AUSTIN— Every year, the Luck Reunion is held annually at Willie Nelson’s 500-acre private ranch, known as Luck, Texas, located in Spicewood, just outside Austin. The event is typically takes place in March during SXSW.
This year’s 14th annual festival, produced by Luck Presents, included performances from St. Vincent, Adrian Quesada’s Trio Asesino, Alex Amen, Booker T. Jones, Lukas Nelson, and of course, Willie Nelson and Family on March 19.
With a capacity of around 4,000 people, it was an intimate concert experience on the legendary performer’s property, which features the set of Red Headed Stranger, a film that starred Nelson that now serves as the fest’s various stages.
Luck Presents also hosts Potluck, a chef-prepared dinner event, fund-raiser, and concert, before Luck Reunion, as well as other events throughout the year.
Renowned theremin maestro Dorit Chrysler took the stage alongside professor Tim Andeen from UT Austin to explain the physics behind the theremin. Photo: Courtesy of Luck Presents
In 2026, the music festival welcomed the CERN Festival Programme and the University of Texas at Austin, presented with The Big Bang Collective, for a day of science talks and hands-on workshops. CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is the world’s largest particle physics laboratory, located near Geneva, where it operates the Large Hadron Collider that investigates the fundamental structure of the universe.
“The idea of incorporating science into Luck came as an extension of what we have already been doing with our Community Conversations stage the last years,” said Matt Bizer, Luck Presents founder, producer, and talent buyer.
“It’s really what we feel is an evolution from the conversations around climate change and farming as well as changes that affect artists. It was easy to see a path where adding industry-leading scientists to the bill made a lot of sense to discuss topics that really open people’s perspectives in a fun way,” he added.
Since 2016, CERN have produced science stages at music festivals all over Europe including World of Music, Arts and Dance (WOMAD) in the UK, the Roskilde Festival and Smukfest in Denmark, the Colours of Ostrava in Czechia, the Pohoda Festival in Slovakia, and the Rototom Sunsplash and Sonorama Festivals in Spain.
Dr. Kaj Siebert offered participants the chance to take home a piece of a recycled electronics board from the ATLAS detector, the instrument that was inside CERN’s Large Hadron Collider when the Higgs particle was discovered. Working in small groups, festivalgoers were able to complete an electric circuit, solder LEDs, and bring the board to life as a glowing light display. Photo: Courtesy of Luck Presents
This year, the organization is collaborating with three new festivals in Germany, Spain, and the Luck Reunion in the US.
Connie Potter, founder and producer of the CERN Festival Programme, explained that her team aims to offer a mixture of talks, hands-on workshops, shows, and walk-up activities outside the stage at these festivals.
“We are fortunate to have world experts in their field come to talk (e.g. how CERN’s high-tech research has changed the way your health problems are diagnosed), as well as people from the worlds of journalism or music who are great at communicating science topics, such as the BBC’s Spencer Kelly and theremin maestro Dorit Chrysler who joined us at Luck,” she said.
She explained that CERN works with the festival organizers, who can share their thoughts on the audience demographic, potential topics of interest, styles, etc. “Equally, their input is essential when we start looking at bringing products such as liquid nitrogen onsite”—as was the case at Luck, in order to make liquid nitrogen ice cream.
This year’s program at the Luck Reunion featured internationally acclaimed scientists and performers who blended music with science.
For example, Oxford University professor and devoted Grateful Dead fan Dave Wark offered an enlightening and entertaining take on global warming, weaving some country songs into his talk.
And renowned theremin maestro Chrysler took the stage alongside professor Tim Andeen from UT Austin to explain the physics behind the theremin, plus a workshop gave a limited number of guests the chance to learn and play the instrument that’s played without physical contact but instead by moving your hands between two antennas to control pitch and volume.
The Particle Kid, aka Micah Nelson, who introduced the festival organizers to the CERN team, also took the stage for a performance with physicist professor Lawrence Lee Jr. of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.
David Williams of the University of the West of England showed attendees how to use liquid nitrogen to make ice cream. Photo: Courtesy of Luck Presents
“What a very special vibe it has,” Potter said about the Luck event. “I’ve never encountered it elsewhere, and we were so fortunate to have an incredible local partner in professor Tim Andeen from the physics department at UT, who brought along a dynamic young group of physics students to be our crew.”
Bizer said that “attendees really took to [the science programming] quickly,” with lines at all of the demos. He added that the CERN team conducted questionnaires during the process, all of which received “glowing feedback.”
“People really had fun engaging with these folks and learning more about what they do, and what CERN and their research has contributed to our culture. I think for a lot of people they didn’t even realize the impact these scientists have in their daily lives. It was special to see everyone connect so passionately.”
Chrysler hosted a workshop, giving festivalgoers an opportunity to learn and play a mini-theremin themselves. Photo: Courtesy of CERN
“The idea of incorporating science into Luck came as an extension of what we have already been doing with our Community Conversations stage the last years,” said Matt Bizer, Luck Presents founder, producer, and talent buyer. Photo: Courtesy of Luck Presents