South By South West (SXSW)
In March I visited Austin Texas for the 2023 SXSW. With a combination of podcast, film, music and tech it is a space to intergrate all these different specialties and get up to date current information, network and see whats happening in these different industries but also how they work together.
There is no possible way for one person to attend everything that happens in SXSW so it’s recomeneded when you go to prioritise all the different things you want to see, however as I was walking around and on my way to different events or leaving others, I found myself being drawn into incredible event’s that I had missed.
Flying out from Sydney, through LAX and landing in Austin in the afternoon of the 12th, I checked into my room and went straight down to the registration lounge. It was a really simple process to go in, pick up a badge and get a bag and photo with the cool SXSW sign they had. While in line i met a cool band called ‘Moon Panda’ who took some photos for me and then I went to their gig and listened to them live… their music is very sexy and so are they so check it out.
Registration is online or in person but buying at the door is the most expensive way to get a pass which is what I did, but for future events if you are planning on going I recomend pre-purchasing to save a lot of money.
So I have already mentioned Moon Panda as one of the incredible artists I met and heard live at SxSW but there were also heaps of other artists that I got to hear and meet up with, inluding Songwriter Trysts guest Kitt Wakeley from Episode #210 who took home the Grammy for Classical Album of the year this year, 2023. We got a quick photo together at the Australia House party put on by Investment NSW with David Kell as the representaive for the company in the photo on the left.
Tushar performed at Australia House at SXSW who is also in the middle of a photo above, his performance was full of energy as he jumped into the dance crowed with the audaince and his tamborine letting the music carry them all away with so many smiles and fun. His band were experiancing technical difficulties during the performance due to a storm the night before and it being an outdoor venue which you wouldnt have noticed because they took on the show as professioanls and gavea great performance even in the given circumstances. We also met at Sounds Australia Lunch who we were introduced to through Caroline at APRA AMCOS who hosted a lunchon for artists and industry professioanls to meet. I sat with Luke from Rolling Stones AUS/NZ and met some incredible people at the lunch from Australia and people who work with the Australian industry in America.
Another great party that I attended thanks to an invitation from Kitt Wakeley was the Grammy party for the Texas chapter. I got to experiance my first Mariachi band live with lead singer Lupita Infante which Yeisi a latino artists helped translate for me. Other amazing artists such as Mass Minor. I even ran into Andrew Farris and his beautiful wife who is featured on epsidoe #148 at the party and we had a catch up and a photo which i’ll have to chase them for. Film wise I met actor Kendal Rae who the boys from Mass Minor thought we should meet because we were both Australian. She was at the festival for the premiere of her most recent film. It was a life changing experiance I can’t wait for the one in Sydney or to be back here next year.
