AUSTIN, Texas — One of the biggest events of the year, South By Southwest (SXSW) kicked off Friday morning at the Austin Convention Center. The annual conference and festival celebrates tech, film, music, education and culture.
According to the city, more than 300,000 people attend the festival every year. Festival goers come from not only all around the country, but all around the world to experience SXSW.
For Vladyslav Saviak, it was his first time ever visiting the country, let alone his first time visiting Texas.
“I’m really excited, I’ve been looking forward to this festival for quite a lot of time,” Saviak said. “I already have some thoughts of who I want to meet, want to talk to and definitely take some pictures for the rest of my life.”
For others like Jose Guerrero, SXSW is in his backyard. He’s an Austin native who’s attended the festival for the last five years.
“It’s great, even to get to meet a lot of people and just pick up some ideas about the different technologies that are out there,” Guerrero said.
Guerrero said he’s met people from Canada, to Brazil to even South Africa.
But it’s not only a big deal to people attending the festival: it’s also a big deal for businesses around the area. Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken is right next to the Austin Convention Center and sees lines out the door most days of the festival.
“We’ll probably see maybe like a 50% increase, maybe 100% increase some of the days, so it’s definitely going to be a good week for us,” Hank Burbridge, an employee with Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken, said.
Even though it’s only the festival’s first day, the excitement is growing for the next nine days. Movie screenings will start Friday and continue on through next week. The music festival starts on Monday.
SXSW wraps up next Saturday, March 15.