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The Austin City Limits festival flags have taken their rightful place in Zilker Park heading into what would have been one of the festival's weekends before the coronavirus brought coordinators to cancel the festival for a virtual one.
The flags, put up on Wednesday, will decorate the park until Sunday, when the virtual festival is scheduled to end, according to Fresh and Clean Media director of publicity Sandee Fenton.
Current view. 👀 To celebrate #ACLFest 2020, the flags are now up in Zilker Park through Sunday! Tune in starting Fr… https://t.co/LbtwiTWxGx— ACL Festival (@ACL Festival) 1602172068.0
In an email to Austonia, Fenton said the beloved ACL fest flags were installed with help from the Austin Parks Foundation in Zilker Park as public art and a reminder that ACL is continuing to entertain, as well as advocate for and improve parks around Austin. Fenton said the flags were put up in consultation with the Public Health Department with hand sanitizing stations nearby.
Michael Oliva, who was enjoying the flags with his son, said even though he will miss the festival this year, he knows the cancelation is better for the community.
"It's safer for the community right now, just given our current circumstance with the population that usually comes into town (and the) close contact," Oliva said. "I think it's just the best way to do things right now."
For Joe Perricone and Mirezha Guevara, who attended the festival last year, the flags represent a sense of positivity and normalcy in the community.
"It feels like they're still trying to have that feeling, getting us outside; and trying to get us ready for next year," Perricone said. "(The flags) kind of help put Austin on the map and reinforce the positivity of the community."
Virtual ACL will begin 7 p.m. Friday and continue in the evenings through Sunday via YouTube.
More on virtual ACL:
ACL announces virtual lineupPopular
(Austin Energy)
Demand for the statewide power grid hit over 65,000 Mw at 5 p.m., just under the capacity the grid can handle. ERCOT announced approximately 2,900 Mw of power was lost on Friday due to six power generation facilities tripping offline. At 5 p.m. it said all reserve generation resources available are operating. Texans have been asked to conserve energy.
As the power grid threatens to buckle under the weight of consumers, record-breaking heat continues to push up demand. Austin is currently in the hottest May on record, with temperatures averaging at 82 degrees—eight degrees higher than average—at Austin's Camp Mabry.
And Austin is expected to have another triple-digit onslaught next week, with temperatures peaking at highs of 100 degrees Friday and Saturday. As a result, demand could peak Monday, with forecast demand expected to reach a May record of 70,758 Mw. The previous record was 67,265 in 2018, while ERCOT's all-time high was 74,820 Mw in August 2019.
While ERCOT has not yet seen a heat surge reminiscent of 2021's Winter Storm Uri, power outage woes became all too real for around 3,600 southeast Austinites Saturday as Austin Energy put on a last-resort power pause from around 3:30 to 7:30 p.m.
The outage was a culmination of many factors—from near-100 degree heat to unfortunately-timed maintenance checks and growth in the Bluff Springs area. The result was an overheating circuit that needed relief fast.
"It was related to high usage overloading one circuit at a time when some of our infrastructure was still undergoing maintenance in preparation for the months to come," Austin Energy spokesperson Matt Mitchell told Austonia. "So it was a very unique set of circumstances that we do not see repeating itself."
Mitchell said that all seasonal maintenance is complete and that Austin Energy will open a new power substation in Bluff Springs this June. The organization also said the issue had nothing to do with ERCOT, which released a statement assuring consumers that power was not threatened during that time.
ERCOT also told Austonia before 5 p.m. that it "projects there will be sufficient generation to meet demand for electricity" on Friday. It then informed the public about the energy loss due to a power trip.
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