With ACL Fest almost here, it’s time to stop complaining about the lineup and start directing that energy at the festival’s true scourge: the food lines.
Luckily, with nearly 50 vendors peddling nine varieties of cuisine, this year looks promising for those seeking a faster route to sustenance. From shrimp rolls cooked up by newcomer Huckleberry to the familiar comforts of mmmpanadas, the cornucopian ACL Eats village offers plenty variety to satiate the masses (though mainstay The Mighty Cone’s absence this year will surely be felt). A new addition expands the options further – a dedicated dessert section, the delightfully dubbed ACL Sweets, home to local favorites like JP’s Pancake Company, Amy’s Ice Creams, and Bananarchy, a frozen banana stand and staple participant.
Bananarchy General “Bananager” Kat Garia says she’s excited about the split (no pun intended). “Typically, when we’re amongst the people who are like preparing food food, they have fryers and grills going on,” she explains. “And it gets really hot – like 110, 115 back there – and a lot of our staff are vegans, too, so there’s just terrible meat smells.”
For those facing similar dietary restrictions, this year’s festival offers ample accommodation, with ACL Eats and Sweets fronting a self-reported 22 vegan, 28 vegetarian, and 12 gluten-free stalls.
“I think ACL – like C2 – does a good job of labeling the menus, because by the time you get there, it’s too late, the people you’re talking to at the register may not have that information to be able to accommodate your dietary restrictions,” says Garia, whose booth fields email queries about allergens ahead of the festival each year.
As ACL evolves, veteran vendors say that its accommodations also continue to improve. “It’s gone from being a mud pit in previous years in the back kitchen areas to being to where they have actual flooring, pretty much all throughout the back of house area,” explains Caleb Raley, project manager of nine-year participant Chi’Lantro.
Vendors are now limited to a single, 10-foot wide booth – a tight squeeze – but fourth-generation pitmaster Barrett Black (of the equally alliterative Black’s Barbecue) says that space constraints have in fact improved the efficiency of his restaurant. “We actually served more food last year, because it just really focused us to be more streamlined, more efficient, and to think of every single inch, every movement possible.”
Entering his third year with ACL, Black says that the Black’s Barbecue team works up to its efficiency through rehearsal, setting up a mock booth in one of its stores. The goal? To serve customers in under 30 seconds.
“People are there at the ACL Music Festival, not food festival. They want great food, and we’re there to serve great food,” says Black. “But they want to … get back to the show as quickly as they can. So that’s our biggest goal – to get people their food as fast as we can so they don’t have to stand in line.”
With over 400,000 attendees expected across two weekends, other vendors agree that operating at such a pace becomes a necessity. “That much volume does not exist in the real world, right?” says Chris Cunningham, co-owner of Austin bagel shop Nervous Charlie’s. “Like, if you’re in a restaurant, there’s not 200,000 people that are like, ‘Oh, man, let me get some food.’”
Heading up both the Micklethwait Craft Meats and Taco Bronco booths, Tom Micklethwait estimates that his storefronts have seen as many as 3,500 patrons in a day. “Total amount of barbecue we cooked for both tents is – I can’t even say for sure – probably about 5,000 pounds,” says Micklethwait.
In spite of the effort, vendors say attending the festival is worth it, even if not entirely for the spike in their sales.
“My favorite thing about ACL is just being there,” says Cunningham. “We’ll be at the vendor booth, and we’ll hear a band play… I’ll go over and check it out and just find a new band. That’s what I’m most excited about.”
2023 ACL Fest Food Vendors
Amy’s Ice Creams (ACL Sweets)
Austin’s Pizza
Bananarchy (ACL Sweets)
Blenders & Bowls
Brotherton’s Barbecue
Burro Grilled Cheese
Candy Cloud World (ACL Sweets)
The Cavalier Party & Tots
Chi’lantro
Come and Take It Fresh Squeezed
Cuantos Tacos
East Side King
Flyrite Chicken
Four Brothers Venezuelan Kitchen
GoodPop (ACL Sweets)
Happy Chicks
Hawk’s Hot Chicken
Holla Mode (ACL Sweets)
Homie Fries
Huckleberry
JP’s Pancake Company (ACL Sweets)
Juiceland
Kababeque
Koko’s Bavarian
Lambdas Indian Kitchen
Lonesome Dove Western Bistro
Mama Tried
Micklethwait Barbecue
Mister Softee (ACL Sweets)
mmmpanadas
Nacho Daddy & Tenders
Nervous Charlie’s
The Original Black’s Barbecue
Pelons Tex Mex
Picole (ACL Sweets)
Redfin Seafood Kitchen
Salt & Time
Shake Shack
Shawarma Point
Show Me Pizza
Skull & Cakebones
Sno-Beach (ACL Sweets)
Southside Flying Pizza
Steamies Dumplings
Taco Bronco
Tiff’s Treats (ACL Sweets)
Tiny Pies (ACL Sweets)
Underdog
Wholly Cow Burgers (ACL Sweets)
Follow all of the Austin Chronicle’s ACL Fest coverage at austinchronicle.com/acl and on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
This article appears in September 29 • 2023.