Survive the ACL Music Festival

Sep 10th, 2010 @ 08:21 am › iSea24u

ACL Music Festival: How to survive the craziness of Austin City Limits

by Bianca Flores – In October thousands of people will be in Austin for Austin City Limits’ ACL festival. This is one of the greatest music festivals around so you can’t afford to not be ready for everything. There are things you need to bring, things you must remember and things that might get weird, but you’ll be at THE ACL Festival…in Austin. Keep Austin Weird.

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ACL Music Festival – “How To”

1. You’re not at home so…
· Get ready for the weather ahead of time. Wear light clothes if you know it’s going to be hot (October in Austin usually still feels like summer).

· Drink water as if it’s summer, you’ll be sitting or standing for hours, hopefully even dancing with the hippies in the mud, so dehydration is the last thing you’re probably looking forward to.

· Hygiene is always important, but it’s not going to meet standards at an ACL Festival. So, bring wet naps, you’ll need them. You’ll be in line for a long, long, long time to use the luxurious port potties.

· Anything that you want to purchase will be over priced, and I mean everything. Water bottles, sodas, beer, food, T-shirts, posters and anything else you may want.

· Bring a poncho or umbrella just in case. Buy either one ahead of time, I tried buying an umbrella the day of the fest and when I got to a store miles away they were all sold out.

2. Arrive on time. Depending on who you want to see and sit all depend on your timing.
· Arrive early to check in. Everyone is trying to get to the same place you are, so be early. No one wants to see anyone crying because they missed their favorite band.

· No matter the time you arrive to the ACL festival put on sunscreen and reapply as time passes.

3. Settling in
· If you don’t mind standing all day, well congrats you’re the fittest human around, but if you do mind bring a folding chair.

· Know where everything is, you’ll be given a map. Read it.

· Do not put your chair in the Chair Free zone that is in front of the stage.

4. Necessities: keep them on you at all times, even if that means a fanny pack. Ok, not really a fanny pack.
· Keep your I.D on you at all times. Don’t expect to get beer based on your looks, it doesn’t work that way.

· Get cash ahead of time and keep it in your pocket, not in the back pack pocket so some drunken guy can easily take it.

· If you do forget to get cash (please do not) there will be ATMs and you can pay a service fee. The ATMS will probably be empty by mid day, so bring all that cash that you think is needed. Keep it in your pocket!

· Water bottles are a must (freeze them overnight). You can bring two factory sealed water bottles, but except for buying more water after be green and bring an a empty aluminum water bottle to refill at the water fountain.

· Know what you can and can’t bring at ACL Festival Prohibited/Allowed Items.

5. Have lot of fun, it’s ok get crazy
· You’ll be seeing some of the biggest bands right now, so go all out. Dance, sing, yell, and maybe even go do all that in the mud.

· With all the craziness that is Austin City Limits, you’ll never know what to expect, so bring extra clothes just in case.

6. Be SAFE!
· Keep in touch with whoever you went to the ACL festival with. Have a meet up spot and plan for just in case ya’ll get parted.

· Say “no” to strangers. If offered beer or drugs just say no, you never know what they did when you weren’t there.

· Stay hydrated, and I don’t mean with beer either. Drink water. Drink Water. Keep drinking water.