Nearly half a million people will pack Zilker Park over the next two weekends, all with the same common goal: to hear the music. Bringing together a crowd of that magnitude unified about anything these days, other than our undefeated (fingers-crossed) Texas Longhorns or the forever-sweet country queen Dolly Parton, seems near impossible. But after more than two decades as a festival and nearly a half-century as an award-winning television program, Austin City Limits — an institution — captures every bit of Austin’s identity, old and new. 

When ACL hit the PBS airwaves in 1976 with Willie Nelson starring in its pilot episode, the scrappy yet sonically serene production struck a chord that would never stop ringing. Little did anyone know at the time that the show filming on UT’s studio 6A soundstage would one day become the longest-running music series in history and the inspiration behind one of the largest music festivals on earth. Started in 2002, ACL Fest’s success even led C3, the event’s promoter, to organize similar festivals across the map, from Maryland to Auckland, New Zealand. 

Last September, ahead of the show’s season 48 debut, ACL TV’s executive producer Terry Lickona sat down with me for an interview. At the time, this out-of-state student knew little about the true essence of Austin. Within an hour, Lickona, my first-ever interview subject at the Texan, and the gravitas of ACL, had me falling in love with everything the show and city stood for. 

“There is something about Austin that has helped to build Austin City Limits to be what it is today,” Lickona said last September. 

In every story and moment since, I’ve continued searching for what that “something about Austin” is, because the bright-eyed melodies ACL masterfully captured in Austin’s 70s heyday proves to be the sparkle of which the city, if it wishes to remain the Live Music Capital of the World, must never let go. 

Undoubtedly, challenges face Austin’s music scene, from affordability to what Shakey Graves, a lifelong Austinite, who’s landed spots on the ACL TV and festival stages, called the erosion of the “mid-size venue.” But the show must go on, and so will Austin. 

We invite you to explore everything ACL 2023 will offer in this special double coverage edition and hope you, the reader, feel our reverence for this legendary festival across every page.