Huston-Tillotson University Jazz Collective opened the final day of ACL with a direct connection to Austin's own musical community. Representing Huston-Tillotson University, the city's historically Black university, the ensemble combines jazz with elements of R&B, soul and contemporary music while giving student musicians experience on stages far larger than a typical campus performance. The group's return to ACL also reflected one of the festival's strengths: placing local musicians on the same schedule as internationally known artists. Starting Sunday at the Tito's Handmade Vodka Stage gave the Jazz Collective an opportunity to welcome people back into Zilker Park with live instrumentation and ensemble playing before the day's schedule moved into pop, rock and electronic music.
Marzz
Marzz performing at the Austin City Limits Music Festival in Austin, Texas on October 11, 2026. (Photo: Ralph Arvesen)Louisville singer-songwriter Marzz, born Laria McCormick, developed a deeply personal style of progressive R&B after growing up singing in church. Gospel remained an important influence alongside artists including Erykah Badu and Beyoncé, while early freestyles and covers shared online eventually attracted the attention of producer Timbaland. The debut EP Love Letterz introduced a wider audience to Marzz's smooth vocals and emotionally direct writing. Much of the music deals with relationships, identity and self-acceptance without separating those subjects from the R&B traditions that shaped Marzz growing up. An early Sunday set on the BMI Stage placed that intimate songwriting in a very different environment from the clubs and smaller venues where developing R&B artists often build their audiences.
Thomas Day
Thomas Day performing at the Austin City Limits Music Festival in Austin, Texas on October 11, 2026. (Photo: Ralph Arvesen)Tennessee singer-songwriter Thomas Day first reached a large online audience through vocal performances and covers before shifting the emphasis toward his own pop songwriting. Songs including "Not My Job Anymore," "Softly" and "Love Me For Another Day" established a style centered on heartbreak, young adulthood and the kind of emotional situations that are often easier to sing about than explain. Day arrived at ACL only days after the release of his my bad EP, giving the T-Mobile Stage appearance a particularly current feel. Newer songs including "human nature" joined a catalog that has gradually moved him away from being known primarily for online covers and toward an identity based on his own writing and performances.
Sunday (1994)
Sunday (1994) performing at the Austin City Limits Music Festival in Austin, Texas on October 11, 2026. (Photo: Ralph Arvesen)Sunday (1994) approaches indie pop through a dreamy, cinematic haze, combining close vocals, restrained guitars and melodies that often feel as though they belong to an older film soundtrack. The project grew around Paige Turner and Lee Newell after years of making music separately, eventually bringing their shared influences together in songs such as "Tired Boy" and "Rain." The group's sound was particularly well suited to the Snapchat Stage during Sunday afternoon, offering something quieter and less aggressive than many of the festival's guitar acts. Rather than relying on dense arrangements, Sunday (1994) creates atmosphere through space and understatement, allowing the vocals and melodic details to remain at the center.
Chelsea Jordan
Chelsea Jordan performing at the Austin City Limits Music Festival in Austin, Texas on October 11, 2026. (Photo: Ralph Arvesen)Baltimore-born, Los Angeles-based Chelsea Jordan found her way to songwriting after initially focusing heavily on athletics. She played lacrosse at the University of Southern California before a songwriting course helped redirect her toward music, eventually transferring into the USC Thornton School of Music. Early independent releases such as "Toronto" helped her build momentum and led to a major-label deal. The EP Better Late Than Not at All expanded that introduction with soulful pop songs centered on relationships, uncertainty and self-examination. Jordan's BMI Stage appearance placed her among ACL's developing artists, where a relatively short set can serve as an introduction for thousands of listeners moving through the festival.
