The Late Show

ACL Nights will drop tickets all at once to more than 40 festival acts in 9 Austin venues

These nighttime shows will help locals and travelers kiss ACL Fest FOMO goodbye.

Photo by Arnold Wells

Hot on the heels of ACL Fest's August 17 announcement — alerting attendees to the full schedule, which kicks off the first real planning sessions — the festival is back with more.

ACL Nights, an after-hours concert series, is solving FOMO left and right for festival-goers who had to make tough choices during the day, or fans who didn't want to commit to the whole festival but still want to see some of their favorite artists. The festival announced the schedule for the nighttime series on August 22, including dozens of musical acts.

Even though these sets are after-hours, many still conflict with the headlining sets at Zilker Park, so folks at the actual festival should probably still prioritize those shows. ACL Nights, though, offers a chance at a more intimate experience across eight Austin venues — some familiar to many, and some more niche.

Sales for all ACL Nights tickets will open on August 24 at 10 am Central. Set an alarm and have a plan, because some of these will go fast. Browse all the shows, and enter to win or buy tickets at do512.com.

The eight venues included in ACL Nights are:

Moody Amphitheater: The new-ish outdoor venue at Waterloo Park, under a recognizable veranda of criss-crossing white sticks. Austinites are still trickling in and learning this new venue, which is relatively small and formal.
Stubb's Waller Creek Amphitheater: Around the back at Stubb's Bar-B-Q, this is a classic Austin venue that participates in a lot of local festivals. This is an easy place to grab a snack without having to leave the show.
Stubb's Indoors: It's the same place, but indoors. This area is much smaller and can be viewed from inside the restaurant, but only from certain angles.
Emo's Austin: This venue is a bit out-of-the-way over in Riverside. Travelers visiting for the festival will recognize this more standard warehouse-like experience, which is actually uncommon around Austin.
Scoot Inn: One of Austin's most unique venues, Scoot Inn offers lots of rustic charm without having to leave the city. It generally books hard-to-define indie bands.
Superstition: This disco nightclub hasn't even been open a full year in Austin, but it's already inspired about a bazillion Instagram posts. This one's for the concert-goers who prefer a party to a jam.
Antone's: This historic blues club needs no introduction. But if you've got friends visiting from out of town, this will be a great opportunity to show them one of Austin's top venues.
C-Boy's Heart and Soul: This is for Antone's fans who want a little South Austin flavor. The bar draws tons of locals and is a bit of a hidden gem, with blues and soul bands all week.
3TEN: This is as close to the original Austin City Limits as you can get without actually being there. For those who don't know, ACL Fest is sort of a spin-off of a television series hosted next door to this downtown venue.

The acts on the schedule include:

Death Grips (immediately sold out — all the more reason to make the set during the fest)
Cigarettes After Sex
Mt. Joy
Tash Saltana
Bailen
The Walkmen
Rina Sawayama
Empress Of
Disko Cowboy
Thirty Seconds to Mars
The Breeders
Bob Moses
FKJ
Tegan and Sara
New West
Poolside
Nessa Barrett
Del Water Gap
Delacey
Yves Tumor
The Teskey Brothers
Abraham Alexander
Madison Cunningham
Miya Folick
Above & Beyond
Fundido
Becky Hill
Sidepiece
Chris Shiflett
Ellis Bullard
Devon Gilfillian
CVC
The Shooks
Gypsy Mitchell
Michigander
Husbands
Charlotte Adigery
Bolis Pupul
Jane Leo
Mac Saturn
Bass Drum of Death
Arya
The Altons

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A New Light

Wildflower Center's Luminations light show debuts new features in 2024

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center Luminations

Photo by Theresa DiMenno

The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center is bringing back Luminations with some new elements.

A South Austin holiday tradition is sprouting a little differently this year at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. Luminations, an immersive light installation, is bringing new art and adding access to a separate installation to keep things growing fresh year after year.

The 2024 show runs from November 22, 2024, to January 5, 2025. The family-friendly exhibition will show off work by local designers alongside food truck vendors and three full-service bars.

Austinites who haven't been to Luminations may still recognize it from social media photos. The glowing O-shaped swings are hands-down the most popular exhibit to photograph since they are interactive, but other popular ones include an array of color-changing discs to step on and a herd of rainbow, origami-like deer.

A few elements are new this year.

A new location
No sane event organizer would leave the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center; actually, the installation is now even closer, taking place in the main gardens. According to a release, this was to make the path more walkable, which in turn allows guests to feel more immersed. It already was a walking exhibit last year, but it was spread out across nearly two miles. Neither the website nor the release offer an updated distance estimate, but the website does show a map.

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center Luminations map Here's where Luminations is held now.wildflower.org

New art
The release promises "interactive opportunities and never-before-seen light installations." Of course, it doesn't give it all away before people get to see it. But potential visitors can get an idea by of what's in store by checking out other work by the six designers who contributed this year: APM Designs, ASA Designs, Cicada Designs, Dada Labs, Holiday Lighting Designs and Ion Art Designs.

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center Luminations These swings are always a big hit, and they appear to be on the map again this year.Photo by Ann Alva Wieding

“We work closely with local Austin designers to make our light show special, and there’s something surprising and different every year,” said the Wildflower Center's director of hospitality, Erika Tucker, in the release.

A trip to Fortlandia
Another one of the Wildflower Center's interactive projects, Fortlandia, is now right next to Luminations. For Fortlandia, local designers — including one that crosses over with Luminations, Ion Art — designed children's playscapes that push traditional playground boundaries. These modern forts aren't just beautiful to look at, but extra fun to play in thanks to the novelty.

This fun fort is part of Fortlandia.Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center/Instagram

Since it will be dark out during the light show, Fortlandia will also have its own lighting. Additionally, keeping kids entertained at Fortlandia might give parents a bit more time to appreciate the art in Luminations.

The goal is the same
Although some aspects of Luminations are new this year, it fills the darker days of winter, gets people to visit the Wildflower Center in the off-season, and it benefits the center's conservation work.

Throughout the year, the center conducts research on protecting native ecosystems, cultivates rare plants, maintains a seed bank, educates Texans on how to foster native plant life, and even helps plan eco-friendly projects for outside clients using its own findings.

Last month, the center announced planned updates to its 284 acres of gardens.

Tickets to Luminations ( $28 for adults, $18 for youth) are required for entry. Reserved parking is available at an additional cost. The entrance to the exhibit is located at 4801 LaCrosse Ave.

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