Austin City Limits Music Festival 2026: Weekend One
Welcome to ACL 2026: The Good, The Bad, and The Muddy.
Not that any of Mother Nature’s elements were going to put a damper on our experience, after all we have covered ACL through high temperatures, a random cold front in 2019, a few rainy days and this year….mud, lots of mud. With music festivals leading up to this year experiencing delays and in some instances cancellations, the good folks at ACL were well prepared for the inevitable. Kudos to everybody involved for making sure attendees felt safe and all efforts to clear out the mud every day. Now for the good part….the music.
Austin Muddy Limits 2026
Crews clear out muddy areas all across Zilker Park.
Now that we got that out of the way, let’s talk about the music. This years lineup boasted a who’s who of artist representing a variety of genres (something ACL has always been good at), from latin, to pop, to showcasing local talent, ACL covered all bases. With more than sub-par conditions, fans still managed to come out in full force to experience not only great music, but amazing brand activations from Coca Cola, Patron, T-Mobile, Ike and Mike, and many more. Food options were in abundance and plenty of options to go around, water stations all throughout the grounds made it easy for festival goers to stay hydrated.
Weekend One kicked off on Friday with a stacked lineup that kept the energy high from the first set to last encore. Early on, crowd favorites New Constellations delivered a shimmering, immersive set that set the tone for the night, their layered melodies and tight harmonies drawing an enthusiastic response. Paris Paloma—whom we’d catch again in Denver a few days later—brought a raw, intimate intensity to the stage, translating quiet vulnerability into moments of cathartic release. Hardcore pioneers Turnstile turned the atmosphere electric with their frenetic riffs and joyous mosh-friendly anthems, proving once more why they’re festival go-to’s. Jazz-inflected soul from Leon Thomas offered a welcome contrast, his warm vocals and dynamic arrangements grounding the bill with depth and musicality. As the sun set, pop provocateur Charli XCX took command of her stage with a high-gloss, hypercharged performance full of catchy hooks and kinetic choreography, while Skrillex closed out the night on the main stage with bone-rattling drops and genre-blending production that sent fans into a euphoric frenzy—an unforgettable end to a day that showcased the festival’s diverse, boundary-pushing spirit.
FRIDAY GALLERY
Saturday morning, festival staff and volunteer crews scrambled to reconfigure schedules and deploy cleanup teams as they worked against the clock to clear mud-clogged pathways and salvage the weekend’s programming. Despite the dampened terrain, the crowd’s energy never dipped: intimate sets and powerhouse moments flowed through the day with standout performances from Finn Wolfhard, Young Miko, Lola Young, and Lykke Li, each bringing their own distinct intensity and drawing eager audiences across the site. On the main stages, Lorde and Rufus Du Sol delivered headline-caliber shows that felt both cathartic and celebratory, commanding the night with cinematic production and magnetic presence. Meanwhile, the grounds crew pulled off an impressive quick fix, laying down swaths of artificial turf across the festival’s worst mud pits to create safer, drier routes between stages — a practical upgrade that transformed slog into stride and kept foot traffic moving. Vibes stayed defiantly high: attendees wandered through immersive brand activations, lined up for experiential pop-ups, and traded stories while hunting for free swag, turning what could have been a soggy washout into a memorable, community-driven weekend.
SATURDAY GALLERY
Our last day of weekend one started gray and overcast, but the sun finally showed up after a light morning drizzle and warmed things up. We checked out the activations—Snapchat’s booth drew the longest lines, where festivalgoers waited eagerly for its exclusive keychain photos. Sunday opened with Stella Lefty; her energetic set and sharp songwriting had the crowd singing and dancing along. Claire Rosinkranz followed, delivering one of the weekend’s best shows with sparkling charm, effortless stage presence, and irresistibly catchy pop‑indie songs. Headliner Audrey Hobert, a rising viral star, closed the night with witty, heartfelt material that connected deeply and left her trending long after the last encore.
Keeping with our female fronted heavy lineup of coverage our next stop took us to the Snapchat Stage for none other than indie darlin’s Cannons, led by Michelle Joy at the helm the bands indie dance vibes had us wanting to dance as we captured the bands groovy rhythms and stage energy, commanding the lead Joy won our hearts and delivered on all levels making it for an amazing set. As our final day winded down we decided to head over to the Beat Box stage to capture Blood Orange, who in our books has remained a very underrated artist. Flanked by an array of instruments including an electric cello, Dev Hynes mastery of instruments brings his sets to life. Our final set of the weekend led us to one of my personal favorites who I had a chance to see at Kilby Block Party earlier this year, The XX, after a few years off the band has been playing the fest circuit this year playing all of their classic hits we have come to love. Just like a fine wine, this band continues to get better with age, it was a nice way to wrap our weekend one that made for some new adventures but nonetheless it’s things like this that make Austin City Limits Music Festival our favorite festival each year.
Words and Images: Robert Castro
