Staged Haze Takes Austin City Limits 2025: Our Recap

Back in 2002, Austin City Limits had its inaugural year: spanning two days, featuring 67 bands, and selling one-day passes for just $25. Fast forward to 2025, and the festival now spans two weekends and hosts approximately 450,000 attendees across two weekends. The festival, which is produced by C3 Presents, continues to book some of the biggest names in contemporary music, and this year was no exception.

While the festival generally caters to a mainstream demographic, there’s artists of every genre represented on each year’s lineup: including pop (Sabrina Carpenter, Role Model, Olivia Dean), rock (Hozier, Cage The Elephant, The Killers), EDM (John Summit, Empire of The Sun, Sammy Virji), and other sub genres like indie, folk, and country.

This was my first return since attending ACL back in 2021, and I thought I was prepared for the heat, I sure wasn’t. Whether or not this year was hotter or not, it was definitely more exhausting, and I flew out of the Austin airport nursing a cold and sore feet. But of course, it was worth it!

Check out our weekend recap below: photos by Sarah Sturgis unless stated otherwise.

FRIDAY

Spill Tab

LVVRS

Jensen McRae

Singer-songwriter Jensen McRae is currently one of my favorites in the space. McRae, who grew up in Los Angeles and attended USC’s Thornton School of Music on a full-ride scholarship, released her excellent sophomore album I Don’t Know How But They Found Me! earlier this year via Dead Oceans and has been touring with artists like Noah Kahan, MUNA, and Maude Latour, and kicked off the second leg of her headlining tour with her performance at ACL on Friday afternoon.

McRae has publicly discussed her admiration for artists like Taylor Swift and her ability to craft a world with compelling storytelling, and it’s evident that has influenced McRae’s own songwriting. I did find it interesting, and maybe I’m reading into it too much, that McRae opted for a cover of Amy Winehouse’s “Back to Black” instead of “Guilty As Sin,” a cover that McRae has frequently performed this year while on tour—perhaps McRae was also feeling disappointed with Swift’s 12th studio album, which dropped the same day of her performance. But I digress!

McRae’s hour long set took place in the hottest hour of the festival, at least what I experienced personally, and it was a feat in and of itself to pull off that performance to a crowd full of hot and music lovers who were contemplating their life choices by voluntarily standing in the sun in 90 degree heat. Her music is inherently slow, and for a casual fan or a passerby, it was probably difficult to be immersed fully into the performance, but McRae’s vocal prowess had to have won people over: including her performance of “Back To Black” that I already mentioned, “Savannah,” “Novelty,” and others. I think there were moments where the setlist needed to be reorganized to avoid some sleepiness of an already irritable, sweaty crowd, but enough of the audience powered through from start to end. 

The obvious standout was a performance of the (slightly) upbeat “Let Me Be Wrong,” an ode to the chronic over thinkers, perfectionists, and eldest daughters: “I’ve been good too long, let me be wrong,” McRae belts. It was the closest moment to a sing-a-long, and I guarantee those who were previously unfamiliar with McRae left her set by saving that track in their Spotify/Apple Music Library to listen to again later.

Moody Joody

The Favors

King Princess

Role Model

To the average music fan, 28-year-old Tucker Pillsbury may seem to have come out of nowhere, skyrocketing to the (near) top of festival bills this summer, his popularity forcing organizers to move him to bigger stages to manage crowd control. But to the girlies who love the “boy-next-door” with a nice voice, they’ve known that Role Model has been making his way to this moment for the last several years, initially getting his foot in the door with a more alt. sound with elements of hip-hop and rap, which seem completely out of left field compared to the sound featured on his breakthrough album, KANSAS ANYMORE. 

I’ve slightly kept up with Role Model’s climb to pop star status over the last year or so, which has a similar trajectory to artists like Chappell Roan (albeit not as drastic of a jump). But Role Model’s debut at Austin City Limits is evident that he’s made quite a name for himself: the highly-coveted 6pm slot on the main stage was reserved for other artists like Doechii, T-Pain, and Cage The Elephant, making him quite at home with some of the largest names booked at the festival.

Stepping onstage in a white tank, denim jeans, and a cowboy hat and boots, buzzing through songs like “Look at That Woman,” “Oh Gemini,” and “Old Recliners,” Role Model had no issue captivating the crowd from start to finish, even throwing a bone to the indie fans with a cover of The 1975’s “Somebody Else.” His banter with the crowd felt organic, unforced, and fun, calling himself and the band “Maroon 5” and introducing himself as Ed Sheeran, a bit that he has continued to do whilst onstage, swapping out the names for other artists, including Sabrina Carpenter and Tate McRae. 

