Can the world’s largest music industry festival adapt to a new reality? mariasherm finds out.
A specter hangs over the bright, sunny, cool March air in Austin, Texas. It’s been seven years and many trips to the dermatologist since I last attended SXSW — back then, there were no LED lights inilluminating the I-35 downtown overpasses; nor were there Teslas zooming past tent cities and tech bros gnawing at the corpse of independent businesses that give a place its culture. It’s dark times, y’all, and I was there to descend.
SXSW, for the uninitiated, is the largest and most recognizable music industry event in the world. It’s outgrown its DIY roots and rock ‘n’ roll ethos when it was first held in 1987 as a local music festival with the help from alt weekly; now SXSW has evolved into an international spectacle of big-time branding, tech, film, TV, and some music thrown in for good measure.
Despite everything, I was excited to be at SXSW and spend my first day failing to get in to see New Order. That, and the rush of running around downtown, catching bands from across the globe and making friends with anyone and everyone, including a traveling 22-year-old named Tellulah, who told me “people never want to wave first, but they always want to wave back” was her life philosophy for social interaction.
On Day Two, something changed. There was the early afternoon Orange Juice-worship set by arty post-poppers Youth Sector at dive called Side Bar, a drink at near the haunted bathroom at the Driskill hotel, and a dreamy less-pop-punk, more-R&B set by Bartees Strange at the Austin Motel’s pool for the Working Families Party.
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