Seems like SXSW has been pronounced dead every year for the past 5+ years. Somehow it keeps getting bigger. It's the old Yogi Berra quote: "Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded."
Sure, people still go, but nobody important goes there anymore.
SXSW RIP
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Re: SXSW RIP
#12I can't read this site for more than 10 seconds before my eyes start to bleed.
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Re: SXSW RIP
#13I clicked the article thinking it was about the recent deaths at SXSW. It's someone complaining about bands. There's first world problems, and then there's "first world" first world problems. You americans are blessed with amazing conferences of all sorts especially tech, SXSW included, but god forbid the music was "not obscure enough". Why is this even on HN?
At least a complaint (from an actual club owner) about bands not going onstage on-schedule has some basis.
Here's someone complaining that the Spotify house "was too corporate"
http://techrotica.tumblr.com/post/79212740983/for-the-record...
Re: SXSW RIP
#14Hate to go on a tangent but I can't believe jwz still hasn't updated his site to a more reader friendly color scheme.
Re: SXSW RIP
#15Seems he's talking exclusively about SXSW Music, whereas most people in our community probably think of SXSW Interactive (the techie-er of the three annual SXSW events) when they hear "SXSW".
Re: SXSW RIP
#16Hate to go on a tangent but I can't believe jwz still hasn't updated his site to a more reader friendly color scheme.
Once upon a time green on black was all some of us had, 24/7.
Somehow we coped.
Re: SXSW RIP
#17I haven't been to SXSW in 2 years. Three years ago the technology portion of SXSW definitely felt exactly as you described this year's music. Massively unorganized. Massively chaotic. Couldn't really find anything you were looking for, even if you tried. While speakers and talks were mostly on time, the rest of it was just pure chaos.
Exactly my experience. When SXSWi moved to spread-out venues, it was suddenly impossible to go from, say, the Convention Center to the Sheraton between sessions, and forget about the hotel south of the lake. That signaled to me that it was too big, but they kept making it bigger.
Re: SXSW RIP
#18basically an old fart says "it isn't cool anymore". Well, man, if you haven't still got the message - we're just not cool anymore, as young as we feel ourselves. Signed by a fellow old fart (of Gen X like jwz).
Re: SXSW RIP
#19FWIW- My thoughts are similar on SXSW interactive. I have been going for several years, always finding that there was some amount of serendipity to putting so many nerds and vc-types in a very small space (see PG's essay on SV: http://www.paulgraham.com/siliconvalley.html). This year I found it too chaotic. It's a nightmare to get in anywhere or know what's going on, even if you are "VIP." I had the good fortune to be on several groupme groups which helped though - people can tell you what's hot at a given time. There aught to be an app...
This year I found less interesting people and more corporate schtick. sxsw is so mainstream that Jimmy Kimmel hosted his late night show from sxsw this year. 5 years ago startups were actually using sxsw as successful launching pads, now it's Cottonelle vs. Charmin (actually 2 products that had expensive booths at sxsw this year).
That being said, I'll probably still go next year because I love Austin and many of my friends go.
It's similar to burning man though - every year people complain that it's jumped the shark because it got too corporate, and every year more people go.
Re: SXSW RIP
#20I clicked the article thinking it was about the recent deaths at SXSW. It's someone complaining about bands. There's first world problems, and then there's "first world" first world problems. You americans are blessed with amazing conferences of all sorts especially tech, SXSW included, but god forbid the music was "not obscure enough". Why is this even on HN?
SXSW is a music festival. Music is the reason everyone is there.