Inspired by the 50-year-old television series of the same name, the Austin City Limits Music Festival has stood as a musical hallmark of the city of Austin for over 20 years. ACL’s stages in Zilker Park have seen acts such as Willie Nelson, Kendrick Lamar, Arctic Monkeys and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The festival attracts nearly half a million visitors every year to see artists perform and visit the various art vendors and family-friendly attractions in the park. The Daily Texan created a timeline of the history of the festival.
The first-ever ACL Festival
After a few months of planning from Charlie Jones and Charles Attal, the festival opened in 2002 at Zilker Park as a two-day festival. Weekend passes were sold for $25 and the first-ever lineup included Asleep at the Wheel, Gary Clark Jr. and The String Cheese Incident. The festival expected an audience of 25,000 and ended up attracting more than 40,000 festival goers that weekend, with growth every year after.
ACL expands to two weekends
In 2013, the Austin City Council approved C3 Presents’ proposition to expand to a second weekend due to the high demand. The festival was also moved from September to October the previous year. By this time, 75,000 people attended the festival per day.
ACL goes worldwide
In 2015, C3 Presents announced that an international iteration of the festival would take place the next year in Auckland, New Zealand, at Western Springs Stadium. Additionally, in 2018, the festival established the Sydney City Limits Music Festival at Centennial Park.
Rebrand of ACL Nights
ACL Fest Nights, a series of smaller after-hours concerts, have existed since around 2004, under the name “ACL Aftershows.” Eventually, the name was changed to “ACL Late Nights” in 2016. In 2019, the shows started to be referred to as “ACL Fest Nights.” Artists that have performed in the past include Phoebe Bridgers in 2021, and those expected to perform at this year’s iteration include Lola Young, Benson Boone with Daniel Seavey, and Jungle with BAS.
ACL is canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic
With the pandemic forcing the closure of the festival and severely impacting the live music industry across the world, Austin City Limits was forced to go virtual. The festival live-streamed performances from previous years including Paul McCartney’s act from 2018 and Billie Eilish’s 2019 set.
ACL goes live
Hulu created a partnership with Live Nation in 2022 to establish a first-of-its-kind exclusive live stream of ACL, Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo. Hulu will broadcast exclusive content and behind-the-scenes footage from the festivals.
