Miles Flying By: Austin and South by Southwest

In Austin, you almost forget that you’re in Texas. Austin is everything that Dallas is not. Not only are there hills, but there’s even trees. The city has managed to stick to its roots and keep out most major chains (very proudly wal-mart free), so you end up with endless independent stores, restaurants, and bars, and a community determined to preserve it. Of course Austin is most famous for the live music scene, and it doesn’t disappoint- you can’t go into a bar or restaurant there without finding at least a few feet of space reserved for a band. Even the airport had a live band playing on the way in.

So after a week of Dallas, Austin was exactly what I needed. Best of all, my trip happened to coincide with the South by Southwest festival, so after meeting up with Andrew, Mary, and their two ridiculously cute children, we headed straight from the airport to downtown for a beautiful 85 degree day of music.

South by Southwest is basically the biggest thing that happens in Austin all year, and it’s hard to describe the scale of the event. A huge section of downtown closes down, and every bar/venue hosts music all day for about 3 days. The “bigger” bands require some very expensive passes, but you if you choose to go the free route, you can still manage to bounce from venue to venue and see some serious music.

Since we had the kids we stayed away from the bars for the first part of the day and headed down to Waterloo Park, which had 3 stages of rotating acts all day. This was the Saturday schedule:

Couldn’t get near the comedy stage because of the crowd, but caught excellent sets by White Denim and Langhorne Slim. Headed down to 6th Street after the kids went home and hit the bars, where things definitely get a bit crazier- Huge crowds at every single venue (and there’s hundreds). Everywhere you look, there’s a band playing for free that you would want to see, not to mention the people playing the VIP shows. Bottom line- 6 hours at this thing only makes you want to take a week off and do it all. I know where I’m going next March.

A few more scenes:

Lauren and a giant dog at Waterloo