Austin City Limits Music Festival 2026: Weekend Two
Welcome back to ACL 2026: The Good, The Bad, and the Sunny!
We ditched the rain boots from Weekend One and put on our ACL usuals: platform sneakers with insoles. Finally, the sun showed itself and this weekend we were still wet but from sweat instead of rain. I actually also went to Weekend One as a spectator and it was muddy but not too bad! I gotta say though, I was relieved when the forecast showed sunny, blue skies. We couldn’t have an ACL without a golden hour- and we definitely got one.
Austin City Limits 2026
Two best friends enjoying live music while reminding everyone that Coachella is truly the blueprint for festival fashion.
We chatted about the line up during the first weekend’s article. The few changes for Weekend Two were insanely good too! Kings of Leon at T-Mobile Stage, Natasha Bedingfield inside Tito’s (crazy), Austin’s own Montclair at Tito’s and Chloe Qisha at the BMI stage.
Let’s talk Friday: Brigitte Calls Me Baby, Sienna Spiro, Faouzia, Paris Paloma, Amyl & the Sniffers, Turnstile & Leon Thomas were especially on our radar tonight. From witnessing Sienna’s amazing and unique voice, Paris Paloma’s hair flipping to Turnstile and special guest Faye Webster flipping on their own, it was a jam-packed day of amazing sets that made it so hard to choose one over the other. Discovering Faouzia on Friday was the best part of my day too. Her voice is dreamy, sultry, and insanely acrobatic with beautiful runs and other vocally technical vocabulary that is deep out of my range. Fashion wise, these performers also looked stunning especially when golden hour hit. Sienna had an iconic polka dot dress and 60’s Priscilla Presley inspired hair while Paris Paloma had a beautiful baby blue dress matching her eyes and making her yellow, long hair glow even more. Faouzia also had a long beautiful lace dress and curls that looked to have been done with a small barreled wand. Leon Thomas looked dapper in his sunglasses while all of Turnstile looked cool as per usual. Choosing between King of Leon and Charli XCX was difficult but I had to hand it to Charli this time! Her strobe lighting on stage mixed with a lot of unique concepts including a runway with models on the runway with special guest, Tinashe. You just couldn’t miss the message.
Faouzia on Friday at the American Express stage
FRIDAY GALLERY
On Saturday, we had the best time on the grounds. We interviewed Montclair and had a portrait session with Chloe Qisha. Montclair performed their newest single, “I Scream, U Scream” and Chloe Qisha had my camera feening for more!
Chloe Qisha on the BMI Stage
Casen Hutton of Montclair during their set on the Tito’s stage
During the rest of the day, we caught other amazing acts like Letrainiump, Finn Wolfhard, Common People ft. Matt Schultz of Cage the Elephant, Suki Waterhouse, Lola Young, Lykke Li, and BLEACHERS. An amazing story that we had to include in this write up was the performance highlight of the day by Letrainiump. After being invited to Weekend One unexpectedly, rave reviews prompted ACL to book him again for Weekend Two! A surprise that truly must’ve made him think ‘Wow, this is real life?!”
We made sure to run to the BMI stage for Common People since we received a sneak peek of what was to come. Frontman Nicky Winegardner blew us away with his stage presence and set the literal stage for the most special guest of the weekend, Cage the Elephant’s Matt Schultz. Both performed a The Pixies cover that drove everyone wild! Matt Schultz is famously known for his stage presence and we definitely got a taste of it during the Common People set. Both Nicky and Matt jumped around the stage in true showman fashion reenergizing us for the rest of the day. Running to Suki Waterhouse after was a dreamy performance where we saw Suki herself crown a fan at barricade as the ‘Weirdo’ for the night. Using an actual crown, Suki placed it on a lucky fan while giving her a trophy that resembled having a Barbie head on it..in true Suki weirdo fashion.
After a quick lunch break, I knew I still had the rest of the day to conquer. I made my way down to BLEACHERS to face the one and only, legendary Jack Antonoff. When not co-writing with Sabrina Carpenter or Taylor Swift, Antonoff lends himself to his band, BLEACHERS. Looking forward to my personal favorite song, “Tiny Moves",” I realized I had to run over to the AMEX stage to catch the next set. Arriving just on time, Lola Young entered our golden hour coverage. With the coolest jewelry and hand tattoos, I loved capturing her consistent use of the mic stand during her set. The warm sun made her skin beam more than it usually already does. Near the end of her set, “Messy” was the crowd favorite and everyone was singing. Ending our photo coverage on Saturday was the dreamy and mystical Lykke Li. Personally, this was special to me. I had so much of the discography on my iPod Nano on repeat in middle school; a true full circle moment for me.
Jack Antonoff of BLEACHERS
SATURDAY GALLERY
As we approach Sunday, we knew to prepare for another full day of interviews and more epic performances. The last day included Joshua Jensen, Ethan Regan, Audrey Hobert, Saint Motel and the heart wrenching decision between The XX or Twenty One Pilots.
Talking to Joshua Jensen and Ethan Regan post set was wonderful. Both extremely talented songwriters, I asked them both about their newest music and their inspiration. Between Joshua’s beautiful visuals and new single, “People were Singing” to Ethan’s newest release of the deluxe version of his album, Young Regan and favorite Mac Miller song, Sunday was off to the best start.
Following the two songwriters was my most looked forward to set, Audrey Hobert! With a non skip album, ‘Who’s the Clown?,’ and hilarious stage presence, I knew to be camera ready. Starting the set with an unusually long trench coat and disguise glasses/mustache combo singing ‘I Like to Touch People’, Audrey then rips off the costume and reveals the most amazing hue of purple I’ve ever seen on another shorter trench coat. With a beautiful sky blue background, the entire set is the perfect scene to capture.
Ending our photo coverage for the weekend with Saint Motel was exactly what we needed. Energy, more warm, golden sun and the most amazing western fit from frontman, A.J. Jackson, we loved hearing those iconic songs that were on repeat on my playlists. “My Type”, “Sweet Talk”, and “Cold Cold Man” were one of the many songs that people sung along to as the night got darker.
Making our way to Twenty One Pilots was not easy. Between the huge crowds of people and dire need for a selfie with the flags, we had to prioritize which meant running to the side stage to get the best view of Josh Dunn on the drums and Tyler Joseph swinging the mic in true TØP fashion.
At the end of it all, Ultra5280 had an amazing double weekend of music, mud, sun and fun. We are extremely excited for what 2027 has to bring and we can’t wait to bring you more coverage then.
Till next time!
Words and Photography by Paola Miano