Dallas Morning News/MCTMany people may remember a couple years ago, when the cast of MTV’s “Real World” Austin, had a chance to work with the South by Southwest Music Company. The Austin cast was able to pick out a band from the festivals in which they could promote. The band they had chosen is none other then the well-known HelloGoodbye.
So what is South by Southwest Music or more commonly known SXSW? Basically, SXSW is a musical festival and conference that happens every March since 1987. SXSW takes place in about 50 different venues all around downtown Austin, Texas. This festival showcases hundreds of musical acts from all around the world.
In 1994 SXSW added two new additions onto the festival, SXSW Film and Interactive conferences. The film conference has become very popular among many young aspiring directors, making it one of the world’s biggest premiere film festivals. The interactive part of the conference is for web-creators and entrepreneurs to get their shot.
The four day festival usually goes as followed; in the daytime, the registrants do business in the trade show in the convention center. They partake in a full agenda of information and panel discussions featuring a bunch of different international speakers, like the “Real World” cast. After all this, the actual fun begins with performances, prizes, giveaways, etc. The festival is run independently in three parts with different starting and ending times.
The 2007 showcase has already taken place; it was held March 14-18 where more than 1,400 acts performed. Some of the bands that performed were Interpol, Bloc Party, Circa Survive, Eisley, Hawthorne Heights, Against Me!, Armor for Sleep, Jack’s Mannequin and so many more. Some of the speakers included David Bryne from Talking Heads and Pete Townshend from The Who.
“The bands were awesome this year, and what a surprise when Pete from The Who came out and spoke to the audience,” said George Bullan, a senior engineer major at Marymount University. “Elvis and Anabelle” which starred Blake Lively and Max Minghella, was the main film which premiered and was later talked about.
Every year SWSX offers free musical samplers to the guests; this year they offered more than 725 MP3s.
South by Southwest Music holds this annual festival with success each year. “This year’s festival and activities were by far the best I have been to. I have only been to two in the past and I have said that for all of them afterwards,” Bullan said.
This showcase of the different talents around the globe gives everyone at least a shot in the big time. This music festival is one of the biggest in the United States with the highest money making public event for Austin’s economy.
“South by Southwest Music seems to know a lot about their industry and helps out those who want to make it big,” junior social work major Brian Fletcher said.
