Monday, September 19, 2011

Style Watch: ACL 2011

Austin is always a great city to people watch, but ACL has to be the absolute best time to people watch in Austin.  I had a blast listening and dancing to great live music this weekend, but when I wasn't shakin it, I was scouting interesting style and capturing photos of people in the wild of Zilker Park.

This year ACL had a few standout trends:

-The "I'm pretending to be Native American" look
-Lace
-The "Hey, my boyfriend has on a striped shirt"
-Retro Hats
-Hippie headbands
-Neon
-Unicorns
-Cropped shirts
-Cutout dresses

As far as the fashion choices of the performers went, I give it up to Santigold for her and her backup girls having THREE costume changes (I totally support multiple costume changes during shows)!  But, the best dress award goes to Régine Chassagne from Arcade Fire.  Her dress was pretty and sparkly and magical, just like their performance.

 "The Fallen Hipster"


J. Roddy Walston and The Business rocked it out!

This year I was that person who provided the bubbles.

Cee Lo and Austin's own Nakia.

The legendary Stevie Wonder.
You can buy this awesome shirt and other cool shirts from CentralTXfires.org and 100% of the net proceeds go to the Central Texas wildfire relief efforts.

 "For everyone keeping score this is MINT green." Mint green pants, mint green guitar.


For those keeping up with me on Twitter, you may have noticed a tweet yesterday about me almost having a panic attack while in the crowd close to the main stage.  Here's the whole story on that incident if you are interested...

I cannot stand not being in the front for shows (kinda music festival snobby I know.)  But when it comes to ACL I just can't have fun hanging out in the designated chair area.  I have to be in the action!  So, I usually camp out early for whatever show I am looking forward to the most.  Yesterday I set out to be in the front (or at least near the front) for Arcade Fire early.  But, the crowd camping out for Arcade Fire was not the ACL crowd I was used to and everyone was getting too close and too intense too soon.  I was seriously afraid I might die from either a high schooler sitting on top of me and no one finding me until Arcade Fire was over, passing out from heat stroke, or drowning in my own or someone else's sweat.  So, I abandoned my idea of camping out to get in the front for Arcade Fire and almost had to shout that I was having a medical emergency just to make it out.  After a beer and some time hanging out in the back where I could breathe, I got my antsy "I have to be up there" itch and decided to dive back into the madness.  I'm really glad I did because I ended up getting a decent spot and had an amazing experience.  

This year reminded me how much I love ACL.


Joanna
keep austin stylish 

4 comments:

Rash said...

Glad you made it out alive. I wanted to get a lot closer for Skrillex and Pretty Lights but didn't get there early enough so it was tough. I was not that close for Arcade Fire either but it still sounded amazing.

Anonymous said...

I want the sunglasses satigold is wearing in the second pic!! WHAT ARE THEY?

Lady Lars said...

I had to find that wooden watch! http://we-wood.us/ I really dig their philosophy. I haven't worn a watch in years, but I may have to change my ways! Nice find.

joanna said...

@Lady Lars that's awesome! I think they sell those watches at Downstairs Apparel in Austin