Used To Be a Best Kept Secret

Austin used to be the best kept secret. A sleepy town with a bustling nightlife full of live music venues and old historical theaters and clubs. What used to be a town no one traveled to is now a destination for many. There’s wedding parties of 20 meeting in Austin for the last hurrah and girls weekend get together’s. There’s family reunions and the like.

It’s taken decades for SXSW (South by Southwest) to become so well known. It first began in 1987 and was only known by the locals as a music festival. Over the years it has grown and become known internationally. It’s not only a music festival, but the first week is full of film and tech conferences. In fact, Twitter and Foursquare were both introduced to the public at this event. It’s anyone’s guess as to what will be introduced this year.

This event now brings over $320 million dollars to the Austin economy, from hotels, to restaurants to hotspots and everything in between.

There have been world records set at some of the SXSW events. Such as, the worlds largest footed pajama party (2012), the Guinness World Record Largest Astronomy Lesson and in 2014 there were 665,000 tweets during the interactive sessions.

The success of SXSW was obvious from the very first year. They expected 150 attendees and had over 700! So, needless to say, it shouldn’t be a surprise that this is now an internationally renowned Austin event. People will start arriving next Thursday and will forget to leave for two weeks.

I will not be in Austin for those two weeks. lol.