South by Southwest 2011 - A Short Intro

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Tuesday, 08 March 2011 14:59

Written by Eric Lurio

The South By Southwest Festival and Conference is the Texan version of the Sundance Film Festival. Taking place in the state capitol of Austin -- also known as the “Live Music Capitol of the World" --  SxSW is a combination of a street fair, technical conference, film festival, and rock concert and general strangeness, that is intended to show the World that there’s more to the Lone Star State than a bunch of right-wing yahoos, oil fields, and desert.

Packed within a 42 square block area bounded by Cesar Chavez St, Congress Ave, 11^th St. and Interstate 35, there’s dozens and dozens of bars and restaurants, and a few movie theaters, which makes for ten solid days of intense partying.

The focus of the event is the Convention Center, where musicians and techno-geeks gather for what the place was built for: Conventions. It’s all about video games and networking , while outside on Sixth Street, there’s a non-stop party going on. That’s not to say that it isn’t that way the rest of the year, (Sixth Street is notorious for that), it’s just not half as intense as during SxSW.

The film festival has three main venues: the Alamo Drafthouse (which is on Sixth Street and serves food and drink), and the Paramount, a lovely old movie palace on Congress Avenue, which has been remarkably preserved. There are also half a dozen other venues, some of which are in walking distance of the convention center and some of which aren’t.

It’s all going to be very intense.

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