It was Barbie mania all over again. There was pink for as far as I could see. Pink shirts, pink skirts, pink bandanas, pink crop tops, pink flags, and pink cowboy hats. Chappell Roan wasn’t technically one of the headliners for ACL Fest 2024, but you wouldn’t know it from all the pink in the crowd.
Roan had the unenviable task of playing on a Sunday evening in the dusty Texas fall, when it’s still in the upper 90s and she’s staring straight at the sun from the American Express stage in Zilker Park. But over the course of her hour-long set, she proved why she’s the most exciting pop star of 2024.
After kicking things off with The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess tone-setter “Femininomenon,” Roan strutted the stage with conviction for “Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl,” got vulnerable with the tender “Casual,” and sang the hell out of a cover of Heart’s “Barracuda,” which she called her “favorite song.” She also implored the crowd to do the “Hot To Go!” dance, but it wasn’t necessary; people were doing the choreography well before her set started, like marathoners warming up with sprints before the race.
About the crowd: by now, you’ve heard about the record-breaking seas of pink and seen the photos (the drone shots are something else). I was roughly 50 yards from the stage, and although it was congested, it never felt dangerously packed. Maybe that’s Tall Guy privilege talking, but it was a supportive group — mostly young, occasionally dressed in a pink Hannah Montana shirt (the guy in front of me at least), and entirely excited to be there.
(Meanwhile, across the festival grounds, rapper mike. was the poor soul who had the same timeslot as Roan. There were reportedly only 200 people there to see his set, but he was a good sport about the conflict. “It’s David vs. Goliath out there,” mike. wrote in an Instagram Story.)
So much of the recent (world’s longest sigh) “discourse” around Roan has been out of concern for her mental health and/or anger over comments she made about the election. But what’s been left out of the conversation is how playful she is as a performer. Roan, dressed not in pink but red and white chaps with a “trans rights” hand fan and backed by a charged-up three-piece band, once again mocked the VIPs who didn’t dance at the last festival she played (no one was scolded for acting “too cool” to have fun this time). She demanded that “if you have something pink, put it in the air, bitch.” She also had amusing visuals on the massive screen behind her, including a rabbit holding a wand for “Red Wine Supernova” and corny karaoke-style graphics during “Good Luck, Babe!” My favorite was the clip art leprechauns for the chorus. Fame is “not fun,” but Roan is making the most of it.
Roan played one unreleased song. “The Subway” is about the interminable wait to get over an ex-, until they’re “just another girl on the subway.” It’s not an experience I currently relate to, but I found myself getting emotional nonetheless. It was the first time during the set where I thought about how Roan got here. It was only a few years ago that she was making silly TikToks with her guinea pigs in her bedroom; now she was playing in front of the biggest crowd I’ve seen in 10 years of attending the festival.
Roan turned ACL into her own pink pony club. If she’s gonna keep dancing, we will, too.