The high point of the set was the three track closing run of “Some Protector,” “Sally, When The Wine Runs Out,” and “Deeply Still in Love.” The first, a song heavily rumored to be about Pilsbury’s public break-up with internet star and entrepreneur Emma Chamberlain, which has a bridge that has become an anthem for fans to scream their hearts out to. The second, a song that has become known for featuring a special guest during his shows, including Olivia Rodrigo, Kate Hudson, and Natalie Portman: a flex in and of itself. My guess for ACL Weekend 1’s Sally was going to be King Princess or Ashe, but nobody could have guessed it to be Hilary Duff, a moment that even got me to scream with fangirl level excitement. The crowd’s reaction was priceless, even if my friend heard a young mom explaining to her daughter who Duff was, even if Duff (allegedly) texted her husband prior to her appearance with worry that nobody who would know who she was. We knew, queen, we knew.

Empire of The Sun

It’s obvious to anyone who pays attention to music that the last couple years have been a big revival for artists of the 2010s, with reunion tours up the wazoo and a whole festival dedicated to the 2000s punk pop scene. Artists like Two Door Cinema Club, Jack’s Mannequin, and most recently, The Temper Trap, are going on tour in support of specific albums, with a sprinkle of new music included. That trend has continued through festival lineup bookings, where artists like Modest Mouse, Passion Pit, and Empire of The Sun all landed on this year’s ACL lineup. 

I can’t say I know a ton of Empire of The Sun’s music, but I do know that when I listen to them, I’m immediately transported to my high school and college years, where songs like “Walking On a Dream” and “Alive” were all the rage. The band, which was formed in Australia, doesn’t seem to tour America much, so despite wanting to check out other sets at this time (cough cough, Maren Morris), I knew that this was a chance to see them that may not come as easily again in the future. They’re also currently the 183rd most streamed artist in the world on Spotify: crazy, right?

My first thought while heading to catch Empire of The Sun at the Miller Lite stage immediately after Role Model’s set ended was “Why is this band on a side stage?” Their crowd ended up being massive, and after snooping through Reddit, I discovered that many fellow attendees struggled to get to the stage from other areas of the park because of its placement in between high-traffic areas. I’m not a festival producer and nothing can be completely foolproof, but EOTS definitely should have been a main stage artist based on performance quality alone: their visuals, production value, and costumes were epic, the crowd participation never wavered from start to end, and the hour-15 minute set was as long as some of the headliners’ slots themselves.

For a set time that I could have misused by seeing a slower, lower-energy set or even to take a break and sit could have really hindered my momentum going into the headlining slot of the evening, and for that reason alone, catching Empire of The Sun is a must for anyone who’s slightly familiar or just wants to have a good time as the sun goes down.

Hozier

One thing about me is that I’m always going to be that person who makes the “I saw them before they blew up” comment, which is exactly what happened when I first saw Hozier perform in a room of maybe 100 people when I was an intern at JBTV Music Studios during my freshman year of college. I can’t say I love his as much as I love that debut album (which I consider to be nearly perfect), but I have always admired his artistry as well as his outspokenness when it comes to speaking on politics and advocating for marginalized communities, which could have been scary to anyone performing in a red state like Texas. But Hozier’s no amateur when it comes to speaking his mind.

Clocking in for business at exactly 8:15pm, Hozier took his crowd on a musical journey, performing songs from each of his three albums, opening with “Nobody’s Soldier” from Unreal Unearth and closing with “Take Me To Church.” My personal highlights included “Jackie and Wilson,” “Work Song,” and “Someone New,” all from his debut, as well as “Nina Cried Power,” where he took the time to speak on the inspiration behind the song and the artists who came before Hozier that utilized music as a form of protest. It was a powerful moment to experience in today’s political climate, and I appreciated that he shouted out smaller artists, including Nemahsis, KNEECAP, and others.

For an artist that has such massive commercial appeal, you have to applaud Hozier for using his platform in such an inspirational way, and I hope his statements impacted even just one person who may not have been familiar with his game prior. Maybe someone realize just how political “Take Me To Church” really is!

