{"id":462329,"date":"2026-10-10T17:52:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T17:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/462329\/"},"modified":"2026-10-10T17:52:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T17:52:14","slug":"dryer-acl-weekend-eases-mud-but-zilker-park-grass-damage-needs-long-term-fix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/462329\/","title":{"rendered":"Dryer ACL weekend eases mud, but Zilker Park grass damage needs long-term fix"},"content":{"rendered":"

AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 After a muddy first weekend, Austin City Limits Festival returned to Zilker Park on Friday with a different set of problems: heat and dust <\/a>\u2014 and lingering questions about what it will take to restore the grass after the crowds leave.<\/p>\n

Fans arriving for Weekend Two said conditions were noticeably drier than the previous weekend, when rain and heavy foot traffic left parts of the park torn up. \u201cAt least we\u2019re not stepping in mud. Yeah. I\u2019d rather have dust than mud,\u201d said Allye Hernandez, an ACL attendee.<\/p>\n

ALSO| Austin Parks and Rec ‘committed’ to lawn remediation after rainy ACL weekend<\/a><\/p>\n

Others said the dust was manageable and credited efforts to reduce it. \u201cThe turf they laid out was nice; that\u2019s helped. It\u2019s a little dry, but… Definitely dead the grass, but like it\u2019s still there a little bit so I feel like it\u2019s blocking the dust,\u201d said an ACL fan.<\/p>\n

KEYE DVR_WINDOW<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Rudy Ruiz, who was sitting with his wife, said he expected dust but felt conditions were better than anticipated. \u201cI would expect it to be dusty, but it\u2019s not really too dusty; it seems like they took care of it quite well,\u201d Ruiz said. He also referenced reports about last weekend\u2019s conditions: \u201cI saw it on the news; it was really bad, and we were hoping it wasn\u2019t like that this weekend, and luckily it\u2019s a little too hot; it\u2019s really nice,\u201d Ruiz said.<\/p>\n

Mazi Singleton, another attendee, said the dustier conditions are typical for the second weekend. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty comparable to Weekend Two just normally. It was dusty last year; that\u2019s just kind of what you get Weekend Two,\u201d Singleton said.<\/p>\n

While festivalgoers focused on the improved weather, the damage to the grass at Zilker Park remains an issue that will require repairs after the event. The contract between the city of Austin and C3, the company that puts on ACL, spells out cleanup responsibilities.<\/a> Language on page six says in part, \u201cOrganizer agrees continuing an event during rain… is defacing of city property,\u201d and states C3 is responsible for paying for the cleanup.<\/p>\n

A request for an interview with C3 on Friday was declined.<\/p>\n

Austin City Council member Ryan Alter said earlier this week that repairs are part of the annual process, but he wanted to ensure the festival wasn\u2019t causing deeper problems that could keep the public from using the park for an extended period.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter every year, we do have C3 come in and repair the lawn. That is their obligation under the contract, but I wanted to make sure it wasn\u2019t doing some kind of underlying damage that would make that process take a long time and result in the public not being able to enjoy the space,\u201d Alter said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 After a muddy first weekend, Austin City Limits Festival returned to Zilker Park on Friday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":462330,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-462329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}