I think I’ll skip the ACL Music Festival this year.

As I have done since it started in 2002. Although this is the one Zilker Park concert I could actually get a pass to (if I wanted to work). For the past three years our sister company has provided all the electrical generators and air conditioners for the event, and my ex office mate, who was a professional sound man before coming to work for John, manages one of the big stages each year.

The primary reason I’m not going is evident in the header above. That’s a photo taken during last year’s Festival. I didn’t take it. Somehow, being packed together with 65,000 of your closest friends on a sweltering summer day in Austin is not my idea of a good time. Two years ago it reached 108 degrees during the show and there was so much dust they started changing the lyrics to some Woody Guthrie Dust Bowl songs. The promoters installed an irrigation system and sprinklers after that.

In fact, the promoters, Austin-based C3 Presents, have a remarkable track record of being Austin-friendly and environmentally green. The crowds are capped at a mere 65,000 a day – they could sell 5 times that many tickets (they did sell more than 200,000 tickets in 2004). If you live near Zilker you get a pass for your vehicle, but absolutely no one else can drive in the park. It was interesting to hear my ex office mate explaining to some big names in the business that they would have to leave their tour bus at the hotel and take the trolley like everyone else.

The generators use bio-diesel, the vendors can only sell “finger foods” wrapped in biodegradable paper or corn-based plastic sacks – no plastic plates or utensils – and this year they will hand you a free souvenir sack of 25 used plastic cups on the way out. The idea is that college kids will stock their apartment kitchens with anything. C3 also puts on the Lollapalooza shows, and among other ventures, owns the Discovery Cycling Team.

Another reason I’m not going is I’m not a fan. After looking over the list of acts for the Fest, Mom said, “What does it say about my ‘with-it-ness’ that of 142 acts booked for ACL, I only recognize one name – Bob Dylan, and you would have to be dead not to have heard of Bob Dylan.” I recognize a few more names than that, but still – Bjork? Ghostland Observatory?

But ACL is one of the things that makes Austin the “Live Music Capital of the World” and it pumps a bazillion dollars into the economy, and that’s a good thing. I just need to remember not to get anywhere near Zilker park this weekend.