- 1). Order your badges as early as you possibly can through the SXSW website (see Resources below). You can get badges for the music festival or a combination of festivals, or you can really splurge and get the Platinum badge, which will get you into every SXSW event. Badges are nonrefundable. Pick them up at the Convention Center when you arrive in town. You'll also find that at the really popular concerts, people with badges are allowed in, while those merely waving cash around are often denied entry.
- 2). Reserve your lodging early. Some people get their hotel arrangements through SXSW when they order their badges. Others try different arrangements. Understand that no event, not even a Longhorn football game, stretches Austin's hotel capacity the way SXSW does. SXSW coincides with spring break, so if you have student friends in Austin who are going out of town, maybe you can talk them into letting you stay in their apartment.
- 3). Prepare yourself for trouble with transportation and parking. If your hotel is downtown, you'll be in good shape, since most of the events will be within walking distance. If you're staying farther out, you can drive in and try to park near downtown. Free shuttles, called "Dillos," run around major points downtown. Cabs, however, might require a lengthy wait.
- 4). Lower your expectations if you're in a band. Yes, the town is full of agents and music executives, but there are so many bands in town during SXSW that you will as likely as not fall through the cracks. Remember also that the most successful band ever signed at SXSW was Hanson, though the Hanson boys didn't even have a formal gig--they just walked up to an agent and sang to him. But their story is the stuff of which SXSW urban legends are made. Some desperate bands have even taken to renting trucks and doing impromptu concerts in parking lots while standing on the truck beds, but that's also a good way to get arrested.
- 5). Keep hope alive if you can't get badges or an official gig at a venue. There are free shows all over town, including concerts at Auditorium Shores as well as at clubs that object to the "commercialization" of SXSW. And struggling musicians have learned that it costs nothing to network and schmooze.
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