I went to ACL Festival a couple weekends ago. It’s been an annual tradition for me since 2003. I had a great weekend spending time with friends and listening to a lot of good music. But it wasn’t perfect. As I recalled the few minor mishaps along the way, I started to think about whether there were some broader analogies to apply outside of Zilker Park. Here are my thoughts.
Don’t be a jerk. This one applies more to the fans than the bands – although I’ve seen a bit of both over the years. Something seems to have changed for the worse since COVID briefly paused the event in 2020. Most people still share a happy festival attitude, but a sense of entitlement is creeping up in a few too many corners. You are sharing the park with 70k strangers and when in doubt a bit of kindness goes a long way. I’ve had great conversations with strangers on a number of occasions. The same thing holds true for business meetings. You may be having a crappy day, but how you act and respond could shape the future of how a customer or employee views you. Which leads me to….
Do what you say you are going to do. Overall the coordinators of ACL (and many other festivals) run an impressively tight ship. Everything stays on schedule for three days and nights. Every once in a while, a band will start late or end early. Anything other than a few minutes here and there is a disappointment. And no, it doesn’t build your mystique. Things happen – maybe you are sick or the van broke down. Absent something out of the ordinary – you owe it to your fans (customers) to deliver on your commitment.
Have a plan, but be willing to adjust. Every year I spend time listening to bands in advance and putting together a schedule. By the end of the weekend, my actual schedule looks notably different than the outline I started with. I have a few primary bands I want to see, but adjust other things around them as time, weather, and circumstances dictate. Work days have the same ebb and flow. A meeting may get canceled or pop up. An urgent situation may shape the course of an afternoon. You can’t afford to get sidetracked in minutiae, but you also have to be willing to adjust and adapt.
And so, another year of ACL is in the books and a new work week is underway. I’ll take away some great music memories and I’m oddly looking forward to an office chair. But I won’t miss the dust….