The Pink Pony Club In Texas: Chappell Roan’s ACL Performance One Of The Best Live Shows To Date
A femininomenon took the Austin City Limits music festival by storm when Chappell Roan fans waited for hours to hear the singer's set. If her reception was any indication, not one of them left disappointed. The Pink Pony Club numbered in the tens of thousands this Sunday as Chappell Roan took to the stage, a physical and musical embodiment of feminine empowerment and open acceptance of the queer community.
Chappell Roan's star has been rising since 2014, when she released her first original piece, Die Young, on YouTube as a teenager. The song was well-received, and she continued to write and perform music whenever she could. This summer, she rose to international fame after her performance at Coachella in April 2024. By June 2024, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess had skyrocketed to the top 10 on the Billboard 200. By August, the album had climbed to number two. Between 2014 and 2024, Roan experienced years of learning, performing, and embracing herself fully as a very feminine, very queer woman.
Chappell Roan's music celebrates her fierce love of all things feminine, while also embracing the queer community to which she belongs. In the days leading up to her ACL performance, Austin buzzed with fan excitement for the chance to see the singer live at the iconic festival.
Roan's stage presence this weekend in Austin was everything: the outfits, the glitter, the wholehearted embrace of the queer community, and the celebration of femininity. Her performance felt like a love letter to women who are embracing the softer side of their identity while still holding space for the fierceness that comes with being a woman.
It wasn't just adults in the audience supporting Roan. She had a significant number of younger fans, too, and those kids were just as excited to don their pink cowboy hats and wait for the glitter queen to take the stage and sing the songs they've grown to love. Chappell Roan's ACL performance was more than a concert—it was an invitation to be unapologetically yourself and to embrace the parts of you that might differ from what society expects. And what child doesn't need to hear that message?
To look out at the crowd in Austin was to see a sea of people celebrating not only their love for an incredible artist but also their love and acceptance of themselves. Roan doesn't shy away from expressing her love for the queer community. Her music makes it clear, and that love has earned her a loyal fanbase who stand behind her as an icon of acceptance and self-love.
No one knows for sure just how much glitter is still floating around Zilker Park after her set, but like the marginalized communities Roan represents, it will always be there—ready to sparkle for anyone who needs to see it.
