These Austin Businesses Are Trying To Keep The Music Going After SXSW’s Cancellation

A project dubbed Banding Together hopes to raise $100,000 to cover expenses and lost wages of artists and contract workers who are affected by the festival’s cancellation.

By Andrew WeberMarch 9, 2020 10:00 am, , , , , ,

From KUT:

There they were, close to 30 of them, gathered around the bar, licking their wounds, talking about spreadsheets and orphans.

Less than 24 hours after the cancellation of South by Southwest over COVID-19 concerns, club owners, restaurateurs, managers, talent buyers and bartenders gathered at the Empire Control Room with a simple goal: to find homes for those hundreds of orphans – the live music showcases, day parties and other events that were without a home after the festival’s cancellation.

Spreadsheets would be key.

Friday’s decision to cancel the economic juggernaut that’s taken over downtown every spring for the last 34 years will send shockwaves through the ecosystem that props up Austin’s music scene – from bar backs to servers to bartenders to sound engineers to stage managers to artists to owners.

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