ACL 2012 Day 1 in pictures: The Black Keys, Florence & the Machine, Alabama Shakes & more

photos by Glen Brown

First Aid Kit @ ACL – 10/12/2012

“Let’s roll out the welcome mat for the Austin City Limits Music Festival, which kicks off its three-day music bash at Zilker Park, bringing some of the best talent in the music world to Austin and tens of thousands of visitors.
Yes, there will be traffic. Yes, downtown will be crazy. But there also will be great music and a huge boost to the Austin economy. In all, the festival will draw up to 75,000 attendees daily, with most – 59 percent – coming from outside Austin, said Steve Alberts, communications manager for the Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau. And all of those people buying ACL tickets, staying in hotels, eating at restaurants or food trailers, hailing cabs, going to nightclubs, flying into Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, buying souvenirs and bottled water, renting bicycles or a Car2go or buying anything that weekend will inject $106 million over three days. That is the 2011 total, and this year’s economic activity from the festival is expected to match or top that.” [Statesman]

Austin City Limits is underway (and streaming online). Some videos from Friday are posted over at BrooklynVegan. Here are our pictures from Friday. They continue below…

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The Wombats

Asleep At The Wheel

First Aid Kit

Patrick Watson

Delta Spirit

War On Drugs

Esperanza Spalding

The Afghan Whigs

Alabama Shakes

Florence and the Machine

The Black Keys