NEWSX

A New Map From SXSW

Happy Festival Day War & Peaceniks!

I’m writing to you from the first in-person SXSW Festival since before the world shut down.

On one hand, I’m trepidatious: Attending a “festival” during a horrific military conflict across the globe that is growing ever nearer to a world war, killing thousands, and displacing millions; and traveling to a state that seems to hate is own people, a lot; feels pretty hypocritically dissonant.

On the other hand, I am beyond excited: Before the end-times SXSW was my favorite event of any year; a mix of everything I love about media – music, film, technology, and artistic chaos of emerging diverse voices – in one of my favorite cities on the planet. Being in Austin at this moment, feeling the wave of semi-normality returning as people arrive and gather, offers me some glimmer of a world reawakening.

My first SXSW was in 2003. I saw The Black Keys, Broken Social Scene, and Joe Jackson play, on one night. In 2007, I was in the Convention Center when Twitter beca…