ACL: know before you go

by Elizabeth Seward on

The Austin City Limits Music Festival, usually referred to as ACL, is coming up soon. And really, Austin deserves some semblance of fun after this horrendous fire-infused, rain-free, 100+-degrees-for-way-too-many-days-in-a-row summer. After attending ACL last year just a few days after I’d arrived to Austin from New York City and successfully having a blast, I decided to get tickets for this year’s festival, as well. Acts taking the stage at ACL 2011 include Stevie Wonder, Kanye West, Arcade Fire, Coldplay, Alison Krauss, Nas, Cee Lo, Bright Eyes, TV On The Radio, Death From Above 1979, and, of course, just like every other festival out there, many more.

So why does this festival matter to traveling folks? Well, because over 70,000 people attend the festival every day. And they’re not all Austinites. They travel from all over the globe to be a part of this festival. Indeed, ACL is a travel destination for many. And with that, I present you, your handy Know Before You Go list for ACL.

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  • Austin City Limits. Austin City Limits Music Festival is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, September 16-18. The festival takes place annually in Zilker Park, Austin, Texas.
  • Tickets. All 3-day tickets are now sold out. And, unfortunately, day passes for Friday and Saturday are sold out. But wait! You can still attend. On Sunday. You can hurry and grab your Sunday pass and still catch acts like Arcade Fire, Social Distorion, Death From Above 1979, Broken Social Scene, The Walkmen, and more.
  • Food. The food at ACL is phenomenal, especially when you consider that this is a festival and festivals (until the recent warmly welcomed changing atmosphere of festivals) usually sell hot dogs, popcorn, and ice cream. Austin has a diverse food scene and many of the restauranteurs make their mark in the ACL Food Court. Some of my favorites are Tiff’s Treats, P. Terry’s, Amy’s Ice Cream, and The Salt Lick, but check out this link for a full list of food vendors.
  • Art. ACL boasts a pretty decent Art Market within the festival grounds. Check out this link for the full list of artists.
  • Alcohol. You’re not allowed to bring in alcohol. If you want to drink, you’re going to have to drink what they’re selling inside.
  • Pets. I’m disappointed too, but no, you may not bring your pets to ACL.
  • Re-Entry. Here’s how it works: You exchange your 3-day ticket for a wristband. You need to wear your wristband to enter the festival. As long as you’re wearing your wristband, you can come and go as you please. Unfortunately, if you only have a single day ticket, you won’t receive a wristband and, therefore, you won’t be allowed re-entry.
  • Transportation. If you’re looking to not drive to and from ACL, there are, of course, other options. ACL (and Austin, in general) is bike friendly. There are not only bike racks at each entrance of the festival, but there is also a bike shop at each entrance of the festival. If you need parts or repair, you can stop by Mellow Johnny’s Bike Station. If you’re within walking distance, walk! It’s not the fasted mode of transportation, but it’s certainly good for the body and mind. You can also ride the free shuttle from Republic Square (4th & Guadalupe) to ACL. The shuttles begin at 10am and their last round is at 11pm. Taxis are another good option and they’ll be around for the flagging.
  • Parking. There is absolutely no parking available on the grounds of the festival. None. So here is what you do if you’re driving. Park at One Texas Center (here’s a map). The parking there is free after 5pm on Friday, September 16th and $10 on Saturday the 17th and Sunday the 18th. It’s a pretty easy walk over to the festival from the garage. You can also park in town. We found reliable spots on West 6th last year and walked from there.
  • Activities. Photo Booths, car giveaways, and filtered water fill-ups are a few of the few things non-music ACL has going on. That’s right. I said ‘a few of the few’ for a reason: there’s not much non-music stuff going on at ACL, especially not compared to festivals like Bonnaroo.

ADVICE: ACL is crowded, but it’s fun. But keep the crowded thing in mind. Plan accordingly. If you have anxiety and think you may need to bring your medication, I suggest you do. It’s also going to be hot. HOT. Very hot. Prepare for the heat and sun in every way you know how. I saw a girl passed out cold last year from what I bet was drug or alcohol related, but the heat certainly didn’t help. Don’t let that be you this year. Prepare.

THINGS TO BRING & NOT TO BRING: The powers that be behind the curtains of ACL have put together a helpful list of things you can bring and things you cannot bring right here.

