Live Music, Mud, and Text Messaging

A few months ago, I was presented with the opportunity of a lifetime, well if you're a music lover that is. My uncle who lives in Austin, TX, live music capital of the world, graciously offered to buy my three-day pass to the 2009 Austin City Limits Music Festival! All I had to do was make my way down to Austin and I was set. Even though I was broke, I knew I would kick myself until tomorrow if I let this opportunity pass me by, especially considering the line up:

Pearl Jam, Dave Matthews Band, Kings of Leon, Andrew Bird, John Legend, Phoenix, Passion Pit, The Dead Weather (Jack White's latest band), Crooked Vultures (featuring Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters and John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin), Girl Talk, Bon Iver, Bell X 1, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Blitzen Trapper, the B 52s, Ben Harper and the Relentless 7, the Airborne Toxic Event, Avett Brothers, White Lies, Raphael Saadiq, Grizzly Bear, the Decembrists, and Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears were just some of the 130 plus bands to rock the Austin the weekend of Oct. 2-4th.

I wanted to make the most of this weekend and to be honest, without the latest technology, I would have not been as fully prepared as I was to engage in the best weekend of live music I have ever experienced.

I couldn't believe how much I relied on the interaction of the Facebook to help make the most out of this weekend. Music festivals such as ACL, Lollapalooza, and Bonnaroo are all jumping on the emerging technologies bandwagon to help die hard music fans make the most out of their weekend.

By becoming a fan of ACL Fest 2009 on the Facebook, I was one of the first to know when the Beastie Boys and Lilly Allen had to cancel their appearances at the fest and who their replacements would be.

Also through the Facebook, I was able to plan out my own personalized schedule of the acts I wanted to see. Not only could I see when the artists I wanted to see were playing, what stages they were playing on, and whether or not they conflicted with another group I wanted to see, but the Facebook informed me of how many other people were interested in seeing this act if any of my friends had also showed interest in seeing a particular act. This made it so much easier to compare schedules with my uncle who wanted to see The Airborne Toxic Event at the same time I wanted to see Grizzly Bear. In the end we opted for Grizzly Bear because they played directly after Bell X 1, a band my uncle and I both wanted to see, whose stage was set up next to the stage Grizzly Bear was playing. If we had chosen to see the Airborne Toxic Event, we would have had to make the walk half way across the park to their stage, missing a good portion of their set. Without the ACL Facebook application, we wouldn't have had such easy access to this information which would have resulted in missing out on some amazing live music.

Another interesting trend that music festivals are incorporating is the use of mass text messages. ACL allowed music lovers to sign up for ACL text alerts that gave festival goers important information about their favorite artists in a fast and efficient manner. If there were schedule changes or give aways, ACL goers were informed immediately. Texts were sent out to remind fans if their favorite artists would be at the Waterloo Records autograph booth. It was a great tool that led to a much more enjoyable weekend.
ACL 2009 was one of the best weekends of my life. I heard so much amazing live music, visit a beautiful part of the country, and even dance in the mud! (The park in which ACL is held just renovated its land, spending two million dollars on putting grass and sod in the park. There was a torrential down pour day 2 of the fest making the beautiful grassy field one giant mud slide.)
Of all the acts I saw, my favorite was by a French band called Phoenix whom I started listening to back in March. They were completely overwhelmed by the size of the crowd that came to see them. The lead singer announced that is was the largest crowd they had ever played for and could have not been more gracious. Phoenix sounded amazing and gave me one of my favorite ACL memories.
Here is a video someone posted on YouTube of their song “1901”!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WiPijq9VZ0&feature=related

It was amazing, and I love that I can watch it again any time I want!

Hope you like it!
Kimmy