Not going to Austin City Limits Music Festival? FREE/low cost parties/events for Oct 3rd - 6th

Every year I struggle with the idea that Austin gets taken over by an influx of folks who are heading out to Zilker Park for the annual Austin City Limits Music Festival.  Traffic is a headache, all of the local coffee shops and restaurants are overcrowded, Barton Springs Road is a nightmare and closed, the taxi cabs are completely inconsiderate, all of my friends coming in from out of town want to stay with me, there are a ton more people on bicycles and on foot in the heart of the city, etc etc. Don't get me wrong the festival and the festival goers add fantastic revenue to our city, local shops, restaurants, and stores - specifically last year the city pocketed $102 million dollars! Now, this year C3 decided to have TWO weekends, of the same lineup, so you can imagine how stoked the City of Austin must feel to benefit TWICE the amount of revenue and perks of having the festival in the heart of Austin. I get it! I GET IT! People love Austin and people love music.

If you are like me I try avoiding Central Austin and Zilker Park area whenever ACL comes around. In the past I used to be a part of the chaos, but since ticket pricing has gone up & the demand for everyone to squeeze into our beloved Zilker Park all for the same bands I love just seemed way too much for me. Since 2010 I have explored what other events and parties take place in the other local spots, sometimes away from the chaos near Barton Springs Rd, have fun events and things going on the same weekend everyone else is in town. Here is my list of things to get into if you are a local and not working but want to get out into the city and support the local scene and do thangs.

Thursday Oct 3rd
Holy Mountain and Red 7 (both right next to one another) will be hosting the Knuckle Rumbler Art Disaster No. 16.  This event happens every year to kick off the ACL Music Fest. They are 'unofficial' ACL fest but shit, they been doing it since I can remember (they even host SXSW shows too).

9pm - 2am

Bands slated to play include locals
The Black and White Years (they just did a set after Tegan & Sara a few weeks ago at Stubb's)
Driver Friendly (they will be opening up for Motion City Soundtrack in November at Emos)
Night Drive 
Gobi 
Totally Consensual (Dj's) (KOOP dj's mixing up on mixing tables!)
Good Field
Politics (these are cool kids, man!)
Multi-Tracker
Magna Carda
Apollo Zeigiest (I have been following this guy on Twitter for years! he's a great philanthropist)
Looshuss
$5 at the door and $3 if you RSVP here.

Queens of the Stone Age will be performing at The Moody Theater for an Austin City Limits taping!

Boy oh boy if you can get into this please let me know how it goes. I will try my luck as soon as ACL puts up a link to try for free tickets to this taping. Go here and watch for the link to be posted up sometime around 9/26-9/30.

Friday, Oct 4th
KUTX is holding a Live at the Four Seasons session - which tend to be much lower key and affordable too! 
$10 bring your blanket and/or chairs to post up at the hotel's lawn with your taco & coffee (included in admission)

9am - 1pm
Court Yard Hounds (2/3rds of Dixie Chicks) go on at 9:30am
Austin's own White Denim goes off at 10:30am
Local Natives performs an hour after at 11:30am
and Austin locals Okkervil River plays at 12:30pm
All sets are 20-30 minutes long

Quantic DJ Tour will be happening at Empire Control Room (I was a stage manager at this venue the last 2 years for SXSW). 
FREE admission before midnight ($5 after) with DJ sets from
Oro11
local Peligrosa mastermind DJ Orion
another local Peligrosa mastermind Manolo Black
RSVP here and support some bad ass la raza dj's


Also this is happening at The Scoot Inn- What Kind of Bird Are You? - a Wes Anderson costume party hosted by Foxing Quarterly (local print-only arts journal published in ATX)
6pm - 2am
$5 with costume / $10 without

 

local acts include

Grace Park & The Deers 

Old Potion
Linen Closet
Alex Napping
& Milezo & The Noize

Saturday Oct 5th
MTV, CMT, VH1 , & MTV2 are throwing a shindig (and pairing up with Pizza Hut) called Discover Great that is taking place at the American Legion Building @ 404 Atlanta Street (next to the old RunTex off of Lake Austin Blvd).

10pm - 2am
Promised performances and appearances will include
Walk the Moon

Nabiha (Danish Music Award's new Female Artist of the Year)

Striking Matches (has 3 songs on CMT's "Nashville"show)
DJ Set by Penguin Prison too!

RSVP here before everyone and their momma RSVP and crashes the link. (You can also RSVP for one other so you ain't going alone.)

ALSO
DITCH THE FEST is back again with Ditch the Fest # 4 AND 5!
October 5th is Ditch The Fest #4 / October 12th is Ditch the Fest #5 @ The Scoot Inn

Local bands and local art for $5!

More events and shows to come as we round out the end of September.  I will post and update this post as I hear about those events and things happening around ACL time.

dude, just Ditch the Fest 2 / 09.17.11

I ain't going to Austin City Limits Music Festival this year..again.  I have been to every single ACL Music fest but this year, due to being a stage manager for a show in Georgetown, I do not have the time to split between the festival & work/tech week. I definitely wanted to see Stevie Wonder, too. 

