{"id":463604,"date":"2026-10-12T10:08:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T10:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/463604\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T10:08:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T10:08:10","slug":"from-mud-to-dust-how-the-great-lawn-held-up-after-two-weekends-of-acl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/463604\/","title":{"rendered":"From mud to dust: How the Great Lawn held up after two weekends of ACL"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 Last week, when CBS Austin went out to the ACL grounds, it was covered in mud, but now, it seems to be drying out.<\/p>\n<p>We spoke with some festivalgoers about the current condition of the grounds and what they have noticed after two weekends of music, rain, and heavy foot traffic.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cbsaustin.com\/news\/local\/dryer-acl-weekend-eases-mud-but-zilker-park-grass-damage-needs-long-term-fix\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">RELATED | Dryer ACL weekend eases mud, but Zilker Park grass damage needs long-term fix<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"We spoke with some festivalgoers about the current condition of the grounds and what they have noticed after two weekends of music, rain, and heavy foot traffic. (CBS Austin\/Jane Page)\" class=\"ImageEmbed_image__qZBo_\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"365\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/d946541f-16b1-499c-8869-2af65be694e6-weekend26.jpg\" width=\"648\"\/><\/p>\n<p>We spoke with some festivalgoers about the current condition of the grounds and what they have noticed after two weekends of music, rain, and heavy foot traffic. (CBS Austin\/Jane Page)<\/p>\n<p>For people who attended ACL Weekend One, the change was noticeable.<\/p>\n<p>Last weekend, rain created large pools of mud across Zilker Park that worsened as the weekend went on.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI came in not really expecting it to be as bad,&#8221; ACL festivalgoer, Ethan McConnell, said. &#8220;But the mud was very much, very bad and I was just slipping and sliding all throughout.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Last weekend, rain created large pools of mud across Zilker Park that worsened as the weekend went on. (CBS Austin\/Jane Page)\" class=\"ImageEmbed_image__qZBo_\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"365\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/f7f230fe-17dc-4f78-aa8e-f2814358c148-ACL33.png\" width=\"648\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Last weekend, rain created large pools of mud across Zilker Park that worsened as the weekend went on. (CBS Austin\/Jane Page)<\/p>\n<p>ACL crews worked tirelessly in the last week to smooth out ruts, tend to the grass, and place down artificial turf in high-traffic sections of the Great Lawn.<\/p>\n<p>While this weekend\u2019s drier conditions caused their own problems, some festivalgoers we spoke with today were glad to see the change.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m extremely grateful and thankful that we\u2019re getting the kind of conditions that we do have here right now,&#8221; ACL festicalgoer, Dorian Powell, said. &#8220;I just got dust in my eye a few minutes ago, so, you know, it\u2019s not perfect. But I can only imagine just how rough it was last week\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"While this weekend\u2019s drier conditions caused their own problems, some festivalgoers we spoke with today were glad to see the change. (CBS Austin\/Jane Page)\" class=\"ImageEmbed_image__qZBo_\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"365\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/c12feaad-74ec-4a04-933b-ec5ee6d790c0-weekend22.jpg\" width=\"648\"\/><\/p>\n<p>While this weekend\u2019s drier conditions caused their own problems, some festivalgoers we spoke with today were glad to see the change. (CBS Austin\/Jane Page)<\/p>\n<p>Ana and Vannia Lopez came from out of state for ACL, and said they were worried about the mud after hearing about last week\u2019s conditions.<\/p>\n<p>They told me they would definitely take the heat and dust over humidity and mud.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re used to the heat, we\u2019re from Arizona,&#8221; Ana said. &#8220;So we\u2019re used to the heat. It\u2019s really hot, but it\u2019s good, we like it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo me, I feel like it depends to every single person,&#8221; Vannia said. &#8220;But to me, I do get allergies and stuff like that because of the dust. I\u2019ve been getting some, but it\u2019s nice, honestly. As long as you have a bandana, it\u2019s totally fine.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"For people who attended ACL Weekend One, the change was noticeable. (CBS Austin\/Jane Page)\" class=\"ImageEmbed_image__qZBo_\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"365\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/426ec24a-f810-4d8a-aff0-d4d3dd031f50-weekend21.jpg\" width=\"648\"\/><\/p>\n<p>For people who attended ACL Weekend One, the change was noticeable. (CBS Austin\/Jane Page)<\/p>\n<p>City leaders have said some parts of the Great Lawn will be closed following the festival so the grass can recover from the heavy foot traffic both weekends.<\/p>\n<p>The conditions last weekend got so bad, city leaders, such as District 5 Councilmember Ryan Alter, called on ACL organizing company C3 Presents to lay out its plan to restore Zilker Park after the festival concluded.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cbsaustin.com\/news\/local\/acl-fans-brave-rain-and-mud-for-final-day-of-weekend-one\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">ALSO | ACL fans brave rain and mud for final day of Weekend One<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"The next focus will be cleanup and any repairs needed to get the Great Lawn ready for Austinites to enjoy again. (CBS Austin\/Jane Page)\" class=\"ImageEmbed_image__qZBo_\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"365\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/ba261293-2bfc-42f7-a579-85899cfd0c3f-weekend25.jpg\" width=\"648\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The next focus will be cleanup and any repairs needed to get the Great Lawn ready for Austinites to enjoy again. (CBS Austin\/Jane Page)<\/p>\n<p>C3 Presents is fiscally responsible for cleanup under the agreement it made with the City of Austin.<\/p>\n<p>With ACL now wrapping up, the work at Zilker Park is not over.<\/p>\n<p>The next focus will be cleanup and any repairs needed to get the Great Lawn ready for Austinites to enjoy again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 Last week, when CBS Austin went out to the ACL grounds, it was covered in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":463605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-463604","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\/463604","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=463604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/463605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}