Coffee & Chill Provides Moments of Calm Ahead of Austin City Limits

By Nicole Vargas

Reporting Texas

Jordan Dake (left) sits in a cold plunge during Coffee & Chill’s ACL kickoff event at Republic Square Park in Austin, TX., Oct. 4, 2025. Nicole Vargas / Reporting Texas

Austin City Limits Music Festival brings thousands of music lovers together, but this year, one local event is serving another group of Austinites.

Austin’s chapter of Coffee & Chill hosted an ACL kickoff in Republic Square Park on Oct. 4, where hundreds could grab coffee, listen to music and visit booths giving out health and wellness products. 

The organization aims to provide the community with opportunities to prioritize their well-being and socialize in a substance-free way.

“I never expected it to grow this fast,” said Hallie Meland, co-founder of Coffee & Chill ATX. “You know, we’ve only been around for six months. So we’re new but we’re absolutely seeing the demand for sober wellness events and for people really wanting genuine connection.”

Cold plunges and massages provided attendees with moments to relax before heading into the festivities of ACL’s weekend one.

“I think this is fantastic,” said attendee Jordan Dake. “A good way to mellow out before the fun begins. I’m looking forward to it.”

Austin’s focus on health and wellness isn’t new, with the city ranked the nation’s second-healthiest by a Forbes study. Motiv Fitness instructor Abbie Fly said she’s witnessed the rise of the movement in her own studio.

“I’ve seen a huge shift, a lot more people paying attention to what they’re putting in their body, paying attention to what their body needs in terms of movement,” Fly said, “And I think that events like this definitely promote that shift.”

Events like this from Coffee & Chill are not only promoting the importance of wellness, but the significance of community, something that Adrian Lancaster, project specialist at the Longhorn Wellness Center, believes is crucial.

“We tend to undervalue how important it is to have those communities of people that bolster us, that surround us, that we feed into as well,” Lancaster said. “We can keep each other well just by continuing to encourage each other and show up for each other, especially when it’s not easy or fun or convenient.”

Not even a year into the Austin chapter of Coffee & Chill, Meland says this is only the beginning.

“I want there to be a space for everyone to have this kind of social wellness,” Meland said. “People want to connect and they want to explore having fun in new ways. We have so many big goals and we are really seeing it resonate with our community, people want this and so we’re here to stay.”