Charlotte Lawrence
Charlotte Lawrence performing at the Austin City Limits Music Festival in Austin, Texas on October 11, 2026. (Photo: Ralph Arvesen)Los Angeles singer-songwriter Charlotte Lawrence has spent years refining a style of moody pop that relies more on emotional detail than oversized production. After early releases including the Young and Charlotte EPs, her album Somewhere gave that sound a larger canvas, bringing together material about relationships, anxiety and the uncertainty that comes with trying to understand yourself while growing up in public. Her T-Mobile Stage set leaned into that more personal side of the music, with songs including "Morning," "Better Than This," "Dog," "Fear of Falling" and "Somewhere." Lawrence also performed "Zombie" by The Cranberries, allowing the strength and texture of her voice to carry a familiar song without needing a large-scale festival production around it.
Calder Allen
Calder Allen performing at the Austin City Limits Music Festival in Austin, Texas on October 11, 2026. (Photo: Ralph Arvesen)Austin-born Calder Allen is a fifth-generation Texan whose music combines Americana, folk and a strong sense of place. He grew up in an artistic family that includes grandparents Terry and Jo Harvey Allen, but initially imagined a life centered more around fly-fishing than songwriting. Time at home during the pandemic changed that direction, eventually leading to his debut album The Game with producer Charlie Sexton. Allen returned to ACL with new album Fault Lines, recorded at Austin's Arlyn Studios with Sexton and Jacob Sciba. The record explores love, loss and resilience while retaining the spacious Texas character that has become central to his songwriting. Performing at the Tito's Handmade Vodka Stage also gave Sunday another direct connection to the local musicians who continue to make ACL feel rooted in Austin.
Claire Rosinkranz
Claire Rosinkranz performing at the Austin City Limits Music Festival in Austin, Texas on October 11, 2026. (Photo: Ralph Arvesen)California singer-songwriter Claire Rosinkranz first broke through while still a teenager with "Backyard Boy," but the viral success of that song became the beginning rather than the endpoint of her career. She grew up around songwriting and began making music at a young age, eventually developing an upbeat mixture of pop, rock and R&B that favors conversational lyrics and melodies that arrive quickly. Her second album My Lover gave Rosinkranz new material to bring into ACL, several years after the early online success that first introduced her to a huge audience. On the Miller Lite Stage, her bright pop songwriting provided a lighter shift in the afternoon before Sunday's schedule moved toward some of the day's stranger and heavier performances.
Vwillz
Vwillz performing at the Austin City Limits Music Festival in Austin, Texas on October 11, 2026. (Photo: Ralph Arvesen)Colorado Springs native Vwillz has built an independent career by refusing to stay within one obvious genre. Now based in Nashville, his music moves among hip-hop, alternative rock, pop, folk and country while maintaining a confessional songwriting style. Tracks including "Falling Slowly," "Sundown" and "Darkside" helped develop an audience drawn as much to the emotional writing as to the changing production around it. His ACL appearance came during a particularly active year that included the albums York and Songs from Sedona, along with the new single "stayed." released just before the festival. The BMI Stage offered a fitting setting for an independent artist whose catalog can move from quiet, late-night material into much bigger hooks without settling permanently into one musical identity.
Audrey Hobert
Audrey Hobert performing at the Austin City Limits Music Festival in Austin, Texas on October 11, 2026. (Photo: Ralph Arvesen)Audrey Hobert arrived at ACL with one of the most unusual stage personalities of the weekend. After establishing herself as a songwriter and collaborator with Gracie Abrams, Hobert moved into her own recording career with songs including "Sue Me," "Sex and the City" and "Phoebe." Her debut album Who's the Clown? revealed a performer willing to mix detailed pop songwriting with humor that can be awkward, theatrical and deliberately strange. That personality was impossible to separate from the Sunday performance. Hobert entered elevated above the stage in a disguise before eventually bouncing on a small trampoline and moving around in the Texas heat in her familiar button-down dress. She also recalled being rated a three by cruel classmates when she was younger. Near the end, Hobert performed "Sue Me," then repeated it as the closer while asking the crowd to put away their phones and experience the song without recording it.
