Austin Eras

Did ACL book a 2016 nostalgia festival?

The Chainsmokers. Lorde. twenty one pilots.

Austin-American Statesman's music journalist Mars Salazar took one look at this year’s lineup and was immediately transported back to Tumblr r and 96.7 KISS FM

🎙️ Hear our full Austin City Limits Music Festival (ACL) 2026 preview with Mars on Austin Eras

#2016

The hardest part of ACL isn’t always deciding who to see. Sometimes it’s figuring out just how fast you can run across Zilker.

Skrillex at 8:15. Charli XCX at 8:40. Two huge sets, opposite sides of the park, and plenty of people trying to make both happen.

Then, Weekend Two shakes things up with names like Sienna Spiro, Natasha Bedingfield, Live, and Kings Of Leon

So we had to ask Austin-American Statesman's music journalist Mars Salazar the obvious question:

Weekend One or Weekend Two?

We both landed on Weekend Two.

🎙️ Hear our full Austin City Limits Music Festival (ACL) 2026 preview with Mars Salazar on Austin Eras.

Lone Star B**r

You don’t have to walk into a festival as a fan to walk out as one.

For Mars Salazar, seeing the sea of pink at Chappell Roan’s Austin City Limits Music Festival (ACL) set wasn’t just about the music. It was about witnessing a cultural moment happen in real time.

Thousands of people packed together around an artist whose rise had exploded almost overnight. And even if the sound wasn’t originally her taste, Mars left with a completely different appreciation for what pop music can do when an artist connects with an audience at exactly the right moment.

Sometimes the most memorable festival set isn’t the one you were most excited to see.

It’s the one that changes the way you listen.

🎙️ Hear our full ACL Fest conversation with Mars Salazar on Austin Eras.

What makes Austin work?

According to former Austin Mayor Steve Adler : breakfast tacos and music.

It sounds like a joke, but his point is serious.

Companies may be drawn to Austin by its educated workforce and growing economy, but Adler argues that talent wants to be here because of the life Austin offers — live music, the lakes, breakfast tacos, and a culture where people have historically felt free to be themselves.

Economic growth matters. But so does protecting the quality of life that made people want to build their lives here in the first place.

🎙️ Hear the full conversation with Steve Adler on Austin Eras.

ACL survival starts before you ever walk into Zilker.

Hydrate. Sunscreen everywhere. Good shoes. And prepare for heat, dust, wind, rain, and thousands of people sprinting toward the barricade when the gates open.

Austin American-Statesman's music journalist says to think of Austin City Limits Music Festival (ACL) less like a casual day at the park and more like a three-day camping trip.

And if you get home, shower, blow your nose and wonder why the water is suddenly brown… congratulations! You did ACL the right way.

🎙️ Hear our full ACL Fest 2026 preview with Mars Salazar on Austin Eras.

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Did Austin expose its homelessness crisis, or make it worse?

Former Austin Mayor Steve Adler says leaders in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, and Los Angeles warned him about policies that pushed unhoused people out of public view.

Their argument was that moving people could make homelessness appear to be improving while the crisis continued growing elsewhere. Adler says Austin chose a different path, one that made the problem far more visible and, for many residents and businesses, extremely painful.

Supporters argue that visibility forced Austin to confront a crisis it could no longer ignore. Critics argue that the city’s policy made conditions substantially worse.

What do you think: did visibility help produce action, or was the policy itself a serious mistake?

🎙️ Hear the full conversation with Steve Adler on Austin Eras.

Think you’re too old for ACL because you don’t recognize half the lineup? 👀

Mars Salazar has a question for you: “Do you hate music?”

Her point? It’s easy to decide at a certain age that new music just isn’t for you. But when you stop looking for new artists, new sounds and new experiences, you might be the one leaving them behind.

ACL isn’t just about knowing the headliners. It’s about discovering someone you’ve never heard of, seeing Austin come together and maybe finding your next favorite artist along the way.

There’s no age limit on discovering new music—or having a good time at Zilker.

🎧 Hear more from Mars in our ACL Fest 2026 preview on Austin Eras.



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Some people take years to decide Austin feels like home.

For Steve Adler, it took about one trip from the airport and a swim at Barton Springs.

He arrived in 1978, stopped in Hyde Park, got “baptized in Barton Springs,” and almost immediately realized Austin felt different from anywhere he’d lived before.

Nearly five decades later, that first impression still says a lot about the pull this city can have on people.

🎙️ Hear the full conversation with Steve Adler on **Austin Eras**.

Every generation of Austinites seems convinced the city started changing right after they got here.

Former Austin Mayor Steve Adler arrived in 1978, and after nearly five decades in Austin, he’s seen that cycle repeat again and again.

But underneath all that change, he believes one thing has stayed remarkably consistent: Austin’s willingness to take risks, embrace different ideas, and give people room to create.

Maybe Austin isn’t defined by staying the same. Maybe it’s defined by how it keeps changing.

🎙️ Hear the full conversation with former Austin Mayor Steve Adler on Austin Eras

As more of life gets automated, the things that can’t be automated may become even more valuable.

Human connection. Trust. Hospitality. Being in a room where someone actually sees you, introduces you, and helps connect the dots.

In our conversation with Chloe Chiang, she also made an important distinction: influence isn’t the same as being an influencer. For her, influence means earning people’s trust and attention, then using that to elevate interesting people and ideas in Austin.

That kind of connection is hard to scale...which may be exactly why it matters!

🎧 Hear more from Chloe on the latest episode of Austin Eras.