Austin City Limits Celebrates 40 Years, an all-star benefit concert on Thursday, June 26 featuring some of the brightest stars in the show’s history returning to the Austin City Limits stage.

The star-studded evening, hosted by Jeff Bridges and Sheryl Crow, will feature Alabama Shakes, Gary Clark Jr., Joe Ely, Robert Earl Keen, Kris Kristofferson, Lloyd Maines, Bonnie Raitt, T Bone Burnett, Jimmie Vaughan, Grupo Fantasma and Doyle Bramhall II along with musical performances from Bridges and Crow, celebrating Austin City Limits legacy as an American music institution over the last four decades.

Commemorating the trailblazing music series 40th Anniversary, the evening will benefit KLRU-TV, Austin PBS, which created Austin City Limits in 1974 and still produces the show today. The concert will take place at ACL’s home, ACL Live at The Moody Theater, and will be taped as part of a two-hour primetime special, Austin City Limits Celebrates 40 Years, airing Friday, October 3, 9 – 11pm ET, on PBS. ACL continues its remarkable run, kicking off its milestone 40th year with the series season premiere on October 4. The complete broadcast episode schedule for Season 40 will be announced at a later date.

Austin City Limits is the longest-running music series in American television history and remains the only TV series to ever be awarded the National Medal of Arts. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the pilot episode taped in 1974 with Willie Nelson. Since its inception, the groundbreaking music series has become an institution that’s helped secure Austin’s reputation as the Live Music Capital of the World. The historic KLRU Studio 6A, home to 36 years of ACL concerts, has been designated an official Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Landmark. In 2011, ACL moved to the new venue ACL Live at The Moody Theater in downtown Austin. ACL received a rare institutional Peabody Award for excellence and outstanding achievement in 2012.

Learn more about Austin City Limits, programming and history at acltv.com