Everyone should know that one of the best times in Austin is during SXSW (unless your a native Austinite). There’s free things and events on every corner, music everywhere, and crowd after crowd. I love the hustle and bustle that comes to Austin during this week and the variety of people and events offered. This year was a bit more laidback than usual in my opinion, but I still had some great experiences!
I started off SXSW with usual and low-key activities, just to ease into it. It’s a lot harder for me to jump into things since I not work a full time job and don’t have the recovery time that I used to!
The first night of the week, I went to True Food Kitchen, which is this amazing healthy food kitchen close to the Seaholm District. It’s been amazing how much the Seaholm District has developed and it’s now home to a lot of trendy businesses and restaurants. True Food is by far my favorite because it offers a variety of food, pretty much all healthy, but it’s also in a rather upscale environment without breaking the bank. I feel that most healthy food places are grab and go, and although they offer take out, it’s an actual place to dine. I also loved going out this night because I got to sport my new Brandy Melville Honey Top that I had been looking forever for!
I took my first day off of work for the week and rested a bit before venturing out in the night time. There weren’t too many artists and shows I was dying to go to earlier in the week, as most of the music events happen later in the week, but I heard that a couple Houston rappers were performing on dirty sixth, so I planned on stopping by to check it out.
I was unsure about who was performing at other bars, but I knew Lil Flip and Lil Keke were going to be at the 512, so we went there first. Downstairs was super uncrowded so we did a shot and grabbed a beer, but when we got upstairs, the rooftop was packed. Clearly that’s where they were going to be performing. We waited for over an hour or so and watched other rappers perform (I had no idea who they were) until it started getting late and we decided to spend our time bar hopping elsewhere.
We went around to a few bars on dirty sixth until we ventured off to East Sixth (currently my favorite bar area). On the way, we stopped and got some Kimchi Fries from a Chi’Lantro food truck (so good!) and noticed a cute little trailer set up to take photos outside of Violet Crown Social Club. In the spirit of SXSW, we decided to give it a try while we were waiting on our fries. There were a ton of props inside and it had a really cool aesthetic! We ended up buying a couple copies of our photos and headed off to go drink. It was getting a little late, especially because my friend had work the next morning, so we went into Rhino Room, which is a bar I’ve seen but have never been to. It’s rather small, but pretty quaint and has some chill people in there. It’s honestly a little gem that most people don’t know about. I got my usual, a Lemondrop Martini, and we went back to the car.
The next day, I honestly had no idea what I was getting myself into. I knew Paul Wall was supposedly performing at Scratchouse, but I assumed I would probably find something else. The magical thing about SXSW is that you never know what you’re going to run into and what’s going to happen, it just happens.
Because of this, my day started off with getting into the Tidal x Mercedes Benz event. Apparently, this was an exclusive/invite only event, but my friend and I were literally walking on the sidewalk outside of it and were invited in with complimentary drinks. There weren’t any musical acts that I knew there that day, but it was still really cool to see all the Mercedes models coming out and of course, free drinks! Meanwhile they were playing songs by Kanye and Jay-Z, so I really couldn’t complain. The set up was really cute with seating areas to lounge at and there was a circle of adults swings, which I absolutely loved!
Afterwards, we were already by Rainey so we decided just to walk around for a bit. We were walking close to the Hotel Van Zandt when we noticed these crazy looking pedicabs. I’m not sure who decorated these and brought them out, but there were decorative pedicabs such as bats and owls. They were really cool (although I only got a photo of the bat one) and there was this giant one that had pedals for about 8 people! It was a skeleton decorated pedicabs, so you got into it by squeezing through the “bones”. We found out it was free and peddled around in a circle right off of Rainey, which was pretty cool!