SATURDAY

Sydney Rose

Mallrat

Alemeda

Ocean Alley

Olivia Dean

Catching Olivia Dean’s set at Austin City Limits this past weekend was definitely one of my most anticipated of the weekend, and she didn’t disappoint my expectations. I first saw her last year at Lollapalooza, but she was placed on a side stage directly before Chappell Roan’s record-breaking performance on the main stage, so I was watching from my queue spot from afar, and it certaintly didn’t give Dean the justice she deserved.

While gearing up for the weekend and listening to my ACL playlist on Spotify, I realized that Dean is currently the #171st most streamed artist in the entire world: which is pretty crazy, considering she was playing at such an early time in the day. With songs like “Man I Need” and “Nice To Each Other” both buzzing on TikTok, I knew that she would be pulling a larger crowd than festival organizers expected when initially putting the schedule together. Just about 15 minutes before her performance was scheduled to begin, the field was filling up pretty quickly.

Opening with “Nice To Each Other” and closing with “Dive,” Dean captivated the audience from start to finish, playing five songs from her recently released album The Art of Loving, six from the 2023 album Messy, and the standalone singles “Time,” “It Isn’t Perfect But It Might Be” (from Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy), and the tried and true “Ok Love You Bye,” which was released wayyy back in 2019 when Dean was only 20. My personal favorite moments included the former, “Lady Lady,” “Man I Need,” (which is a likely contender for the most streamed song on my Spotify Wrapped playlist later this year), and “Carmen,” a song about Dean’s grandmother immigrating to the UK from Guyana at just 18-years-old.

While introducing the song, Dean made a point to comment on the strength of immigrants and the hope that we can stop vilifying those who are searching for a better life for their families: a notable statement about today’s political climate that felt incredibly poignant, considering I didn’t hear many other artists deliver any sort of political messages during the weekend.

Yoke Lore

Clover County

Magdalena Bay

Doechii

I feel like I’ve said all that was important to say with my recap of Doechii’s performance at Lollapalooza, and even though I had a blast seeing her again at ACL, us Lolla attendees were spoiled with an absolute spectacle of a set, including a massive boombox on stage, 15+ dancers with flawless choreography, and a crowd that wasn’t evidently queuing for the headliner basically ignoring Doechii’s time on stage completely. Unfortunately, the way that people behave in a crowd can impact your ability to enjoy a performance, and sadly that’s what happened to me at ACL on Saturday afternoon.

The overall vibes were still up, though, and Doechii came to perform like she was the headliner herself, whipping through “NOSEBLEEDS,” “NISSAN ALTIMA,” “ALTER EGO,” and many more, including “ANXIETY,” her take on the 2012 Gotye song “Somebody That I Used To Know.” I suppose Doechii went all out for her Lolla performance because she used it to announce her North American headlining tour, which kicks off next week in Chicago. But since then, she’s opted for a more subdued performance, with just her DJ, Grammy-award winning Miss Milan, accompanying her onstage, forcing Doechii’s presence to do the heavy lifting. And that absolutely works well enough, as she was one of the few non-headliners to actually utilize the runway that juts off into the crowd. She even twerked so hard, she ripped her pants. 10000/10 from me, no notes.

DJO

I’ve been a bit of a DJO skeptic. I’ve liked a few of his songs here and there but didn’t feel like I could fully buy into the idea of his music project being able to stand up on its own, especially because so many of his fans (assumingly) came from his time acting on Stranger Things. I like several songs off of his recent album, The Crux, but still didn’t feel totally convinced. I saw about 20 minutes of his set at Lollapalooza, but I think the fact that I had to leave Bleachers’ set to catch those 20 minutes left me feeling sad, so all in all, the opportunity to see him at ACL, uninterrupted with zero qualms about missing another set, was totally needed.

I expected DJO to pull a larger crowd, not that his was small in the least, but it didn’t feel overwhelming or stuffed, probably because the indie crowd chose between his set and Japanese Breakfast’s, who was also playing at the same time, and because SO many people were already queuing at the main stage to see Sabrina Carpenter immediately after (more on that later).

Opening with “Awake,” a song on his recently released The Crux Deluxe, the start felt clunky and off: to be fair, I haven’t listened to that album yet, so I could be missing context, but it just felt like a lot of strange sounds were happening. The Crux had the most recognition on the 13-song setlist, with 8 of the 12 tracks being performed live, including my personal favorites “Basic Being Basic,” “Link,” and “Gloom.” 

