South by Southwest stages Austin
— a city that becomes a stage for a week.
Not only on a wall.
South by Southwest stages Austin, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
Each tile ships in a kraft box, tied with cream ribbon, with a handwritten note from the studio if you'd like to add one.
Three or five different vistas, hung together — a chapter of places you've been, or want to go.
“For ten days in March, downtown Austin turns into a wired-up grid of stages, screening rooms, and pop-ups. Stubb's amphitheater, ACL Live at the Moody, Antone's, the Mohawk, Cheer Up Charlies — all running at once. The festival began in 1987 with 700 attendees. It now draws hundreds of thousands across music, film, and tech, and the city quiets down again by the end of the month.
The place, in three passes.
South by Southwest, known as SXSW, is an annual conference and festival held in Austin, Texas, every March. It began in March 1987 as a regional music event with about 700 registered attendees and has grown into a combined Music, Film & TV, and Interactive program spread across roughly ten days. The Austin Convention Center anchors the daytime programming, while music showcases take over more than 100 venues in the Red River, East Sixth, Rainey Street, and South Congress districts. Total attendance now regularly exceeds 280,000.
The festival runs each year in the second and third weeks of March, traditionally beginning the Friday before St. Patrick's Day. Interactive and Film open the schedule and Music closes it, with the largest outdoor showcases at Stubb's Bar-B-Q on Red River Street and at Auditorium Shores on Lady Bird Lake. The 2020 edition was cancelled six days before opening — the first cancellation in 33 years — when the city declared a public-health disaster. The festival returned in person in 2022 and has run every March since.
Badges and wristbands are sold separately: a Platinum badge covers all three tracks, while single-track badges admit holders to one program. Music wristbands provide showcase access on a space-available basis after badge-holders are seated. Many of the most-loved shows are unofficial free events around East Austin, including day parties at Hotel Vegas and Cheer Up Charlies. The city's bus and MetroRail systems offer extended hours, and ride-share surge pricing along Sixth Street routinely runs three to four times the usual rate after midnight.
