ACL Fest (Austin Kiddie Limits) 2008: Final Thoughts
Well, it's been more than a week since I arrived in Austin for this year's Austin City Limits Festival, so it's probably time I wrap up all my writing on the topic and move on to something else. (Is there some other festival this weekend?) For those of you looking for the week's notes, look no further than my archives. To conclude, a few big-picture thoughts on the festival as it was, along with some on how it could be.
ACL Fest is an exceedingly well-run festival.
I mean, when the worst things you can say about the weekend is that the sounds from sets occasionally bled into one another (Alejandro Escovedo had his amps turned up, making the Swell Season set not quite as hushed as it might have been) and that there could probably be a few more water fountains, well, then, you done good. Sets started on time, shuttle buses were plentiful, there were lots of things to do, and the grounds were about as immaculate as you could expect. (Seriously, they decided to give t-shirts and other swag away to people who brought recyclables back in big plastic bags. What a genius idea -- I'm not sure I saw a single stray can or plastic bottle the entire weekend.)
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So I've been writing a lot about the 2008 edition of the
After two days of hanging around mostly with Miss Mary Mack at the Austin Kiddie Limits stage (not to mention the Family Music Meltdown 2), I thought it was important that she experience some other genres of music in other parts of Zilker Park. So after getting to the park after noon, we went over to the AT&T stage on the east side of the park to catch Abigail Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet featuring Bela Fleck. I thought she might dig the violin and banjo action. It was also early enough in the day that I felt like I could put her on my shoulders without offending the people behind me (because, at 12:30, I could still get close enough to feel, well, close, even at the back of the non-chair-sitting crowd). Washburn has spent a number of years in China, and so when she sang Chinese folk songs in a bluegrass arrangement, it didn't sound anywhere near as pretentious as you might think reading that description. In fact, it sounded, well, cool. But by about halfway through their set, we were getting hungry, so we left as the quartet riffed their way through "Eleanor Rigby."
We made it! To Day 2! After a nice breakfast/brunch with the family, Miss Mary Mack headed back out to downtown Austin, snagged a shuttle, and made it to Zilker Park in time for most of
OK, do you really want to know how tiring a musical festival can be? At some point late in the afternoon on Friday, Day 1 of the 

The Sippys had the most impressive stage setup of the day. Banners on the side and bright day-glo costumes to rival Bjork's for long-distance visibility. The crowd was definitely bigger today than on Friday. Must be something about that whole school is on Friday thing. Their first set was mostly covers, finishing with their reworking of "I Wanna Be Sedated," changed into "I Wanna Be Elated." Can you call it a mosh pit if nobody's actually bouncing off one another, just bouncing up and down?
After securing my pass, we went in a side gate for press and others, thereby passing the crowds here, which, I didn't realize at the time, were waiting for an 11 AM entrance. We got inside, then all of a sudden I heard the theme music for "Chariots of Fire" and the gates opened up and people started streaming in. Nice touch.