My favorite moment of the set was predictably, hearing “End of Beginning” with one of my best friends from college, we both, like Joe Keery, attended DePaul University in Chicago and evidently can relate on the themes of looking back at that time in our lives with gratitude, admiring how far we’ve come since and simultaneously missing the years where life felt lighter, where our worlds felt so open to new opportunities. So yes, we both hugged and cried together.

The Strokes

Photos by Alfredo Flores for ACL Music Festival

Sabrina Carpenter

Even though I saw Sabrina Carpenter headline Lollapalooza just two months ago, which also happens to be the last time she performed, it feels like a lot has transpired since, including the release of her highly-anticipated Man’s Best Friend, as well as her collaboration on the title track of Taylor Swift’s 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl. About a week or so leading up to her debut at ACL, rumors started swirling all over the internet that Swift was going to make a surprise cameo at Sabrina’s set to perform the track with her, including a Tweet stating that Swift’s private jet was en route to Austin just hours before Sabrina was set to take the stage. Ultimately, it didn’t happen, which many of us figured, but her crowd was unbelievably crowded regardless, to the point where I was concerned for my safety at some points.

I didn’t anticipate any major set changes since her performance at Lollapalooza, and the only major difference was that she added “Tears” to be the only new song featured from Man’s Best Friend, including “Man Child,” which was already on the setlist. Like I stated before, her crowd was ginormous, probably the biggest I saw all weekend, and many small children were in attendance, and way too many without ear protection.

Sabrina’s production value is pretty impressive, and her visuals, back-up dancers, and overall aesthetic add a lot to the performance: it feels high-level and is executed at the level of pop stars who have been doing this thing for decades. Her stage persona is larger-than-life, especially for being so short and sweet (sorry, I had to), and her special guest, Shania Twain, felt like the perfect counterpart to Carpenter, even if I wish they played “You’re Still The One” over “That Don’t Impress Me Much.” It’s evident that Carpenter is on top of her game, and with a headlining performance at Coachella 2026 looming in the distance, I’m looking forward to see where she goes next.

SUNDAY

Flowerovlove

Photos by Dusana Risovic for ACL Music Festival

Lucius

I first fell in love with Lucius when I discovered their song “Almost Makes Me Wish For Rain” back in 2016 as a college student. I loved the melodies, the effortless harmonies, and the idea of always being prepared for impending doom even when you’re happy. I guess that’s just what I identified with before I realized I had anxiety! Ever since, I’ve loosely continued to follow the indie pop band’s career, including collaborations with artists like Madison Cunningham, Brandi Carlile, Cheryl Crow, and The War on Drugs.

Lucius’ set pulled a small(er) but mighty crowd, with many fans closing in on the little amount of shade in the front of the stage about 15 minutes beforehand, and eventually pulling some passersby on the outskirts of the crowd who were just chilling or grabbing some food. Decked in matching, elaborate red outfits with stitches of beach chairs, blenders, cats, mailboxes, and more, lead vocalists Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig performed with a quiet confidence, blending harmonies effortlessly, performing tracks like “Gold Rush” and “Stranger Danger” from their 2025 self-titled album, which was hailed as “the band’s best of their career” by Rolling Stone, and “Dusty Trails” from 2016’s Good Grief, a song about the loneliness of touring.

The band will return to Austin for weekend 2 of ACL fest before continuing the fall leg of their Gold Rush tour, concluding on November 22 in San Diego.

Zinadelphia

Royal & The Serpent

Wet Leg

For as long as I’ve been a fan of Wet Leg, it’s pretty crazy that it took this long to see an actual full set from them. I first saw their debut at South By Southwest back in 2022, where they were performing in a event room-turned-performance-space that felt uncomfortably corporate, stuffy, and full of people who were waiting for a chance to see one of the indie’s most buzzing bands. Their set was one of the only ones I saw that actually had a crowd to get in: I was worried when I arrived that I won’t even make the capacity cut. After the insanely positive response to the band’s self-titled, debut album back in 2022, which got them three Grammys, two BRIT awards, and #1 chart placements in Europe, they took a well-deserved break.

