The first weekend of the City of Austin’s signature fall event yielded 234 incidents that required attention from first responders, according to Austin-Travis County EMS (ATCEMS), Austin-based media outlets reported.
ATCEMS said that among those incidents at the Austin City Limits Music Festival (ACL), 16 people were transported to the hospital, Austin ABC affiliate KVUE reported.
“Big thanks to our #ATCEMSMedics [and] health care partners that helped make Weekend 1 a success!” ATCEMS said in a tweet.
It's the second in-person ACL Fest held since the COVID-19 pandemic began. The 2021 celebration soldiered on despite lineup changes and other challenges posed by the coronavirus.
According to KVUE, more than 70,000 people gathered at Zilker Park from Oct. 7-9, prompting ATCEMS to set up a commander center to better serve attendees.
Austin FOX affiliate KTBC reported that most of the incidents ATCEMS responded to were heat- and alcohol-related.
ATCEMS Commander Eric Gordan explained to the station that teams assemble before the festival in anticipation of a spike in call volume.
He added that the preparations took place months before the event, with ATCEMS’s focus now on the second and final weekend of Oct. 14-16.
"We're going to just kind of reset and regroup, go over some things we could maybe learn from moving into the second weekend [and] make sure we have all of our personnel equipment in place,” Gordan told KTBC. "The weather looks like it's going to be fairly similar to what this past weekend was so that's kind of helpful to allow us to predict as good as we can to prepare."
Because event temperatures tend to be on the hotter side, ATCEMS urges attendees to increase their water intake.
"If you're planning your day and you're going to be out in the heat all day and in the sun all day, pre-hydrate,” ATCEMS spokesperson Captain Darren Noak said, KVUE reported. “So, the night before, start drinking water, continue to drink water and just keep up with that as you go through the festival and the day.”