One of the most sought out events in Austin's busy social calendar each years is the South by Southwest Festival. What first started as a musical event has branched out to include art, culture and technology. It's one of the largest musical festivals in the country and the 2008 festival brought in $110 million into the city.
The next SXSW festival will happen between March 12 and 21, 2010. The interactive festival (focused on blogging and other forms of new media) will take place between March 12 and March 16. The film festival is occurring simultaneously March 12 through 20. The music portion of the event will be held between March 17 and 21.
In 2007, SXSW celebrated 20 years as a music festival. The first SXSW event was billed as the "Austin Battle of the Bands, SXSW" in 1987. Since Austin is such an important part of the music scene, it really drew people in and began to grow. It started as a weekend long music festival with just a handful of bands. Since then, the number of musical guests has grown tenfold. By 1994, a film festival and interactive conferences were added into the mix. In the last 15 years, SXSW has become one of the most respected film festivals in the nation.
Although the size and scope of SXSW has changed over time, the creators keep the focus on showcasing local and emerging bands in front of record labels and publishers. It's technically an industry event that the public gets the chance to take part in. However, the major challenge of the SXSW show has become keeping the fans happy.
Industry professionals can purchase SXSW badges in order to enter the music showcases. Although the badges are open to everyone, they are very expensive. Most fans can't afford these badges, so they opt for wristbands. The wristbands are often sold out in one day and may not get fans into all of the shows. The shows accept those with badges first and then those with wristbands, meaning that the badges may fill the seats before the wristband holders get a chance to enter.
In response to the needs of the fans, in recent years SXSW has set up free shows with big headliners at a separate location. The local live music community has also stepped into fill the needs of the visitors to SXSW. There are dozens of Day Shows which are held in clubs, coffee houses, shops and other venues around town, around the clock. You can be sure that if you want to see live music during the SXSW festival, you'll be able to no matter what.
SXSW is also host to many conferences and forums, particularly during the interactive portion of the festival. For complete details on 2010's SXSW festival visit the official site at sxsw.com. Although SXSW has grown by leaps and bounds since its creation, it remains one of the most unique and crowd drawing festivals of its kind.
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