“Catch These Fists” was their first single back after three years, released earlier this year, followed by a fantastic sophomore album, moisturizer, and a sold-out North American tour that kicked off on September 1 and concludes next weekend in Los Angeles. Their performance at ACL on Sunday afternoon filled up pretty quickly, the 4:30pm slot giving attendees just a little time to cool off while rocking out. The hour-long set was a journey through the band’s discography, playing tracks off their debut album (“Chaise Longue,” “Wet Dream,” “Ur Mum,” and others), and moisturizer: an album about falling in love, or “love songs of every stripe: stressed-out, gooey-eyed, gratuitously horny, blissed out, obsessive and mysterious,” a statement made in the album’s press release. With headbangers like “Catch These Fists,” “cpr,” and “pillow talk” garnered strong reactions from the crowd, the slower, softer moments like “mangetout” and “davina mccall” were clear fan favorites as well, making their set inclusive for every taste.

T-Pain

By the looks of the crowd that flooded the North End of Zilker Park on Sunday afternoon, T-Pain could have easily headlined Austin City Limits without a sweat. The 41-year-old is currently on a massive headlining tour to support the 20 year anniversary of his debut album, Rapper Turnt Sanga, which dropped on December 6, 2005, and already performed at Coachella and Lollapalooza along the way before hitting Austin City Limits for both weekends of the festival.

I assumed that many of my fellow millennials would have struggled making the choice between T-Pain and Passion Pit’s set, and it turns out, the majority of them chose T-Pain, whether it was by default or not is another question (Passion Pit’s set was at a very small Tito’s Stage under a tent where festivals complained about poor planning on the organizers’ end). People of all ages stood near me in the field, including Gen X and plenty of Gen Z’s, lamenting T-Pain’s status as an icon of all ages, as corny as it sounds.

Bringing back around the idea that we’re all yearning for nostalgia is evident in the way that T-Pain’s music can bring several thousand people together: his 24-long song setlist (with several of those songs being snippets) was a true testament of his legacy as an artist whose long list of collaborators include Pitbull, DJ Khaled, Lil Wayne, and Baby Bash, and his singing chops, which are fairly unknown to the general public (he covered “Tennessee Whiskey by David Allan Coe and “Don’t Stop Believin'” by Journey as if they were his very own songs). But the best part of all was giving people some time to let loose and dance like nobody’s watching. Isn’t that all what we need more of nowadays?

Photos by Chris Phelps for ACL Music Festival

The Killers

For most festival attendees, I can assume that there was some sort of disappointment when we found out at the end of August that The Killers would be replacing Doja Cat as Sunday nights’ headliner, stating that she needed to drop to focus focusing on her new album, Vie, which dropped on September 26. It didn’t take long for Redditors to make the connection that Doja Cat allegedly dropped due to being booked on Saturday Night Live the same weekend of Austin City Limits. I however, was excited, despite seeing The Killers last year at Lollapalooza and several years prior at the same festival, both times as headliners, and both times being absolutely fantastic shows. It’s pretty crazy that they’ve been around for as long as they have been. I was only nine-years-old and they released their first album, Hot Fuss, which spawned several hit songs, including “Mr. Brightside,” (in the top 50 most streamed songs of all time), “Somebody Told Me,” “All These Things That I’ve Done,” and “Smile Like You Mean It.”

I was unsure how the crowd would split between the two headliners on Sunday night: DJ John Summit was headlining across the park to a notably younger audience: he’s only 31 and is also from my hometown. But The Killers’ had zero issue pulling fans, assuming they also gained several thousand after John Summits’ set ended a bit earlier than theirs. The Killers have been known to play Mr. Brightside in the first few songs of their set, so I was unsure where it would end up this time around, but they did save it until the very last, instead, opting to perform a cover of “Whiskey River” by Johnny Bush, featuring a cameo of the blues singer Guy Forsyth, an homage to the festival’s state of Texas.

The set continued on quickly with performances of all the hits, including “Somebody Told Me,” “When You Were Young,” “Smile Like You Mean It,” “Human,” and other, less commercially successful tracks, like “Caution” and “Running Towards a Place.” I personally feel a little bummed that they nixed “The Man,” a song from frontman Brandon Flowers’ solo project, but they came onstage a few minutes late and already went over their allotted time while concluding with “Mr. Brightside.” All in all, I’d like to assume that many attendees who were initially disappointed with the news of Doja Cat dropping felt satisfied with the chance to see The Killers, or even those who were head banging to John Summit.

ACL 2025 concludes this weekend.

Check out all of our previous festival coverage HERE.