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Topic: SXSW
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Frank Angel
Film God
Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 03-20-2011 03:01 AM
For the biggest music/entertainment "thing," in the US, they sure don't know how to promote it. Never heard a thing about it until yesterday in an article that keep referring to SXSW without any explanation. It seemed so odd to me that I had to google it to find out what the heck they were talking about. I was led to a hodgepodge of an website what was a horror to maneuver, and it STILL wasn't clear what the duce it was, movies, music -- some awful band called Bright Eyes had a clip that got mostly negative posted responses, like "This REALLY sucks!" -- a technical conference, video artists, a gaming exposition, and of course there was a trade show (for what trade it is not made clear).
Plus it seems like it was being held all over the city, another hodgepodge of confussion.
The thing just seems wildly unfocused not to mention that hearing about it for the first time in only one media outlet the weekend it opens tells me they hired a very bad press agent, IMHO. And I was very surprised to find out that this thing has been going on now for eleven years!. Wild. I guess holding it in Austin is like holding it under the proverbial rock.
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Anslem Rayburn
Master Film Handler
Posts: 476
From: Yuma, AZ, USA
Registered: May 2002
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posted 03-20-2011 08:55 AM
The first South by Southwest was in 1987, so it's been longer than 11 years.
It started out as a music festival, but has evolved to host music, movies, and interactive media shows, panels, and trade events. I believe last year they had over 2,000 acts and over 17,000 attendees. This year, the festival lasted for 10 days.
It's more akin to Mardi Gras than a trade show, and basically takes over Austin for it's duration.
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Jim Bedford
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 597
From: Telluride, CO, USA (733 mi. WNW of Rockwall, TX but it seems much, much longer)
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 03-21-2011 12:46 PM
quote: Frank Angel
For the biggest music/entertainment "thing," in the US, they sure don't know how to promote it.
You don't have to market an event that sells out its passes and shows. Frank, perhaps there is activity to the west of you that the NY media doesn't cover as much as in your hub of the universe.
Anslem got it right. The generally available Wiki article on SXSW states the festival started in 1987 as mostly a music event, added film and multimedia in 1994 and split off media into SXSW Interactive in 1999.
No matter what ignorant put-downs might occur, SXSW is on the modern cutting edge of music, film and media from publishing to the Internet.
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Frank Angel
Film God
Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 03-21-2011 01:39 PM
Easy Jim....I just made the observation that since it is the biggest and largest media event of its kind in all the world, it is not very well publicized, at least yes, as you say, at least not over here on the east coast...you know, where the sun rises FIRST. Just because it sells out doesn't mean you'd expect not to hear about it. When Bono does a concert, it's sold out in 30 minutes, but the media still covers it until you are sick of hearing about it. I mean, Teluride FF gets more hype when it opens. For an event so big about media, I would think the media would make more of a big deal about it, is all I was saying. And not for nuthin, but Joe didn't know what SXSW was either and he is not exactly an ignorant Easterner, although we would be proud to have him.
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 03-21-2011 02:17 PM
I have seen SXSW promoted and covered plenty by various media outlets. IFC (Independent Film Channel) usually gives the event some coverage as does certain music oriented channels that still play music, such as Fuse. MTV and VH1 can suck it because they suck.
While SXSW is seen as a "cutting edge" event, some have grown very tired of it. For me, the movie side of the event is where my interest begins and ends. And even there it's pretty limited. I'm more likely to drive to Austin to see a classic movie shown in 70mm at the Paramount theater than I am to brave crowds at SXSW just to see some indie movies I've never heard of before.
The multimedia tech side of SXSW has little reason to exist. What are they going to introduce there that isn't already covered elsewhere by tech news outlets on the Internet? It's not like any revolutionary new products are going to be introduced at SXSW. The computing industry saves that sort of thing for other tech industry conventions. In the end, the tech side of SXSW just ends up being a hippie commune of sorts for tech geeks to have religious/philosophical discussions about social networking or something. Maybe they'll have fun stacking their iPads and MacBook Airs end to end in a long enough chain to bring about world peace. Kum-bah-yawn.
I think the music side of SXSW would be more interesting if it was more organized. Just saying "there's 10,000 acts" isn't really saying anything at all, especially if the music from 99% of the acts are utter crap. It's not easy to see the best 1%. Downtown Austin isn't exactly a traffic friendly destination. It's a real nightmare if you're driving into that zone when everyone else and his brother is going there at the same time.
The only big music festival coming up soon that I'm giving any serious thought of attending is Rocklahoma. And I'm not even sure I'll bother with that because there is a certain pain in the ass factor to giant outdoor music festivals. Getting to Pryor, OK is no problem but getting in and out of the venue isn't the easiest thing. Weather could turn the event into one hell of a muddy mess. But it could still be a lot of fun. The annual 3-day event has grown into something bigger than any Ozzfest or Lolapalooza show. The festival has a mix of current heavy rock bands and older acts from the 80's and 90's.
Given the music styles involved, I wouldn't expect many attendees of SXSW to be found at Rocklahoma.
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