THINGS PROVIDED: Most of the things you need are within ACL… food, drinks, water fill-ups, medics, etc. But check the ACL website to make sure you have a comprehensive understanding of the festival before you arrive.

Where to Find the Real Debauchery of the Barbary Coast in San Francisco

by David Farley on
I once interviewed writer David Sedaris for a San Francisco weekly newspaper. My boss had one request: you have to ask him one or two San Francisco-related questions. So when I asked his thoughts on the City by the Bay, he said: “It’s one of the most volatile, tense cities I’ve ever been in.” This was a lot coming from someone who’s on a constant book tour and has probably visited every city in America dozens of times. “The last time I was in town,” Sedaris added, feeling compelled to give me an example, “my friend and I had just come out of movie and suddenly a guy was running at us swinging a chain over his head.”

It’s uncertain whether this chain-twirling lunatic was indirectly inspired by the legend of the Barbary Coast, but, as Daniel Bacon said in a previous post, the legendary neighborhood has imprinted its DNA onto the city. From the current strip clubs and peeps shows that line Broadway (which were once part of the Barbary Coast drag, Pacific St.) to the openness with which the city welcomes people of every stripe. But besides the obvious – like those strip clubs – where else, I wondered, could I find spiritual remnants of the old neighborhood. Specifically, where to find the real debauchery of the Barbary Coast in San Francisco?

There’s the Tenderloin. Specifically one block on Turk Street, which the San Francisco Chronicle recently reported was the most dangerous block in the city. Violent crime is 35 times higher on this block. Just 438 people live on the city block, yet in a six-month period there were 248 crimes reported. I wanted to go see it for myself, but I like my health and my wallet.

So instead I went to the Saloon, the oldest bar in San Francisco, and right on the medallion-guided Barbary Coast Trail. I started to think I was on to something when 28-year-old Sophie, sitting next to me at the bar, announced she was a heroin addict. “Oh look,” she said, studying a pea-sized black dot on her thumb, “how did some junk end up on my finger?” She picked off the tar-like substance and deposited the remnant into her pocket. Soon enough her dealer showed up and he whipped out a bag of heroin, stuck it in her face to smell and said, “This is for later.” But before that, a procession of characters were dispatched into the place that felt like central casting was having a busy day. There were trannies. There were guys with headbands and leather jackets playing Bob Dylan songs on a harmonica. There was Tommy, a flamboyant homeless guy who would blurt out random statements like “Let’s all wait until daddy’s butt gets flat” and “I’m not a hanging uterus.”


As I sat there taking it all in, sipping a vodka and tonic (and at $3, a bargain), I realized that this kind of debauchery has been going on in this space for the last 160 years. The real remnants of the Barbary Coast are not necessarily the physical remnants of the neighborhood, but instead living in certain people. It’s in Jonny Raglin at the Comstock Saloon and Daniel Bacon who started the Barbary Coast Trail. It’s in all these people in the Saloon who are screaming and laughing and slamming their empty drinks down while demanding another.

I emptied my glass, said farewell to Sophie and the rest of the Saloon regulars, and walked out into the fading San Francisco day, the weak sun splashing me in the face as I walked away from the Barbary Coast for the last time.

Is the Travel Blogger Show worth your time?

by Grant Martin on

The market for travel blog conferences is quickly starting to saturate, with the Travel Blog Exchange, Travel Bloggers Unite and the Travel Blogger Show now available for any wayward writer looking to network and learn more about the blogging community. Remaining this year is the Travel Blogger Show, an arm of the The Trade Show (largely geared for travel agents) that’s held in Las Vegas this September 11th.

Knowing full well that a blogger’s budget is limited and that quality and relevance matter, I took a moment to ask David Appel, CEO of Tripatini and show organizer about some differences that TBS might have over TBEX or TBU:

How is the Travel Bloggers Show different than TBEX?
“Tripatini as an online travel community and blog attracts a much broader, more inclusive audience than TBEX, to begin with – we’re not just bloggers but also travel industry and regular travel enthusiasts, from basic backpacker to hyper-luxe. Add to that the fact that our other main event co-sponsor is the American Society of Travel Agents, which brings a lot of travel trade into the equation and lets us take an approach that speaks not just to all those fun and doughty characters we’re so fond of in the travel blogosphere — along with those who want to be them — but also business people, public relations folks, and more.”

