When Jay Trachtenberg thinks about his favorite Austin City Limits Music Festival, the answer is simple: “They sort of all run together.”
A KUTX program manager and longtime midday host, Trachtenberg has been to every ACL fest, which, if anyone is counting, spans 25 years. He said he remembers the first festival in 2002, when the crowd was sparse and the headliners reflected the city’s Americana roots.
“There was probably a few thousand people there, but it really seemed so comfortable and easy to move around,” he said. “Everybody was saying how great it was thinking that it was going to be the only year.”
Trachtenberg said he remembers performances over the years from headliners like Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney and Lizzo. He said one that particularly stands out is Ben Harper’s set during the festival’s second year.
“It was a beautiful night, and the whole park was all on one side,” he said. “After the whole crazy weekend, everybody had congregated [in front of the] big stage. For me, it really felt like this magical moment of the whole thing coming together.”
Jay Trachtenberg said the first few ACL festivals marked the end of “Old Austin” and now it’s full of tourists.
On especially hot years, when the ground of Zilker Park would get dry and dusty, Trachtenberg would sneak off to Barton Springs for a dip in the pool.
“You’re essentially by yourself, and you could still hear the music playing,” he said. “So that was a real treat for two or three years.”
Trachtenberg said the first few festivals marked the end of “Old Austin.” He said now the festival is jam packed — a reflection of how the city has attracted the high-tech industry.
“I like to tell people, back in the day we came for the counterculture and now people come to make money,” he said.
In the beginning, he said, all of the major music festivals had their own niches; Bonnaroo was a jam-band wonderland, Lollapalooza an anti-mainstream grunge festival and Coachella was a “weird California thing.” Over time, the festivals have started to morph into one another with the same headliners and small performers.
“Things just get homogenized and it’s just the way it evolves,” Trachtenberg said. “So how do I feel about it? I take it in stride at this point.”