2025-03-17
SXSW 2025: the vibes are gone
We attended SXSW in 2016, mainly for the Interactive part. Together with a handful of other companies, we shared a 'minimum viable booth', prospecting for a larger Belgian delegation that would attend SXSW in 2017.
This was our improvised booth in 2016:
The Café des Belges booth for SXSW 2017 was great:
I even had a speaking slot during the 2018 edition. On behalf of startups.be, I presented Brussels in the Startup Cities session. By 2019, my wife and I had left our company and we decided to return to SXSW because we liked the film festival more than any other film festival in the world.
We missed the 2020 edition for an obvious reason: we weren't allowed to travel due to the Covid restrictions and the travel ban. 2025 was the first time we returned to SXSW in post-Covid times. We really looked forward to it but ... unfortunately, the vibes we experienced during the previous editions were gone. Thinking about why we felt that way, we identified different reasons, especially for the attendees with a Film and TV Badge.
In 2019, it was possible to watch five movies a day. I have this series of queue cards as proof:
We had screenings at 11:00 AM, 1:45 PM, 4:45 PM, 7:45 PM, and 11:00 PM. Being at the theater a half hour before the start of the movie was usually sufficient. We had no trouble getting in. We even succeeded in getting the better seats in the Paramount if that was our plan.
SXSW 2025 was disappointing because the way the screenings were programmed, allowed us to watch only 4 movies a day. It was physically impossible to go to 5 screenings on the same day, and we had to be in line at least an hour before the movie started to secure a seat (sometimes an hour wasn't even enough to get in). Obtaining an SXXpress-pass was almost impossible with a Film and TV Badge because Platinum Badges could get such a pass one day earlier. Fortunately, my wife found a hack. She succeeded in getting 4 passes; I got 2. In any case: it seemed there more attendees for fewer seats in the movie theaters.
The Alamo Drafthouse Lamar was significantly reorganized. There were more screens but fewer seats in total (granted: the seats were upgraded and much more comfortable than before). Furthermore, the big lobby with the giant mural and the UFOs hanging from the ceiling was gone. Instead, there was a strange construction inspired by 'The Shining'. In the absence of a lobby, everyone wanting to watch a movie had to stand outside in the sun for a long time. The process of handing out queue cards and letting people enter the theater was chaotic. We were also more or less 'condemned' to Alamo Lamar:
- There weren't that many venues downtown anymore.
- In the last two days, the number of screens was reduced from 17 (excluding AFS because that was too far to reach for us) to 4 (three at Alamo Lamar, and one at the Hyatt Regency).
We were glad we planned to leave on Saturday because we didn't get into any movies at Alamo Lamar on Friday, despite arriving more than an hour early. An equal number of attendees for only a quarter of the screens is asking for trouble. We decided to go to the Hyatt two hours before the start of the movie to be certain of obtaining a seat.
Compared to 2016-19, three venues were no longer available: Stateside (close to the Paramount theater) is closed for renovations. There also used to be movies in the Convention Center. The location was easy to reach, but the seats weren't ideal. The biggest loss for the festival was the Alamo Ritz on 6th Street, which is now a comedy club. Being on 6th Street with a Film Badge allowed us to experience the real spirit of SXSW. Now we had to skip a couple of movies to spend some time on 6th street, but ... maybe we picked the wrong day because there wasn't much to see. The atmosphere inside the Alamo Ritz was always great. For instance, we really missed the Master Pancake show:
We also used to enjoy the surprise guest appearances in the Paramount, for instance, the Boyz II Men act in 2019:
This year, it was almost impossible to get into the Paramount. For the screening of 'Holland', we joined the queue one hour and three quarters before the start of the movie. After waiting for more than one hour, we received a buffer card with number 44. As we were in line several blocks away from the theater, we missed the red-carpet events before the movie, we got to sit upstairs (which aren't the most comfortable seats), and there was only a Q&A after the movie. We planned to go to 'Drop' right after 'Holland', but when we looked at the line of people already waiting for that movie, we knew we would never get in. In 2016-19, getting into Paramount wasn't such a pain, and it was more fun attending a screening at the Paramount. When talking to other people in the queue and to locals (e.g. when dining at a restaurant), many said SXSW had become 'too corporate' when compared to pre-Covid times.
On the plus side, there were two new venues:
- A ballroom at the Hyatt Regency. This new venue had the advantage that it had a lot of seats, meaning you were likely to get in if you wanted to watch a movie there. The disadvantage was that it wasn't a real cinema. When the room was full, you almost couldn't move in your seat and felt every movement of the people next to you.
- Victoria Crown Theater: This was a nice addition, but too small to account for the loss of the Alamo Ritz.
Eventually, we were able to attend 28 shows:
That's not bad, but that's much less than expected when we registered for a badge. To compare: we usually see more than 40 movies at FilmFestGent, sometimes even more than 50. At the film festival of Cannes in 2022, we were able to see 49 movies. 24 movies is just not enough if you expect a full-fledged film festival.
Fortunately, we had some really good food this year.
- Thursday: Corinne, 304 E Cesar Chavez St.
- Friday: Roaring Fork, 701 Congress Ave.
- Saturday: Odd Duck, 1201 S Lamar Blvd. We ate here every previous edition. It's a great place.
- Sunday: The Capital Grille, 117 W 4th St.
- Monday: Uchi, 801 S Lamar Blvd. This was on our wish list for a long time. It was a great experience!
- Tuesday:
- Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar, 1120 S Lamar Blvd, Austin
- Marker 10, 208 Barton Springs Rd.
- Wednesday: Soto, 1100 S Lamar Blvd. Really good sushi and sashimi!
- Thursday: Nido Rooftop, Rooftop, 1211 W Riverside Dr. Great burger and great view!
- Friday: Iron Cactus, 606 Trinity St. Best guacamole ever, freshly made at your table!
Apart from the fast food at Alamo Lamar, all these places served excellent food, and that made up for the disappointing film experience.
Regarding Alamo Lamar: we only found out on the last day that the bill already included an 18% service charge. We always added a 22% gratuity on top of that service charge, which resulted in quite a tip for the servers. We don't mind tipping servers, but they should inform customers beforehand if they do, especially in a venue where it's too dark to examine the bill more closely.
Next year, the Austin Convention Center will close for renovations that will take at least four years. There's a rumor that Paramount will not be available for the same reason. Moreover, SXSW will be reduced by two days, because there won't be any music festival anymore. Badges for next year's edition are already available at half price, but ... given our 2025 experience, we decided not to return to SXSW in the coming years. SXSW is no longer the best film festival we've ever attended, and there are some other festivals on our wish list.
We met plenty of 'first-timers' at SXSW 2025. They thought SXSW was great. Maybe our expectations were too high based on our good memories of the 2016 to 2019 editions. We don't know. We just 'didn't feel it' this year.
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- 2025-03-18:
SXSW 2025: filmbesprekingen - 2025-03-17:
SXSW 2025: the vibes are gone - 2025-03-05:
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