The “Live Music Capital of the World” will live up to its name Friday through March 14 with its 28th annual South by Southwest music festival.
Approximately 400 bands will be scattered throughout downtown Austin performing in every nook and cranny, day in and day out. Claudia Meza, sophomore political science major, said SXSW is a good way for students to spend spring break.
“I love that it’s a week long and it’s in the center of downtown, and it’s not just a music festival but it’s a film festival,” Meza said. “Whenever you want to get away from the music scene, just go to one of the films and it’s so cool, I just love it. Then you can just walk around and people are so weird. You get to go and it’s really free and you just walk around on the streets and all the bands are playing in the middle of
the street.”
Austin is not only known for its SXSW festival, but also for its annual Austin City Limits music festival held each fall in Zilker Park. While ACL is centralized, SXSW is spread out through the city.
“ACL is just one big patch of grass,” said Julianna Boswell, junior
international business major. “And then SXSW, I mean, it’s everywhere. It’s all around Austin, from North Austin, where I live, to small little bands and coffee shops to way down on Sixth Street, the bigger bands, the bigger headliners. It’s just not as structured as ACL. And I like it more because you can find those underground things that aren’t as publicized and they have these little hidden treasures.”
When it comes to encountering a fellow Aggie in the capital, it occurs more frequently than one might expect, Boswell said.
“[Aggies are] everywhere,” Boswell said. “Literally everywhere. You’ll just see the [Aggie] shirt or a hat and you’re just like, ‘Oh hey, what’s up’. It’s kind of crazy. Especially in Austin, there’s still a good amount.”
Zach Dunn, junior computer science major, said it was astonishing how often he ran into his fellow Texas A&M students while attending ACL in October.
“The student body president of my freshman year was there,” Dunn said. “He was a couple of rows in front of us. Tons of Aggie flags, a lot of people from [MSC] Hospitality, a lot of the other FLOS. I saw their staffs and all that sort of stuff.”
The streets of downtown will be closed off to allow for the masses of bands and music lovers to pour into the city. Dunn said with so much activity, festival-goers will have to be creative with how they make their way into downtown.
“It’s kind of sporadic,” Dunn said. “There’s something going on every single second, but the concerts are all spread out. You have to have some other way of getting downtown because there’s not going to be parking at all.”
Dunn said it’s best to arrive at one of the venues hours ahead of time to gain entry and get a good spot.
“When The Strokes played, which I think was two or three years ago, it was filled up so bad that they had to close people off because people were climbing over the gates to just jump in there,” Dunn said. “You just have to show up early.”
Boswell said a good way to track the times and places of the bands’ shows is to follow the venues on social media.
“They put all their events and their news and the names of the bands and everything and you just go to the link and RSVP and that’s how you get in,” Boswell said. “And that’s what I usually do, that’s from my Facebook. Usually my Instagram will tell me when they’re playing.”
Boswell said although it’s good to plan ahead with certain aspects of the festival, the real enjoyment comes with having an empty schedule.
“You just kind of have to go with the flow – have that mentality,” Boswell said. “Because if you really try to plan out your day, you’re not going to succeed. You just go with it.”
Dunn, who will be a volunteer for the film portion of the festival, said not only do people of all ages comprise the festival attendees, but the festival staff as well.
Dunn said he’s looking forward to his time as a festival volunteer because of the friendliness that Austinites consistently offer.
“The people are nice, honestly, the people are really attractive, which is really good, for the most part,” Dunn said. “There’s just like, this sense of everyone’s really, really freaking happy, which is nice. Basically I listen to music all the time and it gets me really pumped up. Especially being there in a group of all these people is really cool.”
Meza said an important characteristic of music festivals in general, not just SXSW, is their ability to bring happiness to their attendees.
“I am such a music junkie,” Meza said. “Music is my life. I don’t know how to explain it. They’re just so great and you have so much fun and you get to meet different people who all share the same things that you like and everyone’s really friendly and in their zone and enjoying it. Everyone’s happy at music festivals.”