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South by Southwest

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Downtown Austin, Texas, hosts SXSW each spring.
This article is about the festival. For compass directions resembling the name, see Boxing the compass.

South by Southwest (SXSW) is a set of interactive, film, and music festivals and conferences that take place every spring in Austin, Texas, United States. SXSW first began in 1987 and is centered on the downtown Austin Convention Center. Each of the three parts runs relatively independently, with different start and end dates.

History

SXSW is one of the largest music festivals in the United States, with more than 2,000 performers playing in more than 90 venues around downtown Austin over four days, in March. Though it is an industry-based event, SXSW Music links locally with events such as the annual Austin Music Awards show. SXSW is the highest revenue-producing special event for the Austin economy, with an estimated economic impact of at least $110 million in 2008. [1][2][3]

In 1994, SXSW added film and interactive conferences. SXSW Film has become one of the world's premiere film festivals, focusing on new directing talent. Similarly, SXSW Interactive has attracted a strong following among web creators and entrepreneurs. SXSW Interactive's focus on emerging technology has earned the festival a reputation as a breeding ground for new ideas and creative technologies. Twitter launched at SXSW Interactive in 2007.

The music event has grown from 700 registrants in 1987 to nearly 12,000 registrants. SXSW Film and SXSW Interactive events attract approximately 11,000 registrants to Austin every March.[4]

SXSW has inspired similar festivals elsewhere, including North by 35 (NX35) in Denton, TX, North by Northeast (NXNE) in Toronto and West by Southwest (WXSW) in Tucson, AZ.

SXSW also offers a free musical samples of featured artists at each festival. The number of songs has grown from 775 MP3 tracks in 2005 to 1,267 in 2009.[5][6]

The 2007 music festival took place from March 14 to 18, and more than 1,400 acts performed. Two of the top film premieres this year were the highly anticipated Elvis and Anabelle starring Blake Lively and Max Minghella and the indie comedy Skills Like This, which went on to win the Best Narrative Feature Award.

The 2009 festival was held March 13-22. In 2009, the Interactive section of SXSW in particular drew larger attendance levels. This influx of tech-savvy attendees seriously strained the networks of providers such as AT&T (primarily due to heavy iPhone usage).[7] Also new was the founding of an international netroots organization for those not attending, dubbed NotAtSXSW. Coordinating through Twitter and other online tools, notatsxsw events were held in London, New York, Wisconsin, Portland, Oregon and Miami.[8] According to the Los Angeles Times, some Twitter users are only pretending to be at the 2009 festival.[9] During the conference a group of British web developers occupied a conference room and held their own panel "Not Another Social Media Panel" in reaction to the perceived homogeneity and lack of dissent of some of the other panels.[10] The film division of SXSW 2009 screened 250 films, including 54 world premieres.

Among the highlights are the academy-award-winning film The Hurt Locker directed by Kathryn Bigelow which won the Academy Award for Best Picture, the Spike Lee-helmed Passing Strange, Greg Mottola’s entry Adventureland, Sebastian Gutierrez’s Women in Trouble, Wyatt McDill’s Four Boxes, David Lee Miller’s My Suicide, Tim McCanlies’ The Two Bobs, Cary Joji Fukunaga’s Sin Nombre, Brant Sersen’s Splinterheads, Andrew Bujalski’s Beeswax, John Inwood’s ExTerminators, Joe Swanberg’s Alexander the Last, Duncan Jones’ Moon, Nash Edgerton’s The Square, Joel Anderson's Lake Mungo, Michael Paul Stephenson’s Best Worst Movie and Lynn Shelton’s Humpday. The festival's opening-night selection will be I Love You, Man, starring Paul Rudd, and the Centerpiece film is Observe and Report, starring Seth Rogen.

Eight films will vie for the narrative feature grand jury prize: Artois the Goat; Bomber; Breaking Upwards; It Was Great, But I Was Ready to Come Home; Made in China; The Overbrook Brothers; That Evening Sun; and True Adolescents.[11]

The 2010 festival was dedicated to Alex Chilton, who died shortly before he was to perform with Big Star.[citation needed] A tribute concert was performed in his honor on March 20th, 2010[12].

At the 2010 festival, which took place March 12-21, nearly 2,000 bands were officially scheduled to perform [13], and festival reps estimated that over 13,000 industry representatives attended.[14] Though traditionally the Austin Music Awards kick off the festival, this year organizers slated it as the closing act. Local favorite Bob Schneider cleaned up with 6 awards, including Song of the Year, Singer of the Year, and Band of the Year (with Lonelyland.)[15] The 2010 festival was also notable for appearances by Jerry Miller, Don Stevenson and Peter Lewis, of the legendary Moby Grape band.[16]

References

  1. ^ "SXSW could have $110M impact on Austin economy". Austin Business Journal. 2008-02-27. Retrieved 2008-11-17.
  2. ^ Rees, John (2008-03). "Austin's SXSW is studied for its impact to the regional economy. AngelouEconomics' projections are double that provided by the visitor's bureau". AngelouEconomics. Retrieved 2008-11-17. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ Whittaker, Richard (2008-06-27). "Now That's a ROT of Money". The Austin Chronicle. Retrieved 2008-11-17.
  4. ^ "About SXSW". Retrieved 2009-03-08.
  5. ^ Hewgill, Greg. "SXSW showcasing music torrents". Hewgill.com. Retrieved 2008-07-30. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  6. ^ "Torrent Info (Home of the (UNOFFICIAL) SXSW 2009 Torrent)". Sites.google.com. Retrieved 2009-10-17.
  7. ^ "SXSW: IPhone Influx Pushes AT&T to the Limit". Epicenter (blog.wired.com). Conde Nast. March 14, 2009.
  8. ^ "Can't make it to SXSW this year? Go to #notatsxsw instead". The Guardian. London. Wednesday 18 March 2009. Retrieved 2010-05-23. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  9. ^ Tony Pierce (2009-03-17). "Los Angeles Times". Retrieved 2009-03-17.
  10. ^ "SXSW — where everybody knows your Twitter name". Tech Crunch.
  11. ^ By (2009-02-01). "SXSW unveils film lineup". Variety.com. Retrieved 2009-10-17.
  12. ^ "SXSW Tribute Concert for Alex Chilton". 2010. Retrieved 2010-3-24. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |day= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  13. ^ "SXSW 2010 Draws to a Close". nbcnewyork.com. 2010-03-22. Retrieved 2010-04-08.
  14. ^ "Scenes From the Geekfest at SXSW". DailyFinance.com. 2010-03-14. Retrieved 2010-04-08.
  15. ^ "SXSW 2010 Draws to a Close". nbcnewyork.com. 2010-03-22. Retrieved 2010-04-08.
  16. ^ Raul Hernandez, Live Shots: SXSW Music 2010, Austin Chronicle, March 26, 2010.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to South by Southwest.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to South by Southwest.

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