ACL is upon us again, and I’ve been getting so pumped. The week or so leading up to the festival is for doing your research on all the artists you don’t know and planning your route so you can hit all the artists you possibly can each day. I’ve started that process and figured I might as well share a little bit about my ACL experiences and expectations.
Last Year
ACL 2024 was my favorite year to date with performers from Dua Lipa, Chris Stapleton, The Beaches, Norah Jones, Remi Wolf, and my personal favorite Royal Otis. The food was incredible and access to toilets and water was a blessing. However, it was hot as hell and dusty. During Chappel Roan’s set (which was the biggest crowd I’ve ever been in) she had to stop after every song and call medics over to 3 different spots in the crowd, and then continue on. It was also funny to see artists from the UK and other areas of the world with cooler climates doing their best not to melt in the heat. They still performed incredibly well, but you could tell they were working hard to keep it together. Most of them had a good sense of humor about it.
ACL 2025 Weekend 1
This year is looking like it’s going to be another great one. At first I wasn’t super excited, but the more and more familiar I become with the lineup the more excited I am. I can’t talk about every artist I’m going to see, but I’ll give a breakdown of some of the people I’m most excited to see and then afterwards I’ll write a follow up piece on who ended up being my favorite and any other noteworthy things that happened.
Spill Tab: I’ve been a fan of the Thailand born, LA based artist Spill Tab for a while now. All of her songs and overall style feels very authentic which is refreshing. She seems to like making music and will only do whatever she enjoys. Some of my favorite songs from her include PISTOLWHIP, Grade A, and Cotton Candy. I have a feeling she is going to be an enthusiastic performer and entertain the people well.
Spacey Jane: Spacey Jane is a group I don’t know that well, but I’m excited to learn more about them at ACL. They are an Australian indie rock band that made one of my favorite songs – Feeding the Family. This song reminds me of driving to the beach everyday in the summer to go surfing with my brother. The guitar in that song gives me the goosebumps that move along my scalp. Hearing that song live will be incredible. I’m not that familiar with the rest of their discography, so I’ll be interested in knowing whether this is a band I should follow closely, or just enjoy the song they made that I like.
Don West: Honestly I don’t know too much about Don, but I like Small Change and Julia. Solely based on what I could find from his Spotify profile he seems like a talented artist with a great vibe. I have a feeling his set will be chill and fun.
Chance Emerson: Chance is an artist that I’d never heard of before ACL. I was going through Friday’s lineup and looked him up on spotify and was pleasantly surprised. His cover of All My Love is incredible and he has some other good ones like Plant a Forest. Based on the brief google search I did on him he seems like a happy-go-lucky guy who loves Din Tai Fung, which is someone I can get behind.
Willow Avalon: I don’t follow Willow closely, but I have 4 songs of hers saved on spotify and they are all bangers. The Georgia born singer has a quintessential country twang that gives her songs a classic country feel yet they are still somewhat pop-y? Based on her music I feel like she is going to be a great performer. On top of that she will be touring with Dylan Gossett and Buffalo Traffic Jam (one of my favs) after ACL. Going to a concert with the three of them would be incredible.
Dylan Gossett: Speaking of Dylan, he is also someone I’m excited to watch live. He and Sam Barber (another one of my favorites) are both emerging country artists that seem to have a lot of similar qualities. They write such passionate music. If he is anything like Sam I think his live performance will rate high in my post ACL review.
Luke Combs: Honestly I don’t listen to Combs or have any of his songs in my Spotify playlists but he is classic country. To say I’ve seen Combs in concert would be cool. If his set is good enough he might convert me to a Combs fan, we’ll see.
ACL is going to be lots of fun this year. I’ll make sure to report back how the overall festival goes and who my stand out artists of the festival were. If you’re also going feel free to comment the sets you’re going to and who you’re excited for. Thank y’all for reading this.
