ATL correspondant, Carrie Davenport, was good enough to take time out of her AWESOME schedule (jealous much?) to give us the low down on South by Southwest 2013.
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Howdy y'all!
Well that’s Monday down at this year's
South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas and what a day it has been! We actually arrived late on Saturday night but jetlag rendered us incapable of doing anything worth blogging about so we figured an early night was called for to wake up fresh on Sunday and start our SXSW trip with a bang. After picking up our passes we took a wander about the streets of Texas to see the sights and then queued for 2hours (yes 2 whole hours but in that time we won free socks so it was well worth it) to meet Tardar Sauce, Aka,
Grumpy Cat. We'll not lie, the cat didn't look that impressed but honestly we've never been happier!
It's a strange place Austin. The city’s slogan is "Keep Austin Weird" and they don't fail. In the past two days we've seen dancing bananas, bands playing impromtu gigs on street corners, eating so much free popcorn it's ridiculous and managed to blag a shocking amount of free food. As you walk down the bustling streets you'll see gold sparkly cowboy boots hanging from telegraph wires, tattoo parlours and everything from Death Metal pizzas to the
Museum of the Weird.
It's an alternative oasis in the middle of bible belt Texas which has always been known for its thriving music scene and that's why thousands of people flock here every year for SXSW – 20,000 this year alone have come to see over 2,500 performers play over 100 venues and help to make up the total of 5,000 events across the board of film, music and interactive. Phew!
After a relatively chilled first day, Monday saw the start of why we are actually here, music at SXSW. The official music section actually kicks off on Tuesday, but we Northen Irish folk like to get in there early and show the rest of them how it's done! With that in mind, we set off to Latitude 30 on San Jacinto Blvd to see what was happening in advance of the gig.
The NI@SXSW
showcase featured four great home grown acts - first onstage being
Girls Names who despite having not slept in three days on their tour, treated us to a delightful set which went down a treat with the hip Austin types. Following them was
Tim Wheeler who played a fantastic acoustic set - starting a full on singalong at the front of the crowd and proving that Ash are just as popular here as back home.
Once Tim left the stage guitars remained centre-stage for
The Lost Brothers. Part time USA and part time NI, these guys have America well and truly under their belt. Then, lastly,
Psycatron brought the Techno to Texas and wrapped up the night in true party fashion. They've done the Northern Irish music scene proud tonight and it is truly great to see local acts being recognised on a wider scale.
Carrie spoke to Rigsy live on air from Austin
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ATL's Carrie Davenport reports from the South by Southwest festival 2013 in Austin, Texas.
It's a small world and we bumped into many familiar faces from home which makes it feel like you're not actually that far away. But even if you were, the people here in Austin are so friendly that every stranger you bump into is a friend you haven't met yet!
So, after a great start we crawl into bed shattered but content and looking forward to what else the festival has to offer. And with that in mind I'll be back tomorrow with all the biz from Tuesday in Texas!
Carrie
