Austin City Limits Music Festival (Texas)

With 130 bands kicking night and day on eight different stages, “ACL” is America’s single largest annual musical event, a one-time country/folk hoedown that morphed into a smorgasbord of just about any genre you can name. Bob Dylan, Bjork, Ziggy Marley, Nickel Creek and the White Stripes are among recent headliners. VIP tickets are sold online in packages of two ($1,700) and four ($3,400), but you get some bang for your buck including open bar, free gourmet chef tastings, air-conditioned bathrooms, and a shady VIP grove to snooze away the afternoon. The September shindig spills out of Zilker Park into downtown Austin, with just about every bar along Sixth Street offering live music until the wee hours. Hotel San Jose is a blast from the hard-living Texas past, a '30s motor court updated to the 21st century.

For more information: Austin City Limits Music Festival or Hotel San Jose