I’ve written about a couple of huge music festivals this quarter. Coachella brings thousands to Indio, Calif. and Sasquatch! takes over the Gorge Amphitheatre in Washington. They’re both great festivals. But neither of them can say they completely take over a city for their duration.
That’s where South by Southwest comes in.
From Friday to March 17, a series of three festivals occur in Austin, Texas. Each overlaps the other, and the result is a mind-blowingly massive film, interactive (think tech) and music festival.
The Interactive portion of South by Southwest, or SXSW, takes place from Friday to Tuesday, and the film festival goes from Friday to March 16.
But as this is a music column, I’ll focus on the atmosphere and lineup for the music festival, which will happen from Tuesday to March 17.
Now, here’s what’s so interesting about SXSW. When I said it takes over the city, I really meant it. Bands play in countless random venues, from churches to barbecue joints. And while a considerable number of the bands are local bands, many high-profile acts also make their way to Austin.
Another staple of SXSW is that many bands play more than one set, sometimes even more than one set in a night. For example, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis will extol the virtues of thrift shopping not just once, but twice on Tuesday. First, they’ll be at a venue called The Main from 9:40 p.m. to 10:10 p.m., and then they’ll head right over to another venue called the The Belmont, this time from 12:10 a.m. to 1 a.m.
You can find similar examples of this schedule type across the weeklong festival. If you walk into a building in Austin at some point during SXSW, there’s a solid chance you’ll be walking into a concert.
Other major acts include Kendrick Lamar, The Airborne Toxic Event, Iron and Wine and Vampire Weekend, among others.
Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs is also playing. I’ve never heard its music before, but after hearing the name I felt you should know that there’s a band out there with that name.
Now, here’s the difficult part. You need to really want to go to SXSW in order to go to SXSW, because the badge for the music festival alone is a whopping $795. I know that’s way outside my budget range, but for those who can spend that much money, I’m sure it’s well worth it.
Just for fun, I’ll tell you how much it costs to get into all three portions of the festival: $1,595. Fun? No?
Now, for those of you who don’t have $795 just lying around, here’s a solution: NPR. NPR’s All Songs Considered Podcast’s hosts Bob Boilen and Robin Hilton love SXSW, and the entire All Songs team goes to the festival every year and produces outstanding coverage, offering streamed and recorded concerts as well as nightly roundups via the podcast. If you can’t go to SXSW, listen to All Songs Considered and there’s a good chance you’ll come away with some great music discoveries anyway.
If you could go to one music festival this year, what would it be? Email Bain at
abain@media.ucla.edu.