The moment we wait for every year is upon us – SXSW has posted the day-by-day, venue-by-venue schedule for the SXSW 2010 Music Festival.
Check it out here.
We’ll continue our pre-coverage of SXSW 2010 by highlighting bands we think are worth your while to check out in Austin if you attend this year.
Anybody in Columbus looking for a SXSW wristband? I happen to have one extra available for $205.
That was like a rollercoaster ride looking through the schedule. There were about 40 or 50 times that I thought my new band from Brooklyn, The Black Ghost Wolf Bear Antler Kids, had been selected to play.
Does anyone know if someone will do the sched.org thing again this year? I don’t know if I can survive without it.
Also – I saw Big Star would play on Saturday night at Antone’s, then they disappeared. Anyone know about that?
There are a few bands that I am aware will be playing that I have not seen listed, so, I’m assuming they are still working out some details.
Does anybody have wristband info for this year? I haven’t seen anything announced yet.
http://wristbands.sxsw.com/
Looks like about the same as last year. Last year I found out that you could buy them on Wednesday/Thursday at the festival if you knew where to go. By then we had decided to go “ala carte” so we didn’t bother. Same for this year for us. At night I’ll be happy to attend one or two showcases per night, get there early and stay put…
I’m heading out this year and currently am going sans badge/wristband. Is it worth it to spring for the craigslist inflated prices for a wristband or are the advantages slim between paying admission in a few showcases without?
The wristband gets you preference over those paying admission. You’re not guaranteed to get in with a wristband, but you will get in before those that pay.
If you are a huge fan of one or two particular acts and think their showcases will sell out then get the wristband. Peace of mind is a good thing. If it were only me and no wife then I probably would buy one, but when you add the expense of another person it starts to get pricey. I’m only really worried about not getting to see Sharon Jones and that’s because she’s opening for Spoon. Other than that I doubt we’ll have much trouble getting into the shows we want to see.
Also – all the day shows aren’t done being announced. If we can see a band during the day we will and then we’ll skip them at night. Sometimes those day shows have long lines too though. I don’t know if they give preference to wristbands in the daytime, but I didn’t notice that.
Thanks for the feedback B and Jason. Much appreciated.
wristbands and badges do not guarantee entry. if it is a big band, you have to get there early and wait out the early acts. otherwise you will end up in a long line that never gets in. the notion that you can move between venues with hot acts after 11pm is a falsehood. wait and see what i mean. i saw people buying wristbands on thursday last year at waterloo.
Yeah, I agree blome about “hot acts”. I stood in line for Annuals/Manchester Orchestra for way too long last year. It was the Wednesday show, and when we got in, it wasn’t even that crowded. They just held the line in case badges would show up, but if I recall correctly, that was the night The Decemberists were at Stubb’s, so I think everyone was clamoring to get in there. I thought we’d have the same issue at New York Dolls and that ended up being no problem. POS and Eyedea & Abilities were no problem either. But I steered away from Grizzly Bear and some other hot acts on purpose.
I only have 4 must see acts this year: Sharon Jones, Midlake, Shearwater, and Big Star… One per night and I like the acts they are playing with so it should work out well.
I wish I knew about that Sched.org or some kind of comprehensive calendar…
In my experience it’s not very hard at all to find wristbands the first day or two during the festival itself at different venues. Just ask around or you can sign up for official SXSW text messages which send out locations of where to get them usually.
Thanks again for all of the advice – Can’t wait.
One more question for you friendly duders…. For a typical day party (leaning on the more popular side of shows), if it starts at noon – what is the typical time peeps start lining up to get in?
thanks
Depends on the show. I went to the popular NPR day show at The Parish last year, and there were people lined up at least an hour before the show started.
The lines at Emo’s last year were long. I walked by and a kid had just gotten out of the line saying he had been there for hours. Lucky I didn’t want to see anyone there. There were times when we decided to keep walking at places we wanted to go in, but we weren’t dead set on seeing any particular bands…
Wristbands are on sale but you have to be a “local area resident” to buy them.
http://wristband.sxsw.com/
if your a hot girl thats coming down to austin let meet up. do not pay for a badge or wrist band to get into swsw parties Prez Hilton vip party sat march 2oth