Austin City Limits Music Festival 2025 – Day 1, Weekend 2

Austin City Limits Music Festival returned to Zilker Park to provide another year of great music, activities and food. Come with us to explore this year’s festival.

As people walked up to the festival gates, you could feel the exciting energy in the area. Attendees were dressed up in their best festival attire, taking selfies with friends and planning their schedule on who to see for the day. As the gates opened, attendees had multiple options on how to start their day. A majority of people immediately went to the Artist and Festival Merch stands to get merchandise to remember their time at the festival, others went to explore activations and festival grounds, while some started their checklist of artists to see, such as Aidan Bissett, Spill Tab, Maggie Antone, Jensen McRae and many more!

We walked the park and managed to see some of the activations that were available this year. T-Mobile provided Club Magenta which gave attendees exclusive stage views, prizes and even charging stations. American Express also had a similar activation where you could get exclusive merchandise and even side stage viewing if you managed to sign up in time. The festival also had its iconic photo-op locations like the flags and “ACL FEST” sign where everyone would stop by and take their pictures.

At 4pm a massive crowd of attendees gathered at the T-Mobile stage to watch King Princess perform. The singer performed songs such as “Girls”, “1950”, and “Talia”. At around 4:30pm, attendees also had the option to see Vincent Lima and Dylan Gossett perform. As the day went on, the choices would get slightly harder on picking which artists to see. The 5 o’clock hour had The Favors, a project by Ashe and Finneas, Skrilla, MJ Lenderman and Sam Barber, all amazing acts.

At 6pm we headed over to the T-Mobile stage to see one of the most anticipated acts of the day, Role Model. He came out on stage, waved to the crowd and everyone immediately started cheering and screaming out his name. He started off his set with “Writing’s on the Wall” followed by “Look at That Woman”, the audience was incredibly loud and reciprocated with Role Models energy, we knew it was going to be a great set. He continued to play songs such as “The Longest Goodbye”, “Old Recliners” and “Some Protector”, before we knew it, we were getting to the end of the set. Slowly, the opening for “Sally, When The Wine Runs Out” started playing and everyone screamed at the top of their lungs and immediately joined in singing and dancing. Role Model usually brings out a special guest for this song and his “Sally” was the one and only Lizzy McAlpine, once again, the crowd roared once they saw her come out on stage. The set was truly a memorable one for the day.

Before we knew it, it was 7 o’clock and the first day of the festival was coming to an end. The performers for the hour were Empire of the Sun, Rilo Kiley and Dr. Dog, all a variety of genres from which to pick. It was finally time for the two headliners of the night, Hozier at the T-Mobile stage and Luke Combs at the American Express stage, each drawing incredible sized crowds. Hozier’s set featured songs such as “Jackie and Wilson”, “Work Song” and “Take Me to Church”, while Luke Combs performed songs like “Days Like These”, “Beer Never Broke My Heart” and “Ain’t No Love in Oklahoma”. These performers were a great way to end the first day of the festival.

We can’t wait to see what the next few days will be like.