It's that time of year again — SXSW time. South by Southwest, now in its twentieth year, is a festival for music, entertainment, film, and technology that takes place every March in Austin, TX. They always attract some heavy hitters, and this year is no exception with Craig Newmark, Jason Kottke, and Neil Young delivering keynote speeches at the fest. Wired News's own Bruce Sterling also delivers an end-of-festival rant that's traditionally quite entertaining.
SXSW is actually three festivals in one. There's the Interactive festival and the Film festival, which both start today, and then the Music festival which begins on the 14th.
If you're headed to the Interactive festival, you'll get to hear a lot of talk about Web 2.0 and how it's changing the paradigm on the web. Also, be sure to check out Webmonkey's interview and podcast with Shawn O'Keefe, one of the SXSWi festival coordinators. Shawn runs the SXSW Web Awards, which recognize excellence in design and usability.
The music festival features over 1300 bands and over 50 venues in and around Austin. It's always a huge, hectic party, but you can be sure to catch the best music if you show up prepared. SXSW organizers have set up a 2.5GB torrent download featuring MP3s from the majority of the acts on the schedule and trailers from most of the films showing at the festival. They also have a nifty AJAX-powered web player (pictured here):
While you're getting your fill of Bar-B-Que and Shiner Bock, stop in and say hi to all of the Webmonkeys past and present, including Tim Z, Jeff Veen, Bryan Zilar, and Steve Champeon. Be safe!
