By Lizeth Moctezuma, Staff Reporter
November, 2021
“Thank you guys so much for being here!”
“None of this would have ever been possible without all of you.”
“I appreciate every single one of you who have stuck by me along this journey of mine.”
I feel as if during the two weekends of the Austin City Limits Festival in early October, I heard every other variation of gratitude from artists after ACL, and I would absolutely go back to experience it all over again.
A year after COVID, the Austin City Limits festival continued on the go-ahead, setting its first weekend from October 1st-3rd and the following from the 8th-10th. Promising to maintain health guidelines, every person entering had to have proof of vaccination, or a negative COVID-19 test result, two days prior to attending the festival.
I had the opportunity to attend the opening weekend and the first day of the second week, and Finneas was the first artist I had ever gotten to see live. He was sweet, thanking those who had come early to watch him perform. He mentioned his first solo concert when touring was ACL (2019) how important it was to him. Finneas promised to donate his paycheck from both weekends to Planned Parenthood, and both he and his sister, Billie, referenced Greg Abbott’s abortion ban, as well as two very strong words raised with a middle finger in the air.
When Megan Thee Stallion began her show I could feel the floor rumbling, and not just once, but twice did gates drop allowing everyone to run forwards closer to the stage. She invited people from the crowd to dance up there with her, and the absolute excitement when Miley Cyrus (she was to perform after Megan) crashed her set a couple of times to dance with everyone. It seemed like everyone wanted to see the rapper as both Finneas and Billie Eilish were caught on the big screen at the sides of the stage.
By far my favorite show both weekends had to be Miley. Call it nostalgia, a bias for the rock genre, maybe even the spirit of the final show of the night, but Miley knew how to make a concert feel alive. Her shows are the definition of what books and movies try to portray of the concert experience. The visuals on her big screens were mesmerizing and fit her personality well as at one point it was two skeletons having at one another to “Malibu,” the song Miley says helped her out the most when she was figuring herself out. She thanked everyone more times than I can count, referring to herself as someone everyone could count on as the support given to her had done the same. Listening to her songs through my earbuds doesn’t compare to how amazing she sounded those Friday nights.
Everyone has that one crazy concert story and for me it was Tyler the Creator’s show. It felt as if in every other song there was a mosh pit forming itself, and once the beat dropped people began jumping and everyone started running to get closer to the stage. From the middle to so close we could feel the heat of fire effects on stage, no crowd was as crazy as Tyler’s was, especially when he encouraged the jumping at one point— it made perfect sense to have him be the closing performance for ACL. It was strangers talking to one another, it was grabbing your friend and pulling forwards, it was being surrounded by someone new every song… It was the best way to end the festival.
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