A Day in the Bubble of SXSW

Trying to write a day in the life of South by Southwest festival is a tricky thing to do. SXSW isn’t really based in real life: it’s more like a parallel bubble universe populated by brand activations, where the currency is RSVPs (or specially minted coins to exchange for free drinks).

Instead, here’s a semi-chronological day in the (occasionally literal) bubble.

After starting the day off with a choice of a giant coffee or a spin class, we head over to the Vimeo House where a local bar has been totally transformed into an old-timey movie theatre celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Vimeo Staff Pick.

Individual rooms have been intricately styled to reflect classic picks. We go from visiting a life size version of the rosy-butted character in Hello Stranger, to being shouted at by Danny Devito in Curmudgeons. There are posters on the wall for Le Clitoris (above), and a look inside Jim Carey’s painting studio. The attention to detail in each area is amazing, if you stick around into the evening, there’s a DJ set by the Lord of the Rings himself, Elijah Wood, to top everything off.

There are two big “Everyone’s Talking About It’s” of the festival, the out of town West World experience and as we get into the centre of town, we’re straight in the line for the other, Ready Player One. Turning a street corner into the Stacks from the forthcoming Steven Spielberg adaptation is already impressive, with painstaking production design inside. An actual Delorean and the Iron Giant (above) fill out a stylish down to the last detail future-retro environment. Upstairs one more floor, amongst stacked up caravans, is a series of rooms with Vive VR experiences and games to play to further immerse yourself in the Oasis.

After lunch, one of the weird things that could only happen at South By rolls by… a smart car driving down the road in a giant bubble (above). We can’t quite work out how to get inside…or what it’s for…but the people in the bubble seem happy enough to meander slowly around an Austin street and regally wave from the drivers’ seat.

Next up for us is the Intuit Enchanted Florist. We made A Giant Story with Phenomenon in February, and this is the real world activation of that…an actual florist taken over as a space for food, music and a screening of our film sound tracked live by the band Freedom Fry amongst a genuinely excellent lineup of bands. It feels like the perfect mini music festival inside SXSW. A safe space of flowers, low strength lager and ice cream tacos (all from local small businesses, of course).

Austin’s getting dark now and we’re heading to the last hoorah of Interactive Week, the Closing Party thrown by Media Temple. After a scramble to get hold of coveted VIP lanyards for the night, this is by far the glitziest evening of the week. Featuring a performance from “big deal if you’re American” Steve Aoki, this is actually a good chance to catch up with and bid farewell to everyone you’ve met over the week and share one last Lone Star Beer…

The Morning After...Simply because I haven’t been able to stop thinking about this since we left Texas, I have to include a mention of Torchy’s Tacos. Loaded up on queso, tacos and Mexican cola to defeat any semblances of a hangover, we finish the festival with a mild stomach ache.