Austin City Limits, or ACL as it is widely known, is a 3 day music festival located in the heart of downtown Austin. Set in the 45 acre Zilker Park, there are 8 stages, 130 bands, and over 75,000 concert-goers each day. I was able to truly enjoy about 18 bands perform, but there were a select few that I felt stood out.

Favorite set to dance to: Skrillex

Most know Skrillex as that guy with funky hair, big black glasses, and a special fascination with aliens. I was not necessarily a fan of his before ACL, because electronic music is something I like but don’t really try to listen to regularly or am particularly interested in. But, his act was something that I knew was not worth missing. And man, it was not worth missing at all.

Set up in a spaceship, Skrillex brought an energy that was next level, and was able to hold that energy throughout his performance. With lasers and lights flashing to the beat and smoke shooting out at major bass drops, his music was all tied together and given its full effect.  It was near impossible to not want to dance during his set. Whether it was bobbing your head or waving your arms, everyone joined together and formed one big dance party. The crowd anticipated every single beat drop, and every single one was just as sick as the next.

Craziest stage dive: Mac Demarco

Mac Demarco is may seem like a goofy guy, but he definitely puts together wonderful music for the ears. When I first heard one of his tracks (“Ode to Viceroy”), I was forced to search for another song, and then another, until I liked around eight songs off of his Soundcloud. His sound is magnetic, and he didn’t fail to pull the audience into his performance at ACL.

During his last song, Demarco stood up on the fence that separated himself from the crowd and took the most graceful dive onto his loving fans. And he didn’t just get carried around for a little and tossed back onto the stage, but he went to the very back of the crowd. He went as far back as he could, then right back around to the front again, which was not a short distance to be carried. Fans rushed (including myself) to hold him up as he pointed to keep on carrying him farther. The coolest part about his dive was that you could tell that he absolutely loves what he’s doing, and that he really wants to interact with his crowd too.

Best Performance: Outkast

Before coming onto the stage, André 3000 and Big Boi asked the massive crowd “Austin, are you ready?” In all honesty, we were not ready for what we were about to experience.

To put it bluntly, Outkast was phenomenal. And maybe it was because I was super close to the front of the stage, or maybe it is because I am a huge Outkast fan, but they put on a show.

With their incredible lyricism and explosive confidence, Outkast was able to deliver a performance I will never forget. The energy André 3000 and Big Boi put out was insane, and not only in what they did, but how the crowd received it.  The audience was able to immediately pick up off of Outkast’s liveliness, and it added tremendously to the whole show experience.

It was impressive to see that hits from their earlier days, such as “Aquemini” and “Player’s Ball”, were shouted and rapped along to with no problem. Of course, the crowd went even more wild when classics like “Hey Ya”, “Ms. Jackson”, and “Roses” was performed, with every single human in the crowd screaming their lungs out to the lyrics. Everyone was dancing, everyone was smiling, and everyone was having a genuinely great time.

But that’s just the Outkast effect. They were so entertaining, so passionate, and simply just so fun to watch and listen to. From André 3000’s white hair and crazy outfit to Big Boi’s dance moves, their carefree nature only made you feel even more excited to be there. From the very beginning of the show to the very end, Outkast was on top of their game. Their show was a wonderful way to start off the weekend and set the bar high for the rest of the performances.