Not going either? Whatever the reason I don't blame you.  Since my first ACL Music Festival in 2002, the festival grows bigger and bigger each and every year.  This is a great thing, don't get me wrong, especially for a local Austin-based entertainment booking/staging company like C3 Presents.  However, with that growth for a local music festival comes greater & bigger acts/band/performers....aaaaaaand within that comes more $$$ for C3 to bank on for purchase sales and sell-outs (I'm talking ticket sales here).  Hell, they took $150 bucks from me for purchasing 3 three-day passes at the 'early bird' price.  I got those tickets at a steal compared to what folks are selling their ACL 3-day passes for here.

According to a study commissioned by C3, ACL is expected to have $73 million dollars pumped into the local restaurants, hotels, bars, etc! You got 70,000 attendees coming to the festival that are hungry, thirsty, and don't want to walk all the way back to their car after the festival and/or wait in the long bus line. Last year the Austin Parks Foundation benefited from 2.34 million dollars in monies to have to improve the Zilker Park grounds to increase more tree coverage, an irrigation system, plant more grass, add benches, etc from C3's profit.  It takes a lot of money to get the festival going, up, and running as well as keeping those that come from afar happy.  And I don't know about you, but if I hadn't snagged those $50 three day passes a week after ACL Music Fest 2010 (a week in October right before Halloween), I don't think I could shell out almost $200 bucks cash for a pass or wristband even if I wanted to....

Last year's Ditch the Fest was too much fun that I hardly remember it.
This year there are more sponsors, free beer, and cheap prices to get in.
Ditch the Fest 2: presented by Luck The Poodle: 

Ditch the Fest 2 has now become a benefit where most of the proceeds will be donated to the Texas Red Cross for the wildfire victims from Bastrop county.  You can see as many bands as you can catch this year at 5 venues: Cheer Up Charlies, Red 7, Beauty Bar, the Scoot Inn, and Club De Ville. 

What's great about Ditch the Fest 2:

• local live music from bands that live or based out of Austin 
• local venues - a $2 per venue you can see the whole lineup or hop around with a wristband for $5 from venue to venue (except Club De Ville)
• schedule of band set times range from 2pm - 2am at each venue
• FREE SHINER BOCK from Birds Barbershop (as supplies last) - with 5 venues to choose from essentially if one is out you can go to the next..
• local art and performance art at venues during band set times
• photo booth, belly dance, screen printing, etc!
• most proceeds are going directly to an organization that will benefit all of our friends, neighbors, and family members that have experienced the recent wildfire crisis (i don't see Rick Perry giving monies out of his political presidential campaign fundraisers)
• it's all away from the festival, Zilker Park, and this party goes on until 2am and doesn't have to stop at 10:30pm.
• no wait in line (unless you spot the free beer line and that gets crunk)
• no sunscreen needed (well, maybe minimal sunscreen if you hit it hard beginning at 2pm when Ditch the Fest begins)
• no overpriced $6-$8 12 oz beers - hell, you may end up watching a band(s) around happy hour
• no need to worry about where you parked your car or if you can find parking (take your bike, yo!)
• you don't have to lug around a chair in a bag or make sure your bottled waters stay sealed
• no pat downs before you enter any of these venues
• and....no annoying frat guys waiting to catch Damien Marley (or Coldplay)
• oh, and no filthy dirty portapotties.

5 bucks for a wristband seems like the best bet AND free shiner?!

Bands I am looking forward to catching at Ditch the Fest 2 include:

• Leatherbag (Beauty Bar)
• Boy + Kite (Cheer Up Charlies)
• Obsolete Machines (Cheer Up Charlies)
• How I Quit Crack (Cheer Up Charlies)
• The Sour Notes (Cheer Up Charlies)
• East Cameron Folkcore (Red 7)
• My Education (Red 7)
• La Snacks (Red 7)
• Mr. Lewis and the Funeral Five (Red 7)
• Your Kisses Cause Crashes (Beauty Bar)
• The Baker Family (Scoot Inn)
• Bitter Birds (Scoot Inn)
• The Midwives (Scoot Inn)
• Noise Revival Orchestra (Scoot Inn)
• Sideshow Tragedy (Club De Ville)
• Not in the Face (Club De Ville)

No ACL this year for me

I know.....I don't even want to talk about it, but ultimately I am looking forward to not having to deal w/the bike traffic during Austin City Limits Music Festival weekend or even having to figure out how to sneak in food to the festival so that way I don't end up spending over $100 trying to feed myself lunch & dinner for 3-days at the Fest.

Besides all that I have a great friend getting married on Sunday, Oct 10th, 2010 (10/10/10).  I wouldn't miss her wedding for the world so I decided to just skip it altogether and save myself ticket money, food money, and merch money as well.

I am however, seriously thinking about going to this: Ditch The Fest - local music festival in ATX. It takes place the weekend of ACL and what's best about this is that it's far away from Zilker Park!! woohoo! PLUS - it's free. You can't go wrong with this one.
Check out the full line up -

Be sure to RSVP - here.

 The event also has Tangled Shark Productions, Transmission Entertainment, and Lucy the Poodle booking that guarantees and hand picks the bands playing at Ditch the Fest on 4 rotating stages, a moon walk, vegetarian/vegan vendors, and even refreshments are promised! All of this happening at Cheer Up Charlies off of 6th street.