The wristband gets you into the park. The room gets you into Austin.
There’s a version of Austin City Limits Music Festival (ACL) where you’re a tourist catching a show. Then there’s the version where you’re actually living it: Rainey Street at midnight, a well-made cocktail in hand, live music still ringing in your ears, nowhere to be for at least eight hours. Hotel Van Zandt, planted right in the Rainey Street Historic District, is built for that second version. This isn’t just a convenient place to sleep between sets. It’s the opening act, the after-party, and the Sunday morning debrief, all under one roof.
ACL 2026 lands at Zilker Park on October 2–4 (Weekend 1) and October 9–11 (Weekend 2). This year marks the festival’s 25th anniversary, and the lineup delivers: six headliners, nine stages, and three days of genre-spanning sets across rock, pop, electronic, country, and soul.
The Weekend 1 Set List
Weekend 1 at Zilker Park carries one of the most genre-spanning bills in recent memory. Top of the bill: Charli xcx, Twenty One Pilots, Lorde, Skrillex (Weekend 1 only), RÜFÜS DU SOL, and The xx. If you came for electronic, pop, and alt-rock hitting the same weekend, you picked the right ticket.
Supporting acts stretch across every corner of the music map. Expect sets from Turnstile, Bleachers, The War on Drugs, Blood Orange, Lykke Li, Amyl and the Sniffers, Lola Young, Geese, Brandon Flowers of The Killers (Weekend 1 only), Cannons (Weekend 1 only), Leon Thomas, and Labrinth, among others. The nine stages run across genres (rock, pop, dance, country, folk) and the sheer density of the bill means nearly every hour presents a conflict worth debating.
Tickets for Weekend 1 GA and GA+ are already sold out, with limited Weekend 2 general admission remaining. If you’re locked into October 2–4, check out our ACL offer and secure your base camp now.
Two Miles, Zero Stress
Hotel Van Zandt sits at 605 Davis Street in the Rainey Street Historic District, approximately two miles from Zilker Park. A ride-share runs 5–10 minutes in regular traffic, though festival weekends bring surge pricing and traffic on Barton Springs Road; plan accordingly and build in buffer time before headliners.
Prefer pedal power? The Ann and Roy Butler Hike-and-Bike Trail runs along Lady Bird Lake (just steps from the hotel) and connects toward Zilker without touching a single stoplight. Austin BCycle and local scooters stage near Rainey Street and work well for the return trip when Uber surge hits hard.
A few notes worth knowing: pedicabs patrol the festival perimeter during exit crunch, and Lyft is the official ride-share partner of ACL 2026. Download the app before you land.
Hotel Van Zandt After Dark
Here’s the thing about staying at Hotel Van Zandt during ACL: you’ve got programming that rivals what’s happening two miles south.
Geraldine’s sets the tone. Named for an actual guinea fowl (Geraldine, the local legend who roamed Rainey Street in its bungalow days), the restaurant serves Modern Mexican Cuisine with Southern Influence from Executive Chef Sergio Ledesma. Thursday through Sunday nights, an in-house stage hosts live music across genres: singer/songwriter, acoustic flamenco, jazz, country rock, blues, and soul. Pull up for dinner before you head to the park, or land back here post-headliner for a late plate of Wagyu Beef Cheek with mole negro and a mezcal cocktail that earns its keep. The kitchen runs until 10 p.m. nightly, with dinner service extending to midnight on Thursday through Saturday.
Brass Poppy keeps the night going. Planted inside Hotel Van Zandt in the lobby, Brass Poppy is a neighborhood cocktail lounge with a distinct point of view: vintage charm meets modern edge, soft amber light, and a playlist that keeps pace with the service. No gimmicks, just a little whimsy — and well-made cocktails named for songs you know, from “Whiskey River” (Still Austin private barrel bourbon) to “Boot Scootin’ Boogie” (Wild Turkey 101, rhubarb, fresh lemon juice). It is exactly where you want to be when the grounds clear out and you’re not ready to call it a night.
The fourth-floor rooftop pool runs year-round and beats any gas station coffee the morning after. There is also a vinyl collection on site, available through the hotel’s Vinyl Rental Program — because Hotel Van Zandt has been making the case for music as a physical experience since it opened its doors here in 2015.
ACL guests staying October 1–5 or October 8–12 should book in advance to access the best available rate. The hotel’s 319 guest rooms and suites fill fast during festival weekends. Weekend 1 availability in particular moves early. Stay in the Groove and lock in your ACL base camp before it’s gone.
The Full Experience
Twenty-five years in, ACL draws roughly 450,000 people to Zilker Park across its two weekends. The 2026 bill is among the strongest the festival has assembled.
That’s the logistics. The rest of it — the dinner before the show, the late-night stop where the good stuff is still flowing, the rooftop morning where you piece together what happened the night before — that’s what you get at Hotel Van Zandt. The set list starts here. Everything else is details.