AUSTIN, TX — Thirteen-year-olds smoking cigarettes and bongs and skimpily-clad youths making out like animals were just some signs of the apocalypse that the Austin City Limits music festival brought this year.

In the festival’s defense, there were also 130 bands playing on eight different stages throughout the weekend.

While many annual festival-goers complained about the lack of big names in this year’s lineup, smaller independent acts were left to compensate. And they did.

“Bigger bands are easier to see; it’s hard to see some of these smaller bands that don’t tour as much,” said Michael Wickberg, OU alumnus.

Though Beck and the Mars Volta helped headline the first two nights of the three day-long festival, electronic-indie bands MGMT and CSS were the talk of the festival.

Songwriting legends Ben Harper and Ryan Adams had previously ruled the festival’s stages, but this year the spotlight shone on new crowd favorites M.Ward and Conor Oberst, who appeared with the Mystic Valley Band.

“I actually enjoyed not having an agenda of bands I needed to see,” said Austin Tolin, who has attended the festival since 2005, said. “I was able to walk around and check out acts I’ve only heard about.”

Booking agency C3 worked outside of the festival’s traditional folk, rock and indie acts, signing hip-hoppers N.E.R.D., Del Tha Funky Homosapien and Gnarls Barkley to the lineup.

The diversity among musical genres playing ACL coincided with the eclectic audience.

Despite the 95 degree heat, the tie-dyed, the dreadlocked, the Texas frat boys and the indie-rockers stood shoulder to shoulder for many of the acts.

The site of the festival, Austin’s Zilker Park, is located in the middle of the city. Surrounding the park are botanical gardens, volleyball courts and the Barton Springs pool — the perfect place for people to cool off.

“The park is awesome,” Wickberg said. “It’s sweet to watch a show with the skyline as the backdrop.”