Austin – Living Up To It’s Moniker Of “Live Music Capital Of The World”

Austin, Texas has a vibrant live music scene, and boasts more music Venues per capita than any other city in the USA. Austin’s music scene revolves mainly around the many nightclub Venues on 6th Street, but the pinnacle is arguably the annual music, film and multimedia festival called South By Southwest (South By Southwest).
South By Southwest officially began in 1987, originating as the Austin Battle of the Bands and is centered around the downtown Austin Convention Center. It has become one of the largest music festivals in the USA, with more thousands of performers from all across the globe playing in over seventy Venues across Austin over four days in March. Largely an industry-based event, South By Southwest has garnered a reputation for being the place for new, up-and-coming artists to break into the industry, and particularly British artists looking to break the USA market. Acts who have gained mass notoriety after playing performances at South By Southwest include The White Stripes in 2001, and British emo-punks Gallows who took the festival by storm in 2007.
2007 was South By Southwest’s biggest year yet, and saw more than 2000 artists take over Austin among March 14th and 18th. Highlights included stand-out performances from The Rapture, Cold War kids and Kings of Leon. David Byrne, formerly of Talking Heads, and The Who’s Pete Townshend were among the event’s conference speakers (Townshend later made a guest appearance, joining The Fratellis onstage and showcasing his trademark windmill guitar moves). British punk legends The Buzzcocks additionally played a raucous performance, as did USA punk icons Iggy & The Stooges. There was additionally the emergence of a one-night-only supergroup, as Tom Morello of Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave was joined on his solo performance by a mass of unannounced special attendees including Jane’s Addiction frontman Perry Farrell, MC5’s Wayne Kramer, Primus bass supremo Les Claypool and Slash of Guns ‘n Roses and Velvet Revolver fame.
South By Southwest is the single highest money -making public event for the Austin community, generating more re Venue than even home games by Austin’s hugely popular college football team, the Texas Longhorns
South By Southwest is just one of Austin’s festivals – the city is additionally host to the All Tomorrow’s get togethers -esque Fun Fun Fun Festival, a two day event that last year saw performances across three stages from acts such as Cat Power and Diplo as well as performances from Austin natives Okkervil River, Zykos, I Love You But I have Chosen Darkness and Explosions In The Sky, who headlined.
additionally, the Austin City Limits festival has rapidly become one of the most popular and well-attended festivals in the entire USA, ranking alongside Coachella and Lollapalooza. The festival brings together over 130 artists across eight stages over three days. The festival works in conjunction with the popular Austin City Limits TV show, which showcases local Austin acts as well as artists playing the festival.