VIP newsletter April07.indd - VIP-Booking

VIP- News - A p r i l 2 0 0 7
the trauma of ‘What Did We Miss!’some
of us obviously need help –so what if I
missed Booker T & The MG’s, I’ve only
been a fan since the late 60’s! There’ll be
another chance – or will there! You’ll get
over it!
The SXSW organisers are presented with
a dilemma; on the one hand the ever-increasing
numbers are testimony to one of
the greatest success stories in the history
of music trade events, whilst on the other
hand they are totally aware of the problems
that numbers of this magnitude bring
for delegates in terms of accessibility and
comfort. What can they do –tell people not
to come Build more venues Move to a bigger
City None of these really apply, there is
a huge appetite for SXSW and it’s now almost
mythical position as the true gateway
to the fabled riches of the US market, they
will continue to come, there are already
many more venues in Austin than many
bigger Cities, and it’s a genuine Music City
for God’s sake, there’s an inherent atmosphere
that you couldn’t create anywhere
else – people like Austin, as the inhabitants
are keen on saying, ‘Keep Austin weird!
»Apart from opening up two
new venues, this is the first time
we’ve had Direct TV, recording
three days of live broadcast from
within the Conference Centre«
- Roland Swenson
I spoke to SXSW founder Roland Swenson
who said, “We haven’t gathered all the numbers
yet (we were talking whilst SXSW was
still in full flight), I’m sure they are again up
this year, but not by that much, 500 or so. It’s
the increasing international presence that’s
driving the event, the US attendance is pretty
much covered and constant, but there are
far more people coming from the rest of the
world than there used to be.” The Australians
and New Zealanders were out in force
and the UK attendance was way up again,
Lily Allen and Amy Winehouse went down
a storm by the way.
I asked if there were any new innovations
for 2007, Roland told me, “Well, apart from
opening up two new venues, this is the first
time we’ve had Direct TV, recording three
days of live broadcast from within the Conference
Centre, they’ve built two fully dressed
set ups in the Exhibition Halls.” These shows
really did add another dimension to SXSW,
they offered an opportunity to see acts
that you’d missed at their other shows either
live, like in my case, Rachel Fuller with
Pete Townsend and Welsh band The Automatic,
or as many people did, back in their
Hotel rooms on TV after the main shows.
The main thing is that what SXSW do,
they do well, the never ending list of acts
are well chosen, and the other presentations
like the keynote interview with Pete
Townsend was as relaxed, informative and
entertaining as you’re ever likely to get (I
did miss him playing the Steve Marriott
parts on Small Faces tunes like ‘What Ya
Gonna Do ‘Bout it’ with Ian McLagan’s
Bump Band – back to WDWM!). I attended
interviews with Emmy Lou Harris and Ricky
Lee Jones, which were also great. Making
the effort to get up early in the morning to
sit with breakfast in the lounge of The Four
Seasons Hotel was well worth it to see my
favourite singer songwriter Chris Smither,
Roland Swenson Founder of SXSW
followed by the excellent Ozomatli who
had the whole place dancing at an hour
when nobody is stirring at most music
conferences!
SXSW is great for these moments, and
there are many of them, and mainly it’s
great for the people you meet, both in and
out of the conference rooms, you can learn
a lot here. It’s an affirmation that no matter
how much new communication technologies
make it easy for us to sit in one place,
and no matter how many downloads compress
our methods of accessing music, live
music shared with people with a passion
is irreplaceable – so although the threat
of this unique event imploding under its
own weight has to be addressed, the fact
is SXSW is there to be enjoyed, people love
it and even if some decide to take a year
off, there will be no shortage of intrigued
newcomers to take their place.
Now, if I can only work out how to be in
two places at once next year.......
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