South by Southwest is an annual film/music/interactive festival that overtakes the beautiful city of Austin, Texas every March. I’ve attended for two years now because it’s an incredibly cost-effective vacation that provides two things I need on a regular basis:
- A smooth blend of relaxation and chaos
- Interesting and intelligent people to meet
It’s essentially a few thousand sponsored parties, shows, and events all designed to make you have a good time (and usually remember a brand or an artist). For the common man it means enjoying free food, open bars, live music, and creative people for twelve days.
When combined with CouchSurfing/staying with friends and airline miles it gets even more affordable. Just don’t buy an official badge. You don’t need it.
A few things I did at SXSW 2012:
- Ate heaps of burgers sourced from local, grass-fed beef
- Drank loads of Tito’s vodka, Lone Star, and Dos Equis
- Learned about truffles and truffle oil (and truffle fries)
- Watched at least 30 live music performances
- Saw a fight at a local grocery store
- Became jealous of Austin’s Car2Go service
- Watched the Austin Music Awards from the third-tier VIP section and saw Bruce Springsteen’s surprise performance
- Met dozens of incredible personalities from Austin, New York, Mexico City, and Toronto
- Consumed massive amounts of free BBQ and tacos
- Saw a concert in a church at midnight
- Personally returned a lost wallet
- Won a Sphero at a tech party
- Saw a mobile Occupy SXSW street movement and the police response
- Watched Jeff Who Lives at Home at an Alamo Draft House – my new favorite theater (you can silently order food/drink with little slips of paper during the film)
I highly recommend checking out Firehorse – the live performance gave me goosebumps.
