Festival Review: ACL 2023

The Austin City Limits Music Festival is always one to look forward to every single year in the fall. This year turned out to be another spectacular show to be put together by ACL. There was a bit of every genre across the lineup for every music fan to enjoy.

This year brought back artists that we haven’t seen in awhile and some that we saw just a few years ago but now performing on bigger stages. Of course we had to see our guy Kendrick Lamar. After great success from his latest album Mr. Morale and The Big Steppers he brought his show to Austin and a packed out crowd came to see Kendrick headline night one of the festival. On the other stage headlining night one was The Lumineers who always put on a great show.

Night two was headlined by rock legends The Foo Fighters. No matter where they play they always bring the best out of us and Austin loves this band and we know Dave Grohl loves Austin. The 1975 also headlined and brought tears to our eyes. Of course they were happy tears but also sad tears as fans knew the band would be taking a hiatus on touring for quite some time, so that may have been the last time we ever see them.

Night three was headlined by EDM duo Odesza, as well as the Austin favorites, Mumford and Sons. A lot of complaints and joy filled the air when we saw that Mumford and Sons would be coming back to ACL. Although they have performed at ACL quite a few times either as a full band or solo, their last appearance was in 2019 so about 4 years in between for the full band being here. Although people complained about that, we saw they attracted a huge crowd which many didn’t expect because of how much they’ve been here before. We loved their performance everytime we see them and we’re glad to see them together and performing their hit songs we all love and enjoy.

Although we love the headliners we showed a lot of love to the supporting acts which had quite a bit of our favs and we discovered some new favorite artists as well. Acts that we saw that we loved included Niall Horan, Kali Uchis, Maggie Rogers, Thirty Seconds To Mars, Lil Yachty, Tove Lo, Declan McKenna, Suki Waterhouse, Glorilla, D4VD, and Labrinth amongst others.

We know ACL always brings the heat regardless of what people have to say. We love how this festival brings in artists who we may not know and right after ACL they blow up and we remember seeing them before playing to small crowds. It always takes us back to seeing Lizzo being the first act on the Honda stage in 2016 and 3 years later she had one of the biggest crowds we’ve ever seen at ACL.


Festival Review: SXSW 2023 Porsche X Fader

One of the best music showcases we saw the first weekend of SXSW included the Porsche X Fader showcase/brand activation. Just like last year Porsche hosted a few music series concerts at their pop up activation, but this time they brought Fader along with them to introduce a new wave of music artists. They brought out new artists such as Madison McFerrin and MorMor who left the crowd amazed at how great of a musician and singer these two are. Night two was a huge hit with Sudan Archives opening the night and put on a spectacular show.

The headliner was the legendary hip hop rapper, Big Boi who had the crowd singing and dancing all night long to hit songs from Outkast. Night three concluded with the very chill music and singing from Kelela and what a treat for her to finish off the music showcases for Porsche X Fader.

Festival Review: SXSW 2023

SXSW came back in full swing for 2023 with many star studded celebrities, bands and artists coming to Austin, Texas for the week like music, film and interactive festival. This year saw many new brand activations, new pop ups, the rise of new artists and a whole lot of fun to go with it.

We were excited to see new activations and showcases brought by Coca-Cola, Paramount Plus, Dolby, and Lush amongst many others. A fan favorite that came back strong was the Culture Collide showcases on Rainey Street. These are amongst the most popular showcases that take over venues and bars on Rainey Street with lines that go around the block for various locations. There was a lot of free food to go around as well as drinks and free swag.

One showcase we got the pleasure to attend was the Rolling Stone Future of Music. Artists include J.I.D., Chloe Bailey, Cuco, Remi Wolf, Mariah The Scientist, Koffee and after all was said and done the secret guest turned out to be Macklemore. Years after performing at the MTVU Woodie awards during SXSW back in 2013, Macklemore has made his return. Fans loved every bit of his performance as he kept the crowd pumped and on their feet all night long.

We always look forward to SXSW every year because of the way it brings out Austin and showcases the city and what can be done here. We can’t wait to see what exciting surprises next year will bring us.