SXSW 2105: The Best of the Rest

Best of the Rest - Farts, tacos and undiscovered talent

SXSW isn’t just about the presentations and panels, there is also so much to inspire outside the Austin Convention Centre. Even if some moments felt like it was Spring Break in Cancun, with blimp ads and aerial banners to prove it (there was even one with Grumpy Cat!).

Yes, big brands were on the street adding to the noise but no one is writing a tweet about McDonalds or Mazda. When you step into the biosphere that is SXSW, you’re immersed in the noise, and everyone is fighting for your attention. It’s a complete sensory overload! So what made people (at least me) stop and smell the roses?  

My first stop was an unofficial event hosted by NewsCred. The main reason I attended was because the comedian and instagram sensation, the Fat Jew, was making an appearance. Ok, the only reason. As someone who dressed up as the Fat Jew for Halloween last year, this immediately became my must-see event during the festival. There, I admitted it.  

So, my priority at a festival for cutting-edge technologies and digital creativity  was seeing an Instagram sensation who is known for his inappropriate jokes. In addition, I attended the event in one of his newly released FART shirts. Keep it classy, right? But my mega-fan status paid off, I was plucked from the line-up and told I could come in, while the rest of the crowd were left waiting.

Bravo to NewsCred’s PR team taking a risk with the Fat Jew [below]. He’s the same man who hosted a pregnant women’s bikini contest, so it might have taken some convincing that this was the right man to represent your company’s brand at SXSW.  

In a way the Fat Jew was an obvious choice. SXSW Interactive pays special attention to social medias effects and what happens when you use these tools properly. Prior to instagram the Fat Jew was an unknown comedian, now he has almost four million followers on Instagram.  

Explaining to the crowd that social media has turned his life in a new direction, he went on to show pictures of very bizarre scenarios he’s found himself in (including an interview with Katie Couric while getting a pedicure), ending each picture saying, thank you Instagram. Undoubtedly, the event proved to be successful with hundreds of people lining up to get in.

This wasn’t the only event with a line, I definitely missed more than half of the events and performances I wanted to see because of the lines. And the Biggest Line Award goes to Grumpy Cat, where people lined up around the block for an opportunity to pet the celebrity cat. Festival-goers Meerkated in disbelief. See how I did that? Meerkated...it’s a thing.  Also, did I just say “celebrity cat”? Life is weird.

Mophie managed to create a buzz by using St. Bernard dogs to charge your phones. If you tweeted a screenshot of your dying battery to @mophie with the hashtag #mophierescue, they sent a dog from the St. Bernard Rescue Foundation with a Mophie power reserve to charge your phone. Aww, Cute.  

And the food! I know this isn’t my own personal food blog where I describe my dinner in detail but, hello Austin food truck and restaurant scene.

Now, back to the lines, I missed a number of hot-ticket shows, including the indie rock band, TV on the Radio, synth-hop band, Future Islands and the rock group, Portugal. The Man. The ‘I can’t believe I missed it’ list is actually huge so I hope you get the picture. One night I was feeling particularly deflated by the constant rejection from official badge holder events. However a walk down 6th Street saw me stumble onto a street performance by Hustler’s Brass Band. The band’s energy instantly lifted my mood and reminded me that this festival is saturated with talent ready to be discovered.

Too often I watched people walk by breathtaking performances by unknown musicians because there is just so much going on at once. It reminded me of the social experiment by the Washington Post where Joshua Bell performed icognito on a DC subway platform [below].  

The stunt was an experiment exploring perception, taste and the priorities of people. Only two days earlier Bell performed for a sold-out audience where tickets were $100 a seat. A quote from an unidentified author circulated with a clip of the stunt, questioning "If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?"  

The Verdict

It’s evident that there is a lot to be missed at SXSW. Whether it’s the inability to be heard through the noise, the lack of a good infrastructure, your perception on what is worth absorbing or the fact that groundbreaking insight is being delivered simultaneously around the clock but without a doubt everyone will leave SXSW with a different story.  

Yes, there will always be things that breakthrough the noise and appear in the headlines, ready to be shared by the masses. However, there are going to be very personal moments that you take with you and utilise for inspiration. Whether that is a fart joke or a new means of exploiting artificial intelligence for the better good of mankind, that is for you to discover.  

Also, content. Actually I’m kidding, I have nothing to say regarding content, I just know people like saying that only slightly more than they like talking about drones.