Dear Austin City Limits Music Festival,
You sucked.
When you’re planning to attend any event — a concert, festival or sports game — there’s other costs to consider besides the ticket: food, transportation and outfits. My point is, the “main event” isn’t the only part of the experience. Other factors also contribute to how enjoyable your time is.
I bought my ACL ticket back in May and had been planning on attending since I’d gotten into UT. When the lineup came out, it was a no-brainer. I had an array of my best tops, bottoms and accessories so I could curate the perfect outfits. I think that goes to show how much I was looking forward to the festival. I literally started counting down the days on my physical calendar waiting for Oct. 9 to come.
I cannot begin to express my disappointment..
For starters, Natasha Bedingfield has over 27 million monthly listeners on Spotify and was scheduled to perform at the Tito’s stage, which is mainly reserved for smaller artists. The venue is surrounded by food and merch tents and shaded sitting areas. During peak dinner time, the food area is crowded, and now people are shoving to get past each other with no clear path. My $12 “frozen” lemonade (the machine was broken) and my $17 Korean BBQ made matters even worse. It was a nightmare.
“There are all of these things that are happening on the (eight) different stages, and so the festival organizers have to think about ‘Where are we going to put an act?’, ‘How are we going to make sure that we correctly assess what demand would be?’” said Ethan Pew, a clinical assistant professor of marketing. “You wouldn’t want to have a massive popular performer on a stage that’s too small because then we get overcrowding.”
For an artist with such a large fan base, it didn’t make sense to me as to why they would put her on a smaller stage surrounded by food and merch tents.
Another issue was the lack of directions around the park. There was no reception, so figuring out where artists were performing, bathrooms and merch tents was challenging.
“I used to find it really difficult to get a cell signal, or send or receive a text or post to social media in the festival,” said Steve Brister, associate professor of marketing at UT. “It would be nice (if) they do have the paper maps. … It used to be they would hand it to you when you went in.”
Some factors are completely out of the organizers’ control like weather, environmental conditions (like dust) and transportation. To an extent, attendees should be held responsible for doing research about what they’re paying for.
So, next year, when ACL tickets come out again, I will be putting in my AirPods and listening from Spotify. The music sounds better from my headphones, anyway. You’re welcome, wallet.
Messner is a public affairs freshman from Las Vegas, Nevada.
