Weekend 1 of Austin City Limits' 25th anniversary opened under a gray sky, with a forecast calling for heavy rain all weekend. Minutes after arriving at Zilker Park, Sam was interviewing violinist and singer Izzy Escobar when she glanced up at the clouds and said, "It's going to be sunny, because we have the music here with us today."
As it turned out, she was right. The rain held off and the sun stayed out for the rest of the weekend, and that same sense of optimism carried into every conversation that followed.
Over two days of Weekend 1, Sam and Eric sat down with six very different acts from the ACL bill: a classically trained violinist and singer, a multigenerational hip hop collective, an Austin indie band, a Boston five-piece playing their first major festival, a North Texas band of childhood friends, and Gabriela of Rodrigo y Gabriela. Every conversation covered the same ground: music, community, food and the planet.
None of these artists came from the same place. But the messages lined up, and they sounded a lot like the festival itself.
Music is community
Izzy started playing classical violin at four, inspired by her dad, a DJ. Music was where she felt seen and understood. "I've never viewed them as separate," she said of music and community. "To me, music is synonymous with the word community."
The Q Brothers took it further. They rap across generations, with a father and son in the same crew, and they've watched what screens do to how people treat each other. "When you go see live music, you're there together, and it's a shared experience," they said. "Gathering for live performance is a radical act."
Twenty-five years in, that's still what ACL is built on. A two-day local event grew into a nine-stage, two-weekend festival because people keep choosing to show up in the same park at the same time. Festivals get called a place to tap out. At their best, they're where people tap in: to their bodies, to the people around them, and to something bigger than themselves.
The same hunk of rock
Asked why a festival is a good place to talk about the environment, Fai Laci didn't reach for data. They pointed to connection, because people who feel connected to each other are better at caring for the planet.
"If there's a strong sense of community, then there's a sense of shared responsibility," guitarist Michael Goldblatt said. "We're all trying to do the same stuff, living on the same hunk of rock."
That shared responsibility ran all through Zilker. Austin Parks Foundation powers ACL's greening programs with roughly 750 volunteers each weekend. Divert It! volunteers helped fans sort compost and recycling. Rock & Recycle let fans trade a bag of recyclables for a lineup tee nobody else can buy. And a portion of every ticket went back into Austin's parks, trails and green spaces.
People don't protect what they don't feel connected to., and ACL helps create that feeling of community to the city and attendees.
No planet, no music
Gabriela of Rodrigo y Gabriela said it most plainly: "With no planet, there's no music. There's nothing."
Off stage, she runs a project called Musica Por Los Animales, and with her sister she runs EcoVegana, an organization that hosts farm-to-table workshops in Mexico. She was careful about how artists should show up for causes they care about. "We inspire our fans, we inspire other people," she said. "It's about inspiration, not imposing."
That's the right message for a festival stage. At ACL, artists are the ones tens of thousands of people came to hear, and inspiration travels further than instruction.
Progress over perfection
None of the artists claimed to be perfect. "I have a car, I have to drive places," one member of Grocery Bag said, "but I ride my bike when I can." Logan Kerman, who plays bass and guitar and studied sustainability in college, put it best: "It's solidarity, not charity. It's not a one-off thing. It's what you do every day."
At ACL, that can be as simple as stopping at the compost bin after a meal, or picking up a plant-based dish at ACL Eats between sets. There’s a huge power when a lot of people take one small step as a part of a collective community and space.
Food brings us together
Music and food are two of the oldest ways people gather, so the team spent time walking ACL Eats, the festival's lineup of 40-plus local restaurants and food trucks. The question for vendors: what does plant-forward food look like at a festival?
Dan Stacey of Skull & Cakebones got his start running food trucks at farmers markets, and for him the point is access. "You go to a lot of events, stadiums, convenings, and you just don't have those options," he said. "Here it's about offering those choices to people."
His best seller at Zilker makes the case. "One of our most popular items right now is the plant-based corn dog. A lot of people who aren't plant-based might not even know it's plant-based."
Charlene Whitecotton and Holly Flores of Blenders & Bowls have watched curiosity at ACL turn into tradition. First-time customers used to point at the açaí and ask what "that purple stuff" was. Now they come back every year and bring their friends. "Festivals bring in small businesses that offer food from different cultures and different ways of eating," they said, "things people may never have seen before and might only be exposed to at a music festival."
Why we show up
at festivals
Plant Futures activates sustainable food systems and climate communities through a network of 115+ university chapters. But the classroom is only one place people learn.
A festival is a small city that gets built and rebuilt every year, and ACL has been building one in Zilker for 25 years. Over a weekend, tens of thousands of people try something new, whether that's a refillable bottle, a compost bin or a plant-based bowl. If it works there, it can work anywhere. And the artists on those stages are the voices the crowd is listening to.
What Connects US
Culture is what connects us: to ourselves, to each other, and to the planet. That's what came through at ACL's 25th anniversary, from six different acts with six different stories.
Thanks to ACL, Austin Parks Foundation, and every artist, vendor and volunteer who made time for us. See you in Zilker next year.
Check out @plantfuturesmedia for the latest music, art and stories from the people redefining sustainable living, and meet the artists in our Planty lineup, a group of musicians committed to a more sustainable food and music future: https://plantfuturesinitiative.org/culture-change
