I love SXSW Music because it's not a "music festival" with 10,000 people in a big, sweaty, dirty massive field camping out to see a million bands on a dozen stages all day long. We have something like that in Austin, called the Austin City Limits music festival, and it's miserable.
SXSW Music is very much an "industry conference", which has its drawbacks, but you don't have to rough it in the wilderness to see a bunch of bands you like. All shows are held in actual venues in the city in a much more civilized fashion. You don't need to buy your food from "approved vendors" like you would at a festival. You are free to come and go as you please.
The downside: because it's an industry conference more than anything, it's the people whose companies paid anywhere from $595 to $1225 for a music badge that get priority in all the lines at shows.
Second priority goes to the people who buy SXSW Music wristbands for anywhere from $129 to $180. A lot of people say it's just not worth it to buy a wrist band and have to wait in line behind badge holders. I tend to agree.
Third priority goes to people who just want to buy tickets. Sometimes you have to wait in line, but only for the most popular shows. It's usually not that hard to get into most venues, if you're willing to wait.
But that's not the case at the dozens of unofficial free and corporate sponsored shows that try to piggyback of the massive crowds that fill the streets. Some of those shows are not only free, but also offer free booze all night (unlike SXSW shows, which usually only have free booze during the day).
The number of bands is staggering. Look at
this official SXSW list. That link brings up Wednesday shows only. And those are only the "official" SXSW Music shows. We are talking 2,000 motherfucking bands. Try to cram that into a hippie field in the middle of nowhere. Add to that all the unofficial shows, and you can understand why some people come down with "SXSW overload." There is just
so. much. shit. going. on! Unless you plot your course and plan ahead, it's easy to become overwhelmed.
We're in the process of assembling our list. The key is to RSVP early to as many events as possible, and then plot your course and bump around all day and night. We have a shared Google Doc file that we are adding all our links and poster images to stay organized.
Saturday, March 20 will be the main day for us because that's the only day that both of us have off work. And Sunday is not really a full day at SXSW Music. But partying on Saturday from 2 p.m. until 2 a.m., like we did the past two years, is usually more than enough music and fun.
Oh yeah, did I mention there are also huge
poster,
guitar and
record shows during SXSW? The poster show in particular, Flatstock, is where we wind up spending money because we both love us some screenprints.
The best part about all this is that for the first time we actually live downtown in the thick of the action! Almost everything will be within walking distance. I'm sure we'll be trying to tweet and share stuff online with our pals the whole time, and if AT&T can finally
get its act together, we might actually be able to send data from our iPhones!
