Austin City Limits Festival to expand to two weekends next year

Following in the footsteps of Coachella, Austin City Limits Festival has plans to expand to two weekends of music beginning in 2013.

Last week, the Austin City Council unanimously agreed to let the city negotiate and sign a deal with the music festival's producer, C3 Presents. Dates for next year's event are already slated for Oct. 4-6 and Oct. 11-13, according to the Austin-American Statesman.

In return, C3 plans to donate more money to improve city parks -- something the production company has done in years past. Since 2006, C3 has donated nearly $6 million to the Austin Parks Foundation and paid more than $1 million in city fees for ACL Festival, according to the newspaper. In 2009, C3 paid more than $2.5 million to upgrade Zilker Park's Great Lawn, the site of the 11-year-old festival, including resodding the 46 acres and installing an irrigation system.

This year's sold-out Austin City Limits Festival will take place Oct. 12-14 and features headliners Red Hot Chili Peppers, Neil Young and Crazy Horse, and The Black Keys, along with Jack White, Florence + the Machine, The Avett Brothers and Iggy & The Stooges, among others. Read more about this year's event here.

Subscribers to the ACL Fest e-list will be first to know about early-bird tickets for the 2013 festival.