When the first weekend of Austin City Limits Music Festival and a bye week for Scots Football fall at the same time it inevitably leads to one thing: dozens of Highland Park students flocking to the Texas capitol for a weekend of music, fun and college visits. Austin City Limits or ACL is an annual music festival held during two consecutive three day weekends in Zilker Park in Austin on Oct. 6-8 and Oct. 13-15. Around 450,000 people attend each year to listen to a variety of music on eight different stages, making it the biggest music festival in the United States in terms of attendance. A handful of Highland Park students tend to trek to Austin each year for the festival, but with the bye week giving football players, belles, cheerleaders and members of the band Friday night off, attendance seemed to be even greater than usual.

Musical acts spanned several genres, from hip-hop to folk and electronic to rock and more. On Friday, notable acts included Jay-Z, Martin Garrix, Solange and Foster the People. Junior Ava Jahant and some of her friends attended ACL Friday night.

“[My favorite artist was] Martin Garrix,” Jahant said. “He was so fun; everyone was dancing, and there were a bunch of great beat drops.”

The dancing continued on Saturday with Chance the Rapper, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tove Lo, and Ice Cube. Junior Sarah Fielder attended Saturday with many of her friends. Her favorite act was Chance the Rapper, but another musician surprised her.

“[My] second favorite was Tove Lo,” Fielder said. “She kind of shocked us honestly; she was really good. I knew more songs of hers than I thought.”

Many attendees were also pleasantly surprised by the food there. A wide array of vendors sold a variety of food at the “ACL Eats” area of the park. Personal pizzas, JuiceLand smoothies, Amy’s Ice Cream, Shake Shack, Tiff’s Treats and more were all for sale.

“I ate Shake Shack, which is very delicious,” Fielder said. “[And I ate] a chocolate covered frozen banana with some peanuts on it; it was great.”

However for those who want to experience a music festival without driving several hours, the JMBLYA music festival (featuring primarily hip-hop and dance music) is at Fair Park in Dallas every May. Jahant is lucky enough to have attended both events.

“I liked JMBLYA more [than ACL] only because I liked that kind of music and I knew more of the songs,” Jahant said. “But if I could choose, obviously I want to go back to both, but ideally it would be ACL setup to where there was more food and less lines for the food, and JMBLYA music.”