This years South by Southwest Festival begins on March 17th in Austin Texas. The festival will see over 1,400 acts play 80 venues over 4 days and as ever there will be Irish representatives among them.
The Irish showcase night is fittingly on March 17th featuring Autumn Owls, The Coronas, Dark Room Notes, Villagers, And So I Watch You From Afar and General Fiasco.
Other Irish Acts playing during the festival are Butterfly Explosion, The Minutes, Julie Feeney, Fighting With Wire, Halves, So Cow, Strait Laces, The Mighty Stef, Dirty Epics, Kiernan McMullan and The Walls.
The Irish contingent only make up a tiny number of the mass of acts of acts playing, highlights of which include the Scottish Arts Council showcase feat. Tommy Reilly, We Were Promised Jetpacks and Frightened Rabbit, Cheap Trick, Metric, Miike Snow, We Are Scientists, Broken Social Scene, Motorhead and many many more.
The SXSW website provides MP3s of almost all of the acts playing so if you have the time it makes for a great way to check out upcoming acts from around the world, and if you are that way inclined you can find a torrent of all of those MP3s Here, all 5 GBs of them. I’m currently sifting through the 1000 odd songs looking for some gems and will let you know what I find.
For More information on the Festival, Check out the Official Site