Austin City Limits 2007

[busybeeburns]

Prepare to have déjà vu, Wilco fans. Jeff Tweedy, listening for the audience to yell back during the band's show at Austin City Limits in 2005, will bring the rock back to Zilker Park in September.

 

2007 ACL: Dylan rules a hip kingdom

Bob Dylan will close out the festival, but rest of lineup is varied and adventurous, including Arcade Fire, Björk, the White Stripes and the Killers

 

A baby boomer icon will close the fest, but the lineup of the sixth annual Austin City Limits Music Festival, Sept. 14-16 at Zilker Park, is generally aimed at a younger, more adventurous rock audience than in previous years.

 

Bob Dylan, the Arcade Fire, Queens of the Stone Age, Arctic Monkeys, the White Stripes and Björk are among the varied acts officially confirmed by organizers early today, after weeks of intense Internet sleuthing by fans. Others in the 130-act roster include the Killers, Wilco, Muse, Amy Winehouse, Bloc Party and Ziggy Marley.

 

That the fest lacks a flashy headliner, such as the Police or U2, is partly by design, said ACL booker Charles Attal of C3 Presents.

 

"ACL Fest is not about two huge acts and 128 others," he said, adding that pursuit of a stadium-filler would have increased ticket prices considerably. "Our model is for fans to come out to the park and check out all these great acts at a reasonable price."

 

Consistency and diversity remain keys to ACL booking philosophy, because there's something for everyone — except fans of opera and hard-core rap.

 

"We want to take care of the longtime ACL fans, who've been watching the TV show for years," Attal said. Such Americana acts as Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, Raul Malo and Indigo Girls are on this year's roster.

 

But many more of the acts, such as the White Stripes, LCD Soundsystem, M.I.A., Kaiser Chiefs and the Decemberists, appeal to younger fans and expand the styles of music that fit under the "Austin City Limits" umbrella. About 60 percent of the crowd at last year's ACL Fest was 25 to 44 years old, according to a survey taken by fest marketers.

 

Expect a younger crowd at the 2007 outing. The legendary Dylan, who last played Austin in April 2003 and will play his first ACL set in Sunday night's closing slot, is the only act in the lineup's top tier who appeals primarily to the classic rock crowd. Last year's three top headliners — Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Van Morrison and Willie Nelson — appealed to an older audience.

 

Three-day wristbands are on sale for $145, up from last year's high price of $120, though this year the cost includes all service charges. Attal said some single-day tickets will go on sale, but he doesn't know when or how much they'll cost.

 

The festival grid, showing when and on which stage each act will perform, is still being worked on and won't be released for several weeks, Attal said.

 

Last year, ACL Fest sold out of three-day wristbands and took in $8 million at the gate, making it the second-highest-grossing festival in the country behind Bonnaroo in Tennessee ($14 million). ACL Fest capacity is 65,000 a day; Attal said more than half that amount of three-day passes were sold before the lineup was announced.

 

"That's what happens with the European festivals," Attal said, using Britain's Reading and Glastonbury music fests as examples of fans buying tickets well before the lineup is released. "You buy the festival because of who they've booked in the past. Then you get excited when you find out who you're going to see."

 

What ACL fest-goers have come to expect from C3 Presents, the merger of Charles Attal Presents and Capital Sports & Entertainment's music division, is a roster of upper-midlevel acts, mixed with homegrown talent and up-and-comers.

 

"I think, overall, this could be our strongest lineup yet," said Attal, who acknowledged that the 2005 booking of Coldplay, then one of the biggest bands of the world, heightened expectations for a 2006 lineup that was lambasted on some Internet message boards. "I think fans are more realistic this year. If you paid $145 for a three-day pass for this lineup, I think you've got to be pretty happy."

 

Attal declined to estimate how much C3 is spending on talent for the 2007 festival.

 

http://www.austin360.com/music/content/music/stories/2007/05/10acl.html

[mandymcnabb]

Muse is playing too.:dance:

woohoo.

[Texasluvsjonny]

http://www.aclfestival.com/lineup.aspx