3. The city of Austin - Texas

The city of Austin in the USA is where SXSW’09 will be hosted. Many may not know but Austin is the capital of the state of Texas. It is located at nearly 300km (185 miles) from the Gulf of Mexico and from the border with Mexico. Some of the cities in the vicinity include San Antonio (100km/60 miles), Houston (200km/120 miles) and Dallas (300km/180 miles).

The city was established in the early 19th Century over small hills on the margins of the Colorado River and some of its ramifications, having currently approximately two million people inside and around its perimeter.

The Austin inhabitants are proud to have considerable more to offer than just Rodeos and Barbecues, which are so typical of Texas, and they are known not to share the conservative spirit frequently associated with their State. For some reason the city slogan started to be in the last few years “Keep Austin weird”, following o period when the commercial and artistic activities of the city were diminishing, though many consider that this “anti-corporative” motto was later corrupted when a company registered the commercial rights over this sentence and started using it to make T-shirts and other merchandise products which are now sold all over the city.

The city has been gathering fame in the last years due to its musical and artistic activity, not only has a result of the Festival SXSW, but also due to many other events that occur there such as the Austin City Limits, a music festival which takes place in early October lasting three days and which represents one of the largest musical festivals of the USA.

According to the guide www.austinmetro.com in January 2009 only, more than 1500 musical events took place in Austin and, based on the SXSW website, the city of Austin includes in its Downtown the largest world concentration of music night clubs. This is an inheritance of a busy night life since the 19th century, when after the American civil War the General Custer soldiers started to go to the bars and night clubs of the East 6th street, the area which is still nowadays the musical hotspot of the city.

From 1920 to 1940, many Jazz and Blues clubs started there. In the early seventies, after in the late sixties a new technological community sprang to life including companies such as IBM, Texas Instruments, 3M, Motorola, Samsung and Dell, a fresh musical boom took place with the Punk/New Wave movement. From those years, the club Armadillo World Headquarters which was closed in 1980, got famous. The impressive record of the musicians that performed there includes the likes of:

AC/DC
The B-52’s
Blondie
Bruce Springsteen
The Clash
Dire Straits
Emmylou Harris
Frank Zappa
Genesis
Iggy Pop
Janis Joplin
Jerry Lee Lewis
Patti Smith
The Police
The Ramones
Ray Charles
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Talking Heads
Thin Lizzy
Van Halen
Van Morrison
Willie Nelson
ZZ Top

Also from those days is the oldest music program of the American TV still in exhibition, the PBS’s Austin City Limits, which started in 1975.

All of these factors contributed to the title Austinites gave to their home town: - “Live Music Capital of the World”, and for the fact that musical influences encompassing Jazz, Blues, Folk, Rock and Country are still possible to be enjoyed in areas such as the 6th Street, South Congress Avenue e Warehouse District. These are the areas that during the SXSW are buzzing with events and that throughout the year are the stage for performances of all types of musicians.

Austin is also known as the location of the Texas University, one of the largest public universities in the USA. It was founded in the mid of the 19th century, shortly after the birth of the city which owes its name to the colonizer Stephen F. Austin.

The city largest monument is the Capitol, one of the largest in America, which was originally built when the city was founded in 1839 and rebuilt in the end of the century as it is today. As a footnote, it is significant to refer that there are several locations throughout the city from which the building dome is seen and that are protected by law from any construction which may obstruct its field of view.

In the last few years, Austin’s Downtown has had a fast growth, thus completely changing the view of the city due to the birth of several skyscrapers with dimensions approaching 200m/600ft in height.

One of the oldest attractions is Mount Bonnell, the city highest point, located near the river banks. It is a place with an interesting history. A legend tells that, in the time when the colonizers and Indians still fought with each other, a girl took her life there by jumping off a cliff after her lover was killed by the Indians, trying to protect her. From there on, it is said something like: - on the first time a couple goes to Mount Bonnell, falls in love with each other; on the second, they get married; but you shouldn’t go there a third time as it can prove fatal.

Another famous city spot are the Barton Springs swimming pools, built on the Zilker Park through a damn framework, where baths are possible all over the year since the water temperature is constant between 20ºC and 22ºC (about 70 degrees Fahrenheit).

Another footnote, in the summer at nightfall it is a tradition to watch the bat flying from under the Ann Richards Congress Avenue Bridge, something I and all other SXSW participants are likely to miss.

So here you have a little bit of what the city of Austin is, so that it is easier to understand how South by Southwest became to be what it is today. For those who which to know a little more about Austin here are some useful links:

www.austintexas.org
www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keep_Austin_Weird
www.keepaustinweird.com
www.myspace.com/armadilloworldheadquarters