A naked man reportedly smeared himself in mud, threw punches and tried to tear down sound equipment during The Chainsmokers' Friday set at the Austin City Limits Music Festival, according to social media users who said they watched the chaos unfold in Zilker Park. The Oct. 9 performance was still underway when the man allegedly began harassing the sound crew, drawing attention even from the DJ duo onstage.
The account comes from the Austin American-Statesman, which reported that social media users said the man undressed and harassed the sound crew during the band's set. Chainsmokers member Andrew Taggart appeared to notice the commotion in real time, commenting “naked man is sending me” during the performance, according to a TikTok video cited by the paper.
Reddit Users Describe Ten Chaotic Minutes
Details of the incident circulated largely through Reddit, where the Statesman said user u/itzfredgi- described a scene that stretched on without any visible intervention. That user said the incident continued for ten minutes and that there was no apparent security or Austin police presence at the time.
The same Reddit account, per the newspaper's report, said the man flipped people off, smeared mud on himself, tried to fight people who urged him to put his clothes back on, threw punches and attempted to knock down sound equipment. A separate Reddit user, u/big-cod-7046, said the man broke equipment at the sound box before running into the crowd naked.
Festival Organizers Have Not Responded
None of the claims about equipment damage, the exact timeline or any law enforcement response have been independently verified beyond what Reddit users described to the Statesman. It also remains unclear whether anyone was injured or arrested in connection with the incident.
The Statesman said it reached out to ACL Fest organizers for comment and had not received a response at the time of publication. Austin police have previously released data on arrests and incidents tied to the festival, according to a KVUE report on the 2024 event, though no such figures for this year's festival were part of the current reporting.
