ACL this weekend, stream it

Welcome to ACL 2010! (photo by Tim Griffin)

Another year of the Austin City Limits Music Festival is underway. It is a weekend tens of thousands of people have been waiting for.

The festival began just as it always has, with the Star Wars theme song blasting through the park.

The crowd of ticket holders lined up at the gate began pouring into the park around 11:00 a.m. Friday.

Visitors came in from across the world; different cities, states, and countries. Festival coordinators estimate about 65,000 people will attend the festival each day.

Most people got their tickets within hours of them going on sale. Others were not so lucky. One man wearing an Event Staff shirt says he found a different route inside the festival gates.

“I’m working, but it’s a positive thing. I get to listen to the music, you know, from so many different bands. I have to stay in my work area, but I get to still listen to all the music and enjoy all of the people coming in,” he said.

There are eight stages set up at Zilker Park for the festival; 130 bands will perform on the stages, which is about 40 a day. [KVUE]

The Austin City Limits festival at Zilker Park in Austin, Texas kicks off today and runs through Sunday (10/8 – 10/10). If you haven’t arranged flights/hotels by now you can check out the fest from the comfort of your home. Stream the webcast from the fest at the ACL site. They’ll have performances from Vampire Weekend, Spoon, The Sword, Sonic Youth, The xx, LCD Soundsystem, Yeasayer, Gogol Bordello, The National, Band of Horses and others.

And we’ll have more pictures by Tim Griffin coming soon.