What can aspiring writers hope to learn at TBS?
“We’re aiming to provide a little for everyone, whether you’re a blogging newbie or a seasoned veteran. We had a great lineup at our first conference last year in Orlando, including the likes of Chris Elliot, Matt Kepnes, and – well, Kim Mance of TBEX, as it happens. And this year we’re shuffling the deck a little, with not just Gadling on board but also stars like George Hobica of the highly successful AirfareWatchdog and Wil Klass of SpotCoolStuff. They’ll be offering their own takes on what every blogger needs to do or do better, such as SEO and monetization; finding new audiences; taking it viral; how to best use blogging as a business person to promote yourself or your clients; and how to survive and even thrive in the fast-evolving blogosphere of the future.”

So there you have it, TBS delineated in two succinct ways. Come out to visit your favorite bloggers — we’d love to see you.

[flickr image via Laser Guided]

Random Acts of Debauchery on San Francisco’s Barbary Coast

by David Farley on
In the 1850s, the San Francisco Herald published a story that began like this:

“There are certain spots in our city, infested by the most abandoned men and women, that have acquired a reputation little better than the Five Points of New York or St. Giles of London. [It] is crowded by thieves, gamblers, low women, drunken sailors, and similar characters, who resort to the groggeries that line the street, and there spend the night in the most hideous orgies.”


In Herbert Asbury’s “The Barbary Coast: An Informal History of the San Francisco Underworld,” he writes about random acts of debauchery on San Francisco’s Barbary Coast. Some favorites include a saloon called the the Fierce Grizzly, literally named because there was a live bear chained by the door. The bar served a milk cocktail, usually mixed with gin or whisky. When a preacher showed up one day at the Fierce Grizzly hoping to get some material for a future sermon on the den of iniquity that was the Barbary Coast, he was offered a glass of such “milk.”
“What do you call that?” he asked after taking a sip and then a larger sip.

“Just milk,” said the bartender.

“Ah!” the preacher exclaimed. “What a glorious cow.”

Not to be outdone, the Boar’s Head also offered entertainment involving the animal kingdom. Asbury writes, “The principal attraction was a sexual exhibition in which a woman and a boar participated.” He didn’t go into detail, leaving it to our wildest imaginations.

In the next few days, I’ll go searching for the debaucherous spirit of the Barbary Coast in San Francisco today. Let us hope there are no pigs or bears–at least not of the animal variety–in my future.

National Park Service prepares for its second century

by Kraig Becker on

Last week the National Park Service celebrated its 95th anniversary. Over the past nine-and-a-half decades, the NPS has been protecting and managing some of America’s most amazing wild places, with the charge of ensuring that those places are “unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.” That hasn’t always been an easy task however, and now more than ever, the parks face incredible challenges. Yesterday, the Park Service released a comprehensive plan that will chart its course over the next five years, leading up to its centennial in 2016, and beyond.

In that plan, which is entitled A Call to Action: Preparing for a Second Century of Stewardship and Engagement, the Park Service challenges its employees and partners to work together towards a common goal, namely preparing the NPS for a second 100 years of service. The plan outlines 36 different areas of opportunity for the Park Service in which they can more fully engage visitors in the parks, continue to preserve America’s favorite places, improve educational outreach, and become more efficient as an organization.

A Call To Action identifies a variety of goals for the Park Service, including creating a “State of the Park” report for each of the 50 States, studying the economic impact that parks have on surrounding communities, and finding ways to enhance cultural diversity across the entire system. The report also acknowledges the importance of addressing the impact of climate change and establishing a national parks endowment, amongst other things. In short, it is an ambitious, important outline of where the Park Service wants to go by the end of its first century, so it can be better prepared to serve in its second.

The National Parks Conservation Association, was quick to praise the Park Service plan as well. The organization’s President, Tom Kiernan, called A Call To Action “a very strong and important step towards ensuring our spectacular national park landscapes, wildlife, and American history and heritage are better protected for future generations.” But the NPCA says that for this plan to succeed, it needs the support of Congress and the President. With a $600 million annual budget shortfall, the Park Service obviously faces serious difficulties in completing its mission on a yearly basis.

U.S. national parks continue to be very popular travel destinations for both Americans and foreign visitors alike. With this plan, the Park Service has set its sights on the future, while identifying its biggest challenges and ways to overcome them. Those challenges, at times, can seem very daunting, but the Park Service, the NPCA, and their partners are prepared to take them on.