So we didn’t find much else that night on a whim (it was early in the week, so I wasn’t really surprised), which made us head over to the Paul Wall showcase. I was actually really excited for this since Paul Wall was one of my favorite childhood rappers. If you remember him and aren’t into Houston rap, you probably know him from Nelly’s song Grillz. I’ve wanted to see him for such a long time, so the fact that I was able to see him in such an intimate venue was crazy exciting for me! As soon as I got in, there were a few other rappers opening up who didn’t seem to be known by the crowd. This was a good thing because the stage area wasn’t very crowded, so once it got towards his set time, I just walked through to the front of the crowd. Probably less than an hour later, Paul Wall came out and performed some of his hits such as I’m On Patron, Sittin Sidewayz, and Break Em Off. Once we walked off stage, I noticed he went the way opposite of the exit, which meant he had to walk around the perimeter of the venue to leave. I immediately ran towards the back, and sure enough, Paul Wall walked right towards me. As he walked over, I didn’t want to keep him long, but I told him that he was one of my favorite childhood rappers and I loved his music and was so glad he could come out and perform at SXSW. I was so glad that he was receptive to this and was very humble. Most artists could walk off or just not care, but I courageously also asked for a photo, which he seemed more than happy to take with me. He even commented on my instagram post of the photo!
Shortly after, I also recognized another person who was in the crowd. Lil Flip had performed prior to Paul Wall (the same guy I waited to see the night before but ended up leaving) and he was literally just sitting on a picnic table next to the crowd, in front of the stage. I figured I would just walk up to him and say something along the same realm as what I said to Paul Wall, he looked like he was just scoping out the place anyway. I walked up, introduced myself, and told him I had tried to see him the night prior and was glad that I had the opportunity to see him tonight. He seemed receptive and scooted over to make room for me and asked for me to sit and take a photo with him. Someone of his posse came over and took a photo and I asked him my friend could take a photo of us as well. I didn’t have much else to say, so I thanked him and walked away when his friend came over and said “He wants your number”. I was confused at first and asked if he was referring to Lil Flip. He said yea and handed his phone to me to put my phone number in. It was kind of weird going through a third party to do this, but I didn’t really care so I did, but I obviously was freaking out on the inside because it’s a really cool thing to happen. He actually did text me later that night, but it didn’t lead to anything and ended up being a dead end conversation.
Afterwards, my friend also noticed a pretty well known comedian who was in the crowd next to us, Teddy Ray. I honestly had no idea who this was, but she wanted to talk to him and get a photo with him, so in the spirit of SXSW, why not?! We walked up and introduced ourselves, and we quickly found out that he was a pretty funny guy. He even made a joke about my name, which was pretty playful so I didn’t get offended or anything. We talked for almost an hour just about Austin and SXSW and a few other topics and had a really good conversation. Towards the end, he asked for both of our numbers and insinuated he wanted to hang out with us later in the week during SXSW. Overall, it was a really awesome experience meeting all of these people and just having some lighthearted conversations.
The next day was fun because the iconic Fader Fort began and we somehow got wristbands once again in. It was scaled back a lot, but not as bad as the year prior. If you find my SXSW 2017 post, I talked about how they shrunk the event to where it was pretty exclusive but tiny. This year, it wasn’t as small as the year prior, but it was nothing like the original Fader Fort location that they had in 2016. I also felt that it was lacking a lot of the fun stations and didn’t have much free stuff like the years prior. They, however, still had an open bar and free music acts, which is honestly the core of Fader Fort, so I can’t hate on it. They had a ball pit which was pretty fun to jump into and they passed out free popsicles which we put in our drinks. We spent a little time walking around and doing this before we went into the crowd and saw YBN, Raekwon, and SOB x RBE.
After this, we were starving and stopped at Moonshine Grill since they have huge portions and are known for their Southern cooking. It’s a rather expensive place to go to, but when you consider the portion sizes and the fact we’re celebrating SXSW, why not? I got Chicken and Waffles, which I shared with my friend and got to steal some of her Green Chile Mac and Cheese. It was hands down absolutely delicious, we were all in food comas afterwards!
We then headed over to West Sixth since the brand, Wildfox, was having a party at POP. I’ve always loved the brand, so I was excited for what this was going to be like. They advertised free drinks, but when we got there they made us pay because they were only giving away drinks within the first hour. There wasn’t too much going on here but they had a crane machine game, like the ones where you win stuffed animals but in this one, you win Wildfox shirts. Now Wildfox shirts are pretty pricey and can easily be around $100, so I definitely wanted to win. I tried and all my friends tried, but we didn’t get anything. I saw that others were just getting back in line and tried again, so we did the same. I got to the front and started playing when the woman noticed me and said you could only play once. I apologized and just finished up my turn by clicking the button without much strategy after she told me I couldn’t play and the crane actually grabbed a shirt. I was in shock and begged the woman to let me keep it, which she did. It was pretty awesome, especially because I can never win at those things.
