FESTIVAL RECAP: At The Station Fest Full of Great Performances and First Year Fest Mishaps

“Are you and I looking at the same thing?”

My roommate Chase Perry and I were driving into downtown Austin the day after the first edition of Two Step Inn in Georgetown had wrapped up. We got stopped at a red light and I picked up my phone and opened Instagram. I was immediately greeted by a post from Jacob Stelly announcing the inaugural At The Station Festival. It featured headliner Zach Bryan, who I, at that point in time, said I was probably fine never seeing again, along with Flatland Cavalry, Treaty Oak Revival, and Stelly rounding out the bill. Tyler Halverson was added on a few weeks ago with the schedule as well.

Chase and I both saw the lineup at the same time and collectively freaked out on our drive. However, after a rough experience seeing him at Two Step Inn, I knew I was gonna have some rules for myself if I went. First, I was only going to go if I was able to get a VIP ticket or a media pass, and second, I wouldn’t pay more than $200 for a VIP ticket before fees. The ticket on-sale ended up being a perfect storm. My family decided they wanted to go, VIP at Tier One was only $150 before fees, and it was a breeze to get through and checkout with four in my cart. Also, after persistent emails, I ended up somehow getting credentialed for the fest which was a dream come true.

In its inaugural year, this fest did a lot right. Getting in, at least for me, wasn’t horrible. There were plenty of bars all across the park and lots of food available for not the worst prices. For the first time ever in all of my time doing fests, I finally got to try a slice of the legendary Spicy Pie pizza which totally lived up to the hype. The venue was absolutely gorgeous, surrounded by trees on all four sides. It reminded me a lot of Adam Orgain Park in Hutto which hosted KOKE Fest for its five-year run in the city. For a fest that’s been sold out since April, it didn’t feel too crowded at all with plenty of breathing room for all 30,000+ attendees.

The biggest concern of any music festival though, were the performances any good? Oh yeah, they were fantastic.

Tyler Halverson kicked off the day at 3:45 with an acoustic set and was such a great start. While he did have the unfortunate job of playing to a crowd that was still filing in, him, his acoustic guitar, his harmonica and Colin Nash to his right slinging an electric guitar brought solid tunes and hilarious banter, especially with Tyler at one point saying, “Opening the show is the best because it means I can get drunk first.” As a surprise edition, Halverson definitely found himself some new fans at the fest.

Jacob Stelly and Treaty Oak Revival brought the heat soon after. Both of these bands fire on all cylinders every night and are never bad. I also felt a ton of pride seeing Stelly on that giant stage. He and a bunch of his crew are buddies and seeing them just this year go from a packed show at The Blue Light to an opening slot on a gigantic stage ahead of one of the biggest artists in the world. How can you not love that?

Stelly and his band savored every moment of their 45-minute set. The crowd may not have been as receptive to his music as I’ve seen at previous shows but when you’re on at 4 PM in front of the majority of 30,000 people who are more worried about finding their friends or finding a bar, the odds are kind of stacked against you. It was obvious Stelly was trying his hardest as well. He was waving his arms, telling the crowd to cheer or give him some of their energy, always to a mixed result. However, in my mind, they were having the times of their lives and it reminded me of a quote that Evan Felker told Rolling Stone about how when you play larger shows, you get to a point where you can’t connect with everyone so you just worry about playing the best show you can. That’s the situation I think Stelly and his band found themselves in, and if it was, they definitely did play as hard as they could.

On the other hand, Treaty Oak Revival blew through the stage like a tornado.

I know I already talked about how great they are live at length in the Big Damn Family Jam recap but it bears repeating again. It should be illegal to be as good as they are live. Also, I can’t explain it, maybe a bigger stage means turning everything up a little bit louder but I think this set may have even been better than their Big Damn Family Jam headlining set. There was a different energy and the crowd seemed to finally start caring about the music on stage. Also, if I ever get tired of seeing the band tear through Boomtown live, I’ll never go to another show again. The band is back in Lubbock in January at Cook’s Garage’s Bus Barn. I’ll say this as easily as I can, do not miss this show.

