Austin City Limits 2013 Greening Efforts

I’m just a little bit addicted to music festivals. My idea of a perfect day is one filled with live music, yummy (preferably local) food, perhaps some cocktails, a few friends and sunshine. From Lollapalooza to Bonnaroo to Firefly, GPB sure knows how to catch the best music festivals out there.

Know what will make an eco conscious gal in a blissed-out festival mood feel even better? When she notices all of the green measures being taken to help make the event sustainable.  Last weekend at weekend two of Austin City Limits music festival, I took note.

Austin City Limits 2013 Greening Efforts:

Recycling – A fair amount of recycling containers were available throughout Zilker Park. ACL offered a “Fill A Bag, Get A Shirt” incentive. Festival attendees simply had to take a large recycling bag, fill it with appropriate items (typically those beer cans that somehow end up strewn across the lawn) and return it for a free T-shirt. It was cool to see people helping out even if they were just in it for the t-shirt.

Water stations – Well, it is 2013 and if ACL didn’t encourage bringing your own reusable bottle and provide a water station, I think we’d all be confused to put it mildly. Luckily there were CamelBak filling stations and even if the water was less than icy in the Texas heat, it was an effort in conservation that I appreciated. Boxed water was available for purchase instead of plastic water bottles.

Transit – ACL recognized biking to the park as the most environmentally responsible means of transportation. They encouraged biking in their email communications pre-festival and provided ample bike racks. Since we were coming from out of town and a bike rental wasn’t a practical option, we chose to take the buses reserved for the weekend’s festivities which picked us up less than a mile from our hotel. Since the weather was (mostly) agreeable this was easy & stress-free. However, ACL could have done more to get the word out on public transit. I inquired with the concierge at our hotel who pointed us in the right direction but otherwise we may have thought a cab was the best option.

Food & Beverage – Three words: True Texan Grub. I was pretty excited to taste test my way through ACL as I’d heard that the food is always legit. Some highlights included Stubb’s Bar-B-Q, The Salt Lick, and Hope Farmers Market. There were plenty of gluten-free and vegetarian options. I enjoyed an especially delish vegetarian burrito from FREEB!RDS about the size of my head. In between all the brews from the local beer hall I was happy to down a few Texas kombuchas from raw & organic  – the Dr Pepper flavor was particularly awesome. They gave you a reusable cup with your pour, so I made use of it over the weekend and brought it home with me.

All in all ACL’s green efforts were apparent, and my hunch is they’ll only improve next year.

I feel I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the music. This years lineup was pretty great. Some of my favorite performances included Thao & The Get Down Stay Down, Vampire Weekend,  Jake Bugg, The Cure (in the rain!) and Franz Ferdinands’ late night show.

Sunday – the big close out to this year’s fest – was unfortunately cancelled due to epic rain fall in Austin. But a few bands finagled last minute shows and a performance by Smallpools, Grouplove and The Mowglis (my favorite band of summer 2013!) at the tiny BBQ spot Lamberts was so intimate and spontaneous that it almost made up for the cancelled day.