ACL Festival 2018 Sunday pics (Arctic Monkeys, Janelle Monae, Travis Scott, more)
Weekend one of ACL Festival wrapped up in Austin TX's Zilker Park on Sunday (10/7) with sets from Arctic Monkeys, Janelle Monae, Phoenix, Sylvan Esso, Shakey Graves, Camila Cabello, Tinashe, Parquet Courts, Amen Dunes, Amber Mark, Shame, Sailor Poon, and more. Travis Scott filled in for Childish Gambino, who cancelled after an injury, in the headlining spot. As Rolling Stone reports, he was also responsible for the "best fan moment" of the festival:
After an injured Childish Gambino bowed out of his ACL appearance Sunday night, Travis Scott was jetted from New York to Austin just hours after he taped his performance on SNL. “Two hands to the sky,” he commanded his Austin fans at the Amex stage. “And love to Childish Gambino!” Flames and fog engulfed the stage as he ran through “Stargazing,” “Upper Echelon” and “Dark Knight Dummo.” Scott spotted a fan in the crowd wielding a sign and beckoned him to the stage. “You, with the sign,” said Scott — pointing to a fan in the crowd — “Come here. Let him through.” Security promptly plucked a gangly young fan from inside the screaming mob, and the boy immediately stoked the crowd with the bravado of a pro, ripping his shirt off in the process. Scott kicked off his 2016 hit “Goosebumps” by handing off the mic to the boy, whose own Auto-Tuned raps didn’t miss a beat. Scott topped off the song by giving his guest the hat off his head.
Austin360 was left wondering why Janelle Monae wasn't headlining:
How much excitement did Austin City Limits Music Festival feel for Janelle Monae, you ask? A scream ripped through the crowd 15 minutes before she took the stage as a few of her musicians wandered out from backstage. When the opening theme from “2001: A Space Odyssey” announced the arrival of the “Electric Lady” herself, the crowd went wild.
She remained offstage, allowing the big screen to run visuals from the “emotion picture” she created to accompany her 2018 release “Dirty Computer” as a short take of the title track played, then hit the stage full force to the opening notes of “Crazy, Classic, Life.”
Wearing a structured jacket, color blocked in red and white (the first of over a half dozen costume changes) and surrounded by a four-woman dance team, she made it clear from the jump: She came to flex her skills. A petite polymath with explosive talent, she let her voice soar as she rocked her body in a tightly choreographed routine, then spit fire on the rap break at the end of the song. Moments later, she strapped on a guitar for the opening to “Screwed.”
By the time she transformed the stage into her palace and rapped “If she the G.O.A.T. now, would anybody doubt it?” while sitting on a throne during “Django Jane,” she had made the case for the accolades she demands.
Check out pictures from Sunday at weekend one of ACL Festival in the gallery above, and catch up on the rest of our coverage with pictures from Friday HERE and Saturday HERE.
ACL Fest returns for its second weekend of 2018 October 12-14.
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Most photos by Andy Sawyer. Some photos by Charles Reagan Hackleman, Greg Noire, Roger Ho, and Sydney Gawlik for ACL Festival.