Austin City Limits Music Festival 2013

Two outta three ain't bad. Weekend two of the ACL Festival ended one day ahead of time due to flooding at Zilker Park and surrounding area. It kinda sucked for us because after day 1, we decided we'd save our kid-free night for the final night and get close enough to the stage, for once, and at least get a decent photo of Lionel Richie performing. But it rained. On the bright side, we're getting a third of the ticket price refunded--not bad--and we had a great time for two days at the festival again with Zack. 

Five Highlights of Two/Thirds of Weekend Two At ACL Fest 2013 (in no particular order):

1. Kendrick Lamar wins for most cell phone lights (over 20K) in the air at a concert ever. When I googled for a pic--because ours sucks--I decided that deaf people win for coming to a music festival, and this ASL sign-language interpreter wins for signing Kendrick Lamar's "P&P" with feeling. FYI, if you follow that link, one of the P's in that title is definitely the p-word. 
2. Leaving the car at a Capital City Metro Park & Ride in the suburbs and taking the Metro Rail downtown to catch the free shuttle to the festival? Totally a great idea. We were in constant motion until we made it through the gates of Austin Kiddie Limits. The lines kept moving because the shuttles kept moving--it was awesome. For once, I made it into downtown Austin without wishing that we lived closer to all the fun. I mean, I do wish that, but I usually say it out loud while sitting in traffic on the highway. Anyway...
3. Seeing Fun. live was awesomesauce for all of us, as you'll see in the pics and video below. When lead singer, Nate Ruess, hit the stage my son was all smiles. One time we were driving to Dallas and he asked me to play just "Some Nights" in a repeat loop all the way there. After a while, he decided we should add "We Are Young", and that's what we listened to the whole drive. When I asked him what was his favorite part of ACL that day, he said, "I really liked that Fun guy's golden microphone. It was so awesome." I told him I agreed the gold mic was kinda dope. And all I needed in life this weekend was to sing along to "Carry On" at the top of my voice in a crowd of other Fun. fans at a live concert. Amen. 
   

   Image Source: www.austinchronicle.com
4. The Verve Pipe at Austin Kiddie Limits was pretty cool. You gotta love a rock band that starts singing kid-rock when they become dads. Kinda like how Eddie Murphy and Ice Cube went kid-friendly with their careers when they became dads. I bet when Verve Pipe was singing "Freshmen", for the life of them, they never thought they'd be singing about the awesomeness of Cereal. Kid-rock seems like a great second-wind career move for them. They are awesome musicians and rocked the Kiddie Limits stage. 
5. Wild Belle. Easily the coolest brother-sister band on the planet. When I was minding my business eating my lunch, I wasn't ready to see them when I followed the soulful voice over a reggae beat (a Google search later told me they were singing "It's Too Late"). I'd tell you why, but you'd probably judge me for it, plus look at the picture and use context clues.

Image Source: thekey.xpn.org

I didn't know they existed before ACL Fest, now I can't get over how their music and videos are like nothing else--that I can compare them to anyway. 

Since there are only so many photos you can take of an ACL Fest stage so far away to see the artist that it just looks like an empty stage, I'm sharing pics from everything we could see close-up and personal, which happened mostly in Austin Kiddie Limits.

All the following pics and video were captured with our fancy iPhones. 

DJ Zack with Half of The Q Brothers! Easily the highlight of his ACL Fest experience this year.

Yep. We brought our big kid to the festival in a stroller. Everybody who looked at me crazy can kick rocks.

Downtime in between fun and shows was easy-peasy thanks to our BOB stroller. The hubs took this pic from his crash spot, face up on our blanket.

Jamming to Fun.

Group selfie! Waiting for Fun. to come on. I just want to be clear--my face is closest to the camera, therefore looks significantly larger than the other adult in the picture. In real life, I do not have a giant face. 

Rock Star Hair Color by Avant Salon and Spa

When he saw his after pic, he slowly looked away from the mirror and the shy finger took it's place in between his teeth.

School of Rock tent was entirely too much awesomeness.

What good is a day at the park without Hot Wheels in the sand pit? Long after Kiddie Limits closed, there was still fun to be had and right next to Lady Bird stage!

I heart Austin City Limits Music Festival for making it possible for parents to enjoy a kick-ass music festival, not stress about babysitting and still feel like one of the cool kids.  

If you went to ACL Fest this year, with our without kids, what was the highlight of the weekend for you?