ACL at 25: The Plant Futures Guide to a Greener, Plant-Forward Weekend at Zilker
last year at ACL we had a chat about sustainability with singer-songrwriter Johnny Stimson
Twenty-five years of Zilker, and what's ahead
Austin City Limits turns 25 this year. What started as a two-day local event is now a nine-stage, two-weekend festival with more than 100 performances, and Weekend 1 lands in Zilker Park October 2–4.
The Weekend 1 lineup is stacked: Charli xcx, Lorde, RÜFÜS DU SOL, Twenty One Pilots, The xx, and a Weekend 1–only Skrillex set. Turnstile, Geese, Lola Young, Bleachers, The War on Drugs and Brandon Flowers (W1) fill out a bill that leans toward where music culture is going, not where it's been.
But if you've spent a day in Zilker, you know the music is only part of the story. The festival is also a small city built in a week: thousands of people eating, drinking, refilling bottles, sorting trash and making choices that add up. That's what we're here for.
Plant Futures covered ACL last year, and we're coming back for Weekend 1 to look at how a 25-year-old festival keeps its culture alive — through what people eat, how the park gets cared for, and the community that shows up to make it happen. Here's what to know before you go.
Sustainability at Zilker: the systems behind the weekend
ACL's greening work isn't a side booth. It runs through the whole park, and most of it is powered by people. Austin Parks Foundation (APF) runs the festival's signature programs, with roughly 750 volunteers each weekend.
Here's what you'll find on the grounds:
Rock & Recycle. Fill a bag with recyclables from around the park and trade it in for a limited-edition ACL lineup tee. Fans collect roughly 4,000 bags this way every year.
Divert It! Volunteers stationed at waste points help fans sort compost, recycling and landfill — and explain why it matters.
Electrolit Hydration Stations. Free water refills across the park. Bring a reusable bottle or hydration pack. C3's director of operations told KUT these stations kept almost 900,000 single-use plastic bottles out of landfills in 2024.
Greener service ware at ACL Eats. The festival says eco-friendly service items are part of the food program, alongside recycling and composting stations.
There's a bigger loop here, too. A portion of every ACL ticket goes back into Austin's nearly 400 parks, trails and green spaces. The APF–ACL partnership generated $8.5 million for city parks in 2025 and more than $79 million over its 20-plus-year history.
That's the part we find most interesting. Sustainability at ACL works less like a rule and more like a culture: volunteers, fans and vendors each doing a small thing, and the park getting better because of it.
Before you go: pack a reusable bottle, learn the three bins, and consider grabbing a Rock & Recycle bag on your first lap. You'll leave with a shirt nobody else can buy.
from a chat with Shallowater at ACL25:
“People want to care, you just have to show them how and that it’s not scary.”
ACL Eats: eating plant-forward at Zilker
ACL's food program is one of the best arguments for the festival being an Austin event first. The 2026 ACL Eats lineup brings 40-plus local restaurants and food trucks into the park, plus a second food court, ACL Eats South, and a dessert zone, ACL Sweets.
You don't have to be vegan to eat well without meat or dairy at ACL. On a hot day in Zilker, the plant-based options are often the ones that actually make you feel good: cold, fresh, filling and easy to eat between sets.
Here's where we'd start:
Blenders & Bowls - açaí bowls piled with fruit. Filling enough for breakfast, cold enough to reset in the afternoon heat.
Juiceland - fresh juices and smoothies from an Austin staple. The easiest way to get something green into a festival day.
Gati Ice Cream - dairy-free scoops in ACL Sweets that hold their own against anything else in the park.
Bananarchy - frozen bananas with a pile of toppings, an ACL classic.
Skull & Cakebones - a class Austin favorites with the most delicious cauliflower wings,
Thai Fresh - new to ACL this year.
Four Brothers Venezuelan Grill, Shawarma Point, Kababeque - bowl and wrap vendors worth checking for veggie builds.
We'll be walking ACL Eats all weekend, talking to vendors about their plant-based dishes, where their ingredients come from, and what they're seeing from fans. If there's a plant-forward bite you think we should find, tell us.
See you in Zilker
We'll be on the ground October 2–4, talking with vendors, volunteers, artists and fans about the choices that shape the weekend. Follow along on Instagram and LinkedIn, and subscribe to our newsletter for the full recap in mid-October.