Afterwards, we walked over to Green Light Social, one of our usual hangouts, to just enjoy some nightlife. There honestly weren’t many people there, but the DJs were spinning some EDM like music and mixes, which is very unusual for Green Light. We were a little confused, but it was fun and they had lasers and backlights in there. Once we got further into it, we heard the DJ talk and announce that they were Breathe Carolina. They had a hit song a few years ago, and it was crazy that we literally just stumbled into their show!
We then headed off to Peligrosa, which is at the club, North Door, where they play Latin/Hip-Hop mixes. They have this event once a month I believe. I had never been prior to, but it was honestly a ton of fun. We also got an extreme work out with all the dancing we did!
Thursday was definitely a lot more low key because personally I started getting ridiculously tired from the long days and nights with little sleep. Because of this, we just spent most of our time and day on Rainey. Eventually, I had to stop and take a break at the Hotel Van Zandt to just lay down because my back was hurting so bad. Afterwards, and despite getting a late start, we went to the Chive event, which I also went to last year. It was interesting because it was at a location I’ve never been to before, which apparently is a Mexican restaurant usually.
My friend then texted me and said that the Sony Lost in Music event, which is usually only for people who have badges, opened up to the public. It looked really cool from the street, so we decided to walk over. On the way, we went and got food from a Noble Sandwich food truck. I’ve always seen their location on Burnet next to Pinthouse Pizza, but I never had been. Looking at their menu, I immediately knew I wanted their Mac and Cheese. To me, Mac and Cheese is always a hit or miss, but theirs was absolutely delicious! They event put breadcrumbs in it which made it amazing.
We then got to the Sony event, where they first take you in a really dark room that showcases a sound system that Sony is working on with engineers in Japan. It’s where it’s surround sound orchestrated from acoustic strings. They then used light to show where the strings are moving and producing sound. It was really interesting and something you don’t see everyday! We then walked out, took a photo in their photo booth, and waited for their next artist to go on. We had no idea who she was, but her name is Caitlyn Smith and she literally blew us away. Her performance and voice was absolutely amazing. We then ended the night by going to Peligrosa again and grabbed tacos from one of my favorite taco trucks on East Sixth. On the way to the truck, I noticed that there was a Bob’s Burger truck that I’ve never seen there before. Being a Bob’s Burger fan, I was literally screaming and grabbed a quick picture of it.
Finally, I reached the last day of SXSW which was also St. Patrick’s day! I put on my green tank top that I wear each year (I don’t own a lot of green) and started out at the M&M’s event on Rainey Street. We had to wait an hour to get in, which didn’t seem worth it, but it was cool to get free M&M’s and they changed the bar to where each section of it was a different color, representing the different M&M’s. They had a delicious frozen coffee drink with M&M’s and whiskey in it though that I’m not sure if I can ever replicate.
We then found out that Shea Moisture was having an event at the Hilton Hotel where they were passing out free products. Shea Moisture products are expensive and amazing so we literally ran over to this. All we did was take a photo and post it on social media and we got unlimited full size products. It was one of the most amazing events I’ve been to! They had a DJ spinning and earphones for a silent disco. After we got our products, I saw there was a line to get your hair done. I stood in line since I never get my hair styled and everything was completely free! I met this amazing hair stylist who does hair as a freelance job and also teaches yoga in East Austin. She then revealed that she does hair for Vogue Magazine and was doing a shoot in New Orleans soon for Vogue UK. After getting to know her better, she decided to do some elaborated braiding with my hair, way over the top than what I was expecting! It was so cool and I was so happy she decided to go so detailed with me.
It was honestly a really intense SXSW with being out for over twelve hours a day, but I was happy to experience a variety of events when I usually stick to just the ones I know of. I had a great time although each year the SXSW crowd gets bigger and bigger! At the end, I was really excited to sleep in the next day and be as lazy as possible. Now onto SXSW 2019!
xx,Rachelle
