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SXSW XX: Celebrating 20 years of music in 2006.

Downtown Austin, Texas, where SXSW is held each spring

Bloc Party performing at Stubb's BBQ in 2007

Carrie Rodriguez, a SXSW 2007 performer

Morrissey at SXSW 2006

South by Southwest (SXSW) is a set of interactive, film, and music festivals and conferences that take place every spring in Austin, Texas. Originating as the Austin Battle of the Bands, SXSW officially began in 1987 and is centered around the downtown Austin Convention Center. Each of the three parts run relatively independently, with different start and end dates. SXSW is one of the largest music festivals in the United States, with more than 1,400 performers playing dozens of venues around Austin over four days in March. Though it is an industry-based event, SXSW Music links locally with events such as the annual Austin Music Awards show. SXSW is the highest money-making public event for the Austin economy, bringing in more revenue than the Austin City Limits Music Festival or the Texas Longhorn home games. [1]

In 1994 SXSW added Film and Interactive conferences. SXSW Film has become one of the world's premiere film festivals, focusing on new directing talent. Similarly, SXSW Interactive has attracted a strong following among Web creators and entrepreneurs.

SXSW has spawned other festival such as North by Northeast (NXNE), an annual three-day live music festival and music conference in Toronto held the second weekend in June.

The 2007 music festival included performances by The Stooges, Spoon, Kings of Leon, Donovan, The Buzzcocks, Fratellis, Bloc Party, Straylight Run, The Bravery, Hawthorne Heights, Armor for Sleep, Jack's Mannequin, Amy Winehouse, Badly Drawn Boy, Against Me!, This Is Me Smiling, Jandek, Kava Kava, The Horrors, The Sword, The Briefs, Lily Allen, Bobby Lounge, The Early Years, The Stitches, Austin TV, Circa Survive, Eisley, Gallows, Razorlight, Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly., Ozomatli, Maritime, Russian Circles, Dustin Kensrue, Moros Eros, Albert Hammond, Jr., Bob Mould, Far-Less, Powell St. John, Tally Hall, Tub Ring, The Cinematics, Sparklehorse, Best Fwends, The Wombats and Cold War Kids. Conference speakers included David Byrne (of the Talking Heads) and Pete Townshend (of The Who).^[1] The festival took place from March 14 to 18, and more than 1,400 acts performed. SXSW offers a free musical sampler each year; the 2007 offering included more than 725 MP3s available for download via the BitTorrent peer-to-peer system [2]. One of the top film premieres this year was the highly anticipated Elvis and Anabelle starring Blake Lively and Max Minghella.

Cast members of The Real World: Austin made The Real South by Southwest, a documentary about the music festival and various bands performing at the festival in 2005.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

South by Southwest

• South by Southwest
  • Interactive
  • Film
  • Music
• NME SXSW Special
• SXSW Baby! — an unofficial community weblog
• Prefixmag.com SXSW Recap— 35 videos of performances at SXSW 2007
• SXSW photos
• Lollapalooza 2007 Live Performance Video