Noga Erez
Noga Erez performing at the Austin City Limits Music Festival in Austin, Texas on October 11, 2026. (Photo: Ralph Arvesen)Israeli singer, songwriter and producer Noga Erez makes electronic pop that rarely behaves like conventional pop. Her music incorporates hip-hop, industrial textures and sharp rhythmic production, often pairing catchy hooks with lyrics that can be political, confrontational or deeply personal. Albums including Off the Radar, KIDS and THE VANDALIST established a sound built around tension rather than easy background listening. Newer songs such as "Stuck In Heaven" and "I LOVE YOU" continued that approach into 2026 while showing a more expansive side of her writing. At the BeatBox Stage, Erez brought a harder electronic edge into Sunday afternoon, offering a noticeable change from the singer-songwriters and guitar bands occupying many of the surrounding stages.
Jason Scott & The High Heat
Jason Scott & The High Heat performing at the Austin City Limits Music Festival in Austin, Texas on October 11, 2026. (Photo: Ralph Arvesen)Oklahoma City's Jason Scott & The High Heat operate somewhere between Americana, heartland rock and Red Dirt without fitting neatly into any of them. Scott's background included a Pentecostal upbringing and time spent preparing for ministry before his relationship with religion changed, giving his songwriting an unusual perspective on faith, doubt, love and ordinary life. The band arrived at ACL only weeks after releasing Play Boy, an album featuring songs including "When Love Tries To Hurt You," "Shit Show," "Fast As I Can Crawl" and "Highway Robbery." The newer material continues the group's preference for a full-band sound with more weight than traditional folk, making their Sunday set a natural fit for listeners who like country storytelling but want the guitars pushed harder.
Geese
Geese performing at the Austin City Limits Music Festival in Austin, Texas on October 11, 2026. (Photo: Ralph Arvesen)Brooklyn band Geese has evolved rapidly from the angular post-punk of its earliest recordings into something much harder to categorize. Cameron Winter's distinctive vocals sit at the center of music that can move through art rock, country, punk and loose improvisation without sounding particularly concerned about where one style ends and another begins. That unpredictability has become a major part of the band's appeal. Their rise has been especially visible at ACL. Geese played the festival on a much smaller stage only a few years earlier, but returned with a far larger audience and a prominent T-Mobile Stage slot. Winter's increasingly successful solo career has brought additional attention, yet the band remains its own unruly creation, with the live setting allowing the songs to become even less predictable than their studio versions.
Blood Orange
Blood Orange performing at the Austin City Limits Music Festival in Austin, Texas on October 11, 2026. (Photo: Ralph Arvesen)Blood Orange is the project of British-born singer, songwriter, producer and composer Dev Hynes, whose career has repeatedly moved between indie rock, R&B, funk, electronic music and classical composition. Outside his own recordings, Hynes has written or produced for artists including Solange, Lorde, Mariah Carey and Caroline Polachek, while also composing music for film and television. The album Essex Honey returned Blood Orange to the center of his recording career with music shaped heavily by memory, grief and self-acceptance. At ACL, that quieter emotional material shared space with the funkier rhythms and layered R&B that have defined earlier records such as Cupid Deluxe, Freetown Sound and Negro Swan. The BeatBox Stage gave Hynes one of Sunday's most interesting alternatives to the larger rock sets happening elsewhere in the park.
The xx
The xx performing at the Austin City Limits Music Festival in Austin, Texas on October 11, 2026. (Photo: Ralph Arvesen)The xx returned to the festival circuit in 2026 after more than eight years away from touring together, bringing Romy Madley Croft, Oliver Sim and Jamie xx back onto the same stage after each had developed substantial work outside the group. Their original formula remains unusually minimal for a festival headliner: spare guitar, electronic rhythm, silence used almost like another instrument, and the closely paired voices of Romy and Sim. Their T-Mobile Stage set drew from songs including "Crystalised," "Islands," "Angels," "Say Something Loving," "On Hold" and "I Dare You," while also folding pieces of the members' solo work into the performance. "Intro" remains one of the band's most recognizable pieces despite having no vocals at all, and its restrained construction captured what made The xx such an unusual choice to close ACL. Instead of trying to overpower Zilker Park, the trio let space, rhythm and atmosphere do the work, bringing Weekend Two to an understated but memorable finish.
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