Flatland Cavalry took the stage as the sun finished setting and, as they always do and as is becoming a common theme in this article, they killed it. Going into this set, I was worried the band would go heavy on material from their fantastic new album Wandering Star (more on this on a later date) but instead, they went in the opposite direction. Opening with The Provider and only playing Last American Summer and Mornings With You from the album, the band filled the rest of their hour and ten-minute time slot with banger after banger and throwing a few surprise deep cuts into the set as well, most notably, February Snow. When I first arrived at the Snook Rodeo Grounds, the band was soundchecking and when they started playing this song, Chase and I both stared at each other in shock but quickly brushed it off, thinking that the band was just messing around in the final minutes. Well, in the middle of their set, they busted it out. I lost my mind. Back in April when we interviewed Cleto, he promised Zach and I that the band would play the song live. I guess he technically never said when but I’m glad he finally held up his end of the bargain. The last thing I have to say about this set is how ethereal it was to hear 30,000 scream the first verse of Traveler’s Song, all based on College Station, a mere 20 minutes away from the Northgate Cleto says he burned down and was the life of the party. Nothing will ever be able to top that for me as far as their shows go.

Finally, what can I really say about Zach Bryan that hasn’t been said a million times over already? He delivered another fantastic and rowdy show that had everyone from the front barricades to the picnic tables at the very back of the park singing along. I guess my only gripe if I had one was that his setlist hasn’t changed much at all since the first time I saw him last October but that doesn’t make it bad. The additions have been nice too, Fifth of May in the third slot was a nice pick me up after the slower but always fantastic Godspeed. East Side of Sorrow got its live debut from Bryan’s self-titled album, Hey Driver, Overtime, and Tourniquet also all made appearances. Overtime especially ripped live. Hearing Deep Satin and Tishomingo live was a treat. I can’t really say I’m a guy that chases songs but those two were nice to cross off the list. Finally, the closing performances of Burn, Burn, Burn and the encore of Revival are absolute bliss back to back and if he could, I’m positive Bryan and his band would play Revival all night long. It seems dumb on paper to spend nearly 20 minutes playing your last song but the chorus gets more and more hype each time it comes back around and I wish I could explain why.

Again, all of the performances during the day were fantastic, but I still don’t know if I can say in confidence that I’ll be returning to At The Station next year when it returns as a two-day festival because they also did a lot wrong.

There’s been plenty of coverage about the parking situation, how it took some people upwards of three hours to leave the park but I don’t know if that’s really something the festival could control. Shuttles and a better ride-share system could’ve lessened it, but I still think people would be waiting an hour or two to get out just given the only way to get in and out of Snook is a two-lane highway. The dust in the park was horrible as well but again, I’m not sure how much the fest could do about it. You can only water so much before the park just becomes solid mud.

There are things the festival could control and fumbled though, the biggest being water. We are in Texas, it is hot, there was a high of 95 on the day of the fest with no shade inside the park. In a situation like this, I don’t understand why you cannot allow refillable water bottles inside and have refill stations across the park. The festival allowed you to bring in two sealed bottles but on a day like the day the fest was on, that’s not enough, and it showed with six to eight fans passing out due to the heat from Treaty Oak Revival onward.

Another thing, cell service. From the second gates opened it was atrocious. Maybe asking for the fest to bring cell towers in is a bit much but when you can see the only cell tower in Snook, Texas from the festival grounds that 30,000 people are all trying to share, it’s bound to be a mess. It also set food lines back. Getting my slice of spicy pie took about 10 minutes when all was said in done and I didn’t even have to wait in a line to get it.

One last thing I’ll say, I do not know how this festival expects to have people attend two days of it next year. While my group and my family did plan for extended wait times getting out, it still took about 45 minutes to get out of the parking lot after I got to my car at around 1 AM (Zach Bryan’s set finished at 10:30 PM). It took another 30 minutes to get back to our hotel and by the time everyone was back and accounted for, it was about 3:30 AM. I’m positive the experience was the same for many attendees, and there is no way I’d be gung ho about doing it all over again a second day in a row. Maybe if I can afford to rent an RV next year.

This festival has the potential to be great and it has the potential to even maybe be a Stagecoach equivalent for Aggies that go to ACL every year. But unless they can find a way to fix up their first-year mishaps, I don’t know how many repeat customers they’ll have.