Live from Auditorium Shores, Sips & Sounds Music Festival kicks off SXSW in Austin with Christina Aguilera, GROUPLOVE, Major Lazer Soundsystem, and more.
Spring in Austin means one thing: festival season is back. Timed to overlap with the opening weekend of SXSW, Sips & Sounds 2026 returned to the scenic banks of Lady Bird Lake at Auditorium Shores, delivering a stacked lineup spread across two stages. Day One spanned from chill indie bedroom pop to all-out electronic mayhem, with genuine pop royalty closing the night.
SKATELAND
The Austin-based project of Dorian Williams II, who relocated from Las Vegas to attend the University of Texas and never quite left, kicked off the afternoon on the SXSW Stage at Sips & Sounds with a set that felt like the perfect warm-up for the weekend ahead. SKATELAND blends dreamy indie pop, cathartic synth, and lush indie rock into a sound that’s both chill and surprisingly danceable live.
The bass-forward mix had early arrivals nodding along on the lawn as the afternoon sun settled over the skyline. A highlight of the set was the debut of a new song, “Après Ski,” which slotted right in with SKATELAND’s signature sound while hinting at new directions. In a lo-fi move, Williams used an old telephone handset as a microphone for part of the set.
Aidan Bissett
Fresh off the success of his debut full-length album Shut Up and Love Me, released last summer via 10k Projects and Capitol Records, Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter Aidan Bissett brought his guitar-driven alt-pop to the Coca-Cola Stage with real force. The set was anchored by dueling guitar solos that gave things an energy well beyond your average indie pop act. Fans were singing along to virtually every word, and Bissett fed off that energy throughout, moving constantly and leaning into the rock elements of his sound. He called “2 Much 2 Handle” his favorite live song, a choice validated by the crowd’s massive reaction.
The Two Lips
The Mexican/Filipina dream pop duo from Los Angeles, composed of best friends Jewlz and Andrea, marked the first festival of their 2026 run with a set that was equal parts ethereal and just flat-out fun. Formed in late 2023 and initially releasing music under the name The Tulips, The Two Lips have built a devoted following by writing unabashedly feminine, personal music rooted in the hazy textures of bedroom pop.
For their live performance, choreographed dances gave the set an instantly accessible, playful energy that the crowd absolutely ate up. Their originals, including breakout track “still love you (todavía),” which has surpassed 60 million Spotify streams, were met with real enthusiasm. Ahead of Coachella, The Two Lips’ trajectory is clear, and this set perfectly demonstrated exactly why they are rising.
Ravyn Lenae
The Chicago-born R&B singer and songwriter, a classically trained vocalist who came up through the city’s Zero Fatigue collective alongside Smino and producer Monte Booker, has been having her breakthrough moment over the past year, with the viral success of “Love Me Not” (which entered the Billboard Hot 100) and her acclaimed 2024 sophomore album Bird’s Eye. Live, she is simply a powerhouse.
Her crystalline falsetto stops people mid-track, showcasing years of artistic growth through both new and earlier career-spanning works. It felt like watching an artist fully come into her own on a big festival stage; someone who has been doing this work for a decade, and is finally getting the audience she always deserved.
BETWEEN FRIENDS
For a band making their very first festival appearance ever, Los Angeles sibling duo BETWEEN FRIENDS makes it look easy. Brother and sister Brandon and Savannah Hudson have spent years building one of indie pop’s most distinctive aesthetics: glitchy, eclectic, fun, and deeply rooted in the sounds of the internet. Their hyperpop, indie sleaze style translates into infectious live energy. The setlist focused on their 2025 album WOW!, with lead single “JAM” as the crowd favorite. And they of course made time for their breakout hit “affection” (250 million Spotify streams and counting). This show marks the first of many festivals to come this year.
Major Lazer Soundsystem
Diplo and company transformed Auditorium Shores into a full-scale dance party the moment they took the Coca-Cola Stage, unleashing a relentless wall of sound built from the group’s signature genre-blending mix: dancehall, reggae, moombahton, house, and global bass, all filtered through a decade-plus of production experience. Major Lazer has been doing this since 2009, and they haven’t lost a step. The set was loaded with remixes, including crowd-pleasing reworks of tracks you know and others you didn’t know you needed. Hits like “Lean On,” got reworked and stacked on top of booming bass drops that had the whole crowd jumping.
GROUPLOVE
GROUPLOVE is an indie rock band that formed in 2009 and went on to become genuine alternative radio staples with “Tongue Tied” and “Ways to Go.” For the Sips & Sounds crowd, they brought a live energy to the SXSW Stage that felt genuinely cathartic. Frontpeople Hannah Hooper and Christian Zucconi are magnetic together, and the band as a whole plays like a well-oiled machine. They have played SXSW many times over the course of their career, and you could feel that comfort onstage.
A particularly moving moment came when the band played the very first song they ever wrote together, a slower, more intimate track that gave the crowd a glimpse of where it all started. They also revealed that they’ve just finished recording their seventh studio album, which fans are surely anticipating. The set ended on a burst of fun with a rousing cover of “Twist and Shout” and their classic hit “Tongue Tied.”
Christina Aguilera
There’s a reason Christina Aguilera is headlining festivals in 2026: she remains one of the most technically gifted vocalists pop music has ever produced. The Grammy-winning powerhouse closed Day One with a career-spanning set, proving exactly why her legendary voice remains unrivaled.
From early hits to later anthems, Aguilera delivered with the kind of precision and power that simply cannot be faked. Polished production and immersive visuals framed her performance as the major, high-impact event it truly was. From “Lady Marmalade” to “Genie In a Bottle” to “Feel this Moment,” the hits kept coming. As a festival closer, she was everything you’d want: commanding, warm, and absolutely unforgettable.
Sips & Sounds: Overall
Day One of Sips & Sounds 2026 delivered on every level. From SKATELAND’s laid-back afternoon vibes to Christina Aguilera’s royal pop finale, the lineup maintained immense creative momentum all day. Through debut acts and dream pop to vocal brilliance and Major Lazer’s dance party, the lineup offered something for everyone.
I am an Austin, TX-based photographer and filmmaker. I moved from Houston to attend the University of Texas at Austin, where I graduated in 2022. I'm a lifelong music lover and spend tons of time attending shows and making music. Some current favorites are Sophie May, Farmer’s Wife, and K. Flay.
