The Music’s Over

The Eighth Annual Austin City Limits Music Festival came off once again without any major incidents this past weekend here in Texas’ capitol city — that is, if you don’t count massive devastation to the recently overhauled Zilker Park.

ACLFest turned into “Mudfest,” with heavy rain on Saturday turning the new sod and grass into a smelly muck that forced thousands of festivalgoers to forego their shoes and let a little bit of muddy Austin slip between their toes.

As for the music, it was brilliantly diverse and entertaining as always, even if I didn’t happen to be familiar with a majority of the acts playing this year’s acts (more a sign of my own age than the obscurity of the acts, to be sure!)

My own faves for this year’s fest: Crowdsourcing winner Bright Light Social Hour, John Legend, The Decemberists, Alberta Cross, The Levon Helm Band, and fest-stealing Ghostland Observatory, an Austin electronica band with a laser light show that sent the crowd into orbit.

As for the fate of Austin’s landmark park, the plan is to allow time for the grounds to dry before breaking down large structures and re-sodding areas of the park that need it, but festival organizer C3 is saying that the new grass and root system are still intact.

I sure hope so, considering our Great Lawn had been closed for nearly a year to make the improvements, which appeared late Saturday to have been wiped out in a single day.