SXSWTF

I don’t have many regrets in my life but one that has been weighing on me a lot lately is that I didn’t go to SXSW last year when it synched up perfectly with my Spring Break. This year’s lineup looks super sick and it also coincides quite nicely with three of my midterm exams.

If you haven’t heard of SXSW (probably not many of you) or are just confused by it (probably a lot of you), let me just say that for many in the music industry, SXSW Music is the mother of all festivals. Thousands and thousands of journalists, performers, producers, managers, production teams, and even record executives all convene on music’s favorite college town once a year for a virtual clusterfuck of musical genius and networking opportunities. This along with the SXSW Film festival (an internationally recognized event) and the SXSW Interactive web conference (the largest of it’s kind in the world) brought in almost $200 million dollars to the Austin economy last year, the biggest revenue generating event in the area, which makes it one huge enchilada for an already busy city.

This year, artists like Talib Kweli, Andre Nickatina, of Montreal, Best Coast, Miike Snow, SBTRKT, Lana Del Rey, Counting Crows, Andrew WK, Hot Water Music, Dan Deacon, Little Boots, Deerhoof, Dragonette, The Crystal Method, The Black Angels, Jimmy Cliff, and Band of Skulls will join literally thousands more acts in over 90 venues around Austin (see full lineup here). Thats alotta music (and subsequently a lot of wristbands).

To top it all off there is also a keynote lecture series headlined by the boss himself, Mr. Bruce Springsteen, as well as the always popular SXSW Music Trade Show.

I love finding new music, I love Austin, I love festivals, and Bruce is definitely the boss of me. I guess I’ll just have to wait until next year…

PS Have you attended SXSW before? Submit photos and stories to my submit/ask box!