What is SXSW?

SXSW (South By Southwest) is when a few huge festivals happen in Austin Texas over the space of a two weeks! Officially they have Music, Film, and Interactive, but they also have comedy, education, and more coming I’m sure. To get an idea of what its about check the YouTube video

Ben Why Did You Go To SXSW?

I’m lucky to know some great people that I wanted to see in Austin along with the city of Austin itself. All that along with everything going on around with SXSW made it a perfect time to make a trip down there.

 

Huge Thanks to my friend Nate for letting me crash at his place and showed me all of the best things in Austin.

 

All The Photos From The Trip!

Austin Food – Warning May Cause Drooling

• Mac & Cheese Taste Testing – Every year they have a cooking competition where all levels of chefs try to create the best meal that include certain ingredients. In years past the ingredient has been Bacon, but this year it was Mac & Cheese. We went and tried over 30 different kinds. One person even made cheese ice cream with deep fried macaroni sprinkled on top.

• Torchy’s Tacos – Amazing Tacos! I had the Democrat and Mr. Pink tacos.

• Mi Madres – Another great place to get tacos

• Taco Deli – Simple fixings, but amazing taco meat!

• Gordough Donut Burger – I thought this was going to be a gross gimmick, but it was amazing! It was a well seasoned burger topped with guacamole, bacon, and an over-easy egg! It was so delicious.

• Rudy’s BBQ – Amazing BBQ and great customer service. When they find out you are a “rookie” they yell it across the line and then give you samples of all the different meats! I may need to be a rookie more often. I went with the lean brisket, ribs, and the cream corn and it was like everything else I tasted in Austin…Amazing!

• Hop Daddy – Another great dining experience. The line was out the door, but they took care of us by giving us water and fans while waiting. They do seating in an interesting way. They wait until they have a seat available before you can order, once they do they give you your open table. I had the Llano Poblano and a pretzel, chocolate, and Nutella shake.

• Magnolia Cafe – Stopped here for lunch and they had salsa that reminded me of my favorite Mexican restaurant in phoenix.

Austin Places To Check Out

• Castle Hill Graffiti – AMAZING mountain of graffiti. I was in heaven.
• University of Texas Campus
• Frisbee Golf
• Hi, How Are You? Frog

SXSW Adventures

• Rock Em Sock Em Robots! Nate won 🙁
• Rescuing Nate’s bike from the lock he lost the key to.
• SXSW Gaming Expo – we were able to try the Oculus Rift, which is an awesome new virtual reality head-mounted display.

SXSW Music

SXSW brings in over 2000 bands for the festival and the perform on over 100+ stages! Seriously there was so much going on it was crazy! The only down side is that each band would play 20 minutes and then take 30 minutes taking it down and setting up for the next band.

Some of the great bands I was able to see were:

• A Great Big World – Say Something 
• The 1975 – Chocolate
• American Authors – Best Day Of My Life

 

Quick SXSW Tips

• Rent A Bike Early – So much traffic and venues can be spread out so getting a bike is a life saver. Austin does have rental bikes, but they seem to always be checked out and actually seems to cost more then just renting a bike.
• Get & Keep Credentials – More then a few times just having the SXSW Guest Pass bracelet or the Free badge i got from the Gaming Conference came in handy for getting into events without paying.
• RSVP In Advanced – You can get into a lot of events for free just by RSVPing ahead of time.