So a one day pass gets you into shows at all of those locations? I'm thinking about buying a one day pass, just to see Massive Attack. One of my favorite bands and this is probably the closest they'll ever come to Houston.
The Festival is in a giant park. There are about 10-15 stages around the park, so its basically just one entrance you have to get into. So a one day pass would get you into Massive Attack, and any other shows you want to see that day.
http://www.austin360.com/music/content/music/stories/2006/06/14acl.html Sprinklers will help clear air at Austin City Limits festival By Michael Corcoran AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Wednesday, June 14, 2006 Dust was the demon at last year's Austin City Limits Music Festival, with swirling soil smog filling the air to the point that many festgoers were wearing handkerchiefs over their faces like stagecoach robbers. (Or maybe they didn't want their hipster friends to recognize them digging Coldplay.) The dust storm got so bad that Jimmy LaFave started changing lyrics to Woody Guthrie songs so they'd be about Zilker Park. The main stage should've been sponsored by Visine. From the dust clouds of last year's festival, a partnership has emerged: ACL organizers and the city parks department will put in an irrigation system to tamp down the dirt. But festival organizers Capital Sports & Entertainment and Charles Attal Presents are determined to keep this year's and subsequent festivals from being marred by "Oklahoma Rain." They've agreed to pay half the costs of an irrigation system being installed by the Austin Parks and Recreation Department at the concert site. CSE's Lisa Schickel said the promoters will pay half of the estimated $500,000 to $700,000 over the next three years on the project, which will bring in a new main water line, plus parallel lines. Eventually, plans are to build a pump that will use water from Town Lake, instead of treated city water, to keep Zilker green. Work on the first phase, which includes a new sprinkler system for the periphery of the park and more water fountains and misting stations, is expected to be completed at least a month before the Sept. 15-17 festival dates, said Stuart Strong, assistant director of the Austin Parks and Recreation Department. The ACL fest was named 2005's Festival of the Year by touring industry bible Pollstar, but that was a silver lining to a brown cloud. Schickel said the overwhelming subject of complaints from festgoers was the dust. When promoters had their wrap-up meeting with the parks department two weeks after the festival, they started talking about sharing the cost of a new watering system. "It wasn't just our event," Schickel said. "The Fourth of July fireworks has also had dust issues." "It's a great partnership," Strong said. "It's beneficial to the strength of the festival, and having this complete irrigation system is something the public can enjoy throughout the year, for years to come." Currently, the Zilker soccer fields are irrigated, but the peripheral area, where most of the ACL stages are built, is not. Another complaint organizers hope to address at the fest, whose headliners include Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Gnarls Barkley, Willie Nelson, the Raconteurs and Van Morrison, is the lack of shade. The festival's central area is normally devoted to athletic fields, and trees and soccer don't mix. Last year, when the record highs hit 108 degrees (20 degrees hotter than the 30-year average for that date in Austin, according to the Farmer's Almanac) fans huddled around the few trees on the concert grounds like solar-savaged refugees trying to get on the last raft out of the sun. Schickel says there will be more artificial shade this year, but rather than just put up white tents, the fest will utilize massive art installations to block parts of the sun. Finally, a practical use for modern art.
