'They were brave this year': Phones stolen at Chappell Roan and Dua Lipa sets at ACL Music Fest

Several people took to social media to warn festival-goers about their phones being stolen during the first weekend of the Austin City Limits Music Festival — and to make matters worse, during Chappell Roan and Dua Lipa's performances.

Does it even matter if you went to ACL Fest if you couldn't catch Roan performing her “HOT TO GO!” Choreography live?

Each year, an estimated 450,000 people flock to Zilker Park for the two-week music festival, which has been headlined by artists such as Stevie Nicks and Foster the People.

With artists like Roan, Dua Lipa and Chris Stapleton in the lineup this year, attending the festival seemed anything but gloomy. By the end of the first weekend, there were rumors that Roan's audience may have broken festival records. Video of an overhead view of the crowd showed a sea of ​​fans stretching from the stage as far as the eye could see.

Hours before entry, fans waited in the Texas heat, packed like sardines, ready to sprint for a spot at the barricade. That being said, tickets to the festival cost well over $300.

So if a pickpocket (or several) sees the festival as a cell phone available to everyone… I mean, that's just cruel.

“My phone was stolen after Dua (Lipa) after waiting on the barricade for five hours for great pictures and videos. Nothing was backed up,” one user wrote on TikTok.

The festival's bag policy is understandably strict: all non-clear bags must be smaller than 12 x 6 x 12 inches. For this reason, many participants resort to a belt bag or keep their phones in their hand or pocket.

But it's not unlikely to get distracted when you come down from heaven and feel like you're perfectly executing Roan's arm-heavy choreography with thousands of others.

“It was when we left the madness of Chappell Roan. Everything was so crazy and the guys standing next to the trash cans were the ones who got into her (the user's friend's) bag,” a TikTok user said in a video. “They unzipped her bag, which was in front of her body, and climbed inside. How can this even happen?”

Another participant recalled seeing a phone being snatched out of someone's hand.

“They (those who committed pickpocketing) were brave this year. During Chappell Roan, a girl in front of us literally had her phone taken out of her hand while recording,” the user commented.

While some users expressed warnings, others, like Austin-based content creator Paulina, used posts to attempt to find their missing items.

“I went to ACL to film content for an agency that I had to drop off the Monday after the festival and all my videos are there so I don't have anything to drop off,” she said in a TikTok video . “The phone isn’t even mine. It’s a media loan I received from Apple and so I have to return it to them.”

User Paulina said in the video that she knew someone had it because the last recorded location on the Find My app showed the phone at an Uber pickup location at the festival.

Pickpocketing is nothing new at ACL Fest, but it does raise questions about how frequently “pickpockets” target the festival each year and what they do with the phones afterward.

Last year, Austin police investigated a pickpocketing ring accused of targeting the festival and arrested a 23-year-old man who was charged with engaging in organized crime, according to CBS Austin. The man was reportedly carrying a Faraday bag, which is designed to block all radio signals so no attempts are made to locate phones.

On Oct. 3, public safety officials in Austin discussed safety tips for upcoming fall events in the area. According to a post on the social media platform

If only everyone could be like TikTok user Sloane, who not only returned a lost phone she found at the festival in 2022, but also recorded Paramore's performance for the owner while probably assuming all hope was lost .