Another day done! Today was a bit hectic. First the “hot girl summer” Megan Thee Stallion did not show up to perform her set. Fans were eagerly awaiting the power house when it was announced she would not be performing. …bummer! There were apparently issues with her getting to the venue on time but she tweeted that she would try and make it up to Austin fans as soon as possible. However, there are like 15 other incredible artists playing the festival today, so no need to fret.
The weather was a bit annoying this year at ACL. We’ve been going to ACL for the past fie years and we have never attended a “cold” ACL. It was so interesting to see people pull together their best fall fashion for the fest. There were animal print jackets, bell bottom jeans and lot of band tees. The risk takers or people who did not check the weather app before leaving home wore the usual shorts/skirts attire, but overall it was fun to see what people pulled together for a “cool and cozy” festival attire.
Back to the music! Norwegian singer Sigrid performed at the American Express stage and had many people attend her set. Some were long term fans who sang the words to every song and a lot of them seemed to be newer fans. How do we know? their stance! People give it away every time, but another thing we could tell is people were definitely enjoying their time listening to her dream pop tunes.
Sigrid
What we love about ACL is the diversity in music. Recently, they have been including more hispanic/ LatinX artists and we love it. Across the board more festivals have been incorporating music in Spanish. This year they brought out many performers such as Kali Uchis, Natalia Lafourcade Vanessa Zamora (oh and Spanish goddess Rosalía sang Sunday). They brought different sounds to the festival and their stages were pretty packed. We love seeing none Spanish speakers dancing around to songs in that language (happened last year with Chilean artist Mon Laferte). Between Michael and I we were able to catch Kali Uchis, Natalia Lafourcade and Vanessa Zamora. The Colombian/ American performer Kali sang “Nuestro Planeta”, “Dead to Me”, “Ridin’ Round” and many other of her hits. The performer said that this would be the last time that she would perform certain songs and that after ACL everything was going to be different for her.
Briston Maroney
Tierra Whack
Pink Sweat$
Kali Uchis
The Mexican Singer, Natalia Lafourcade opened her set with a tribute to the legendary Mexican singer Jose Jose honoring his legacy. She was incredible. The flare, the beauty the sound were all beautiful. She sang songs from her record Hasta la Raiz, which attracted a pretty big crowd. The beautiful singer
Billie Eilish was one of the crowd favorites for the festival on Saturday, hundreds of people lined up early to try and get a good spot to see the 17 yearold singer and thousands showed up to see her one hour set, and it did not disappoint. She began her set with her number 1 hit “Bad Guy” and every single person in that crowd was singing along to it. Fans were crying when Billie sang some of her slower songs such as “When Party’s Over” and “Ocean Eyes”. Fans must’ve connected with these songs on an emotional and personal level to have for them to cry during her set. Eilish’s ring was unfortunately taken when she went out in the crowd but she decided to let the person keep it and kept on going with her performance.
Billie Eilish | photos by Greg Noire
On the other side of the festival, the new wave rock legends, The Cure performed for a much older crowd and a nice amounts of hipsters. They played hits from their oldest albums such as, “Love Song,” “Close to Me” and “Just Like Heaven. It was a magical moment. The band has gone through changes in the formation of the group so it was cool to see some of the original members rock out on stage like they did in the 70’s following the death of punk rock music.
James Blake
The Cure | photos by Chad Wadsworth
Headliner Childish Gambino was another act who showed off amazing vocals, stage presence and production. Gambino who performed his last show after 2 years of touring delivered an experience like no other. Fans were singing, crying and dancing together to his music while fireworks would go off during the show, it was something that truly felt magical. One of the best moments of the show was when Gambino performed “Redbone”, his vocals were out of this world, told everyone to congregate and live in the moment while he performed one of his most popular songs, it was something truly magical that left everyone speechless.
Childish Gambino | photos by Greg Noire
Words by Maria Limon + Michael Perea | Photos by Maria Limon and C3 Photographers
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