Austin City Limits Music Festival 2019

Here’s to another successful year of Austin City Limits Music Festival! I submitted my press application a few weeks before the official start date on October 7th. A few days later I was approved for a 3-Day Media Pass for Weekend Two on behalf of Music Felon. I’m a professional concert photographer based in Austin, Texas. It wasn’t long before the interview requests started coming in from various artist managers. Most of these smaller bands I was not familiar with. I scheduled a few interviews but didn’t get a follow up from anyone aside from Ryan, the manager of Ley Line, which refers to a pattern that, when laid over the earth, connects important places of our civilization. I sat down to interview the four ladies comprising the band (Emilie Basez: Guitar/Vocals, Madeleine Froncek: Upright Bass/Vocals, Kate Robberson: Ukulele/Vocals, Lydia Froncek) in the press lounge on the last day Sunday of ACL. I only had 10 minutes to ask my questions. They did most of the talking directly into my phone voice recorder. They’re passionate about sustainable touring, education programs, using their creative platform to address important issues, and they’re open to working with ecotourism companies. Everyone in the band speaks Portuguese and some Spanish. I talked with them about their Brazil tour in 2017, learning new languages, traveling in South America, the release of their new album We Saw Blue dedicated to water, donating to fight the fires in the Amazon Rainforest by acting local and partnering with Save Our Springs Alliance. You can read my previous blog post on that topic here. Here’s a few colorful photos from their live performance on the Tito’s Handmade Vodka Stage.

I was allowed to bring my camera bag along with detachable lenses into the festival. However, I was restricted access to the photo pit where the other professional photographers hang out (believe me, I tried unsuccessfully multiple times), so I did the next best thing and forced my way as close to the stage as possible behind the fences. Besides, you can usually only shoot the first three songs in the pit anyway. I have four lenses in my camera bag (Sigma 19mm f2.8 wide-angle, Sony 50mm f1.8, Sony 28-70mm, and Sony 55-210mm). I was constantly capturing photos with my telephone lens from a safe distance in front the massive crowds. For example, I was right up front for big bands like The Ranconteurs, Gary Clark Jr, Rebelution, Third Eye Blind, and many more. Unfortunately, I missed Guns N’ Roses both weekends, but Tame Impala put on an incredible show! I was really excited to see the beautiful talented Kacey Musgraves on the American Express stage but it simply wasn’t in the cards this year. I’m sure there will be other opportunities in the near future. I left the concert right before Lizzo killed it on stage because I was getting paranoid from the THC and felt like the whole place was turning into a Zombie Fest during Third Eye Blind’s performance. I had lost my interest in fighting through the huge crowds and decided to walk down to the river for a cool refreshing dip in Barton Springs Pool. I basically had the entire place to myself during sunset. It was so relaxing and cleansing! I could still hear the music playing from afar as I swam in the rejuvenating waters to clear all negative thoughts, delusions, and self-doubt. Definitely made the right decision.

I was feeling like a paparazzi most of the weekend; singularly focused on capturing the famous larger-than-life rockstars at the festival, so much that I would often lose sight of the beautiful colorful people that pay good money to make the festival possible every year! Therefore, rather than feature photos that I don’t have licensing rights to publicize, I’m going to conclude this blog post with professional portraits of young, happy, free people at Austin City Limits Music Festival 2019. Thanks for reading! Enjoy!