Industry shindig lays out its options following chaos and fatalities at this year’s event.
After a car crash left four attendees dead at this year’s SXSW in Austin, Texas, a report commissioned by the festival has proposed some major changes to its operations, including a potential ban on unofficial gigs.
The report by event consulting firm Populous proposes a cap on the total number of events and suggests that it is “very possible” that SXSW “will have no choice but to entertain notions of bidding their event to other cities to sustain their business model.”
The report also floats the creation of a ‘Clean Zone’ that would “protect the brand equity of SXSW and its sponsors”. As Texas Monthly points out, unsanctioned events can be great for SXSW when a huge star like Kanye West shows up, but the festival also gets the blame when people are injured in a rush to get inside the venue, which may not have a safety plan in place for the appearance of an A-lister.
The safety plan outlined in the report proposes access restrictions on the busy thoroughfare of 6th Street, including “soft searching” street entrants for prohibited items, banning buskers, and restricting events that take place in nearby parking lots.
The report also notes that “the current policy of the City with respect to the permitting process as ‘first come, first served’ and/or ‘must treat everyone equally’ appears to have become detrimental to event planning process.” So that’s a thumbs-down to equal treatment for punters, but thumbs-up for protecting brand interests. SXSW organisers now have to work out which of the report’s proposals it wants to implement in time for next year’s event.
FACT TV was on the ground at this year’s SXSW – check out our interviews with Rome Fortune, Denzel Curry, ZMoney and more.
Update: SXSW have issued a statement which clarifies a few of these points – fans don’t need to worry that they’re thinking of leaving Austin – they’re absolutely not – and while they do want to make sure that unofficial events are under control, they have no intention of stamping them out, and even admit that they couldn’t if they tried.
You can read the full statement below (via Stereogum)
“We’ve been careful not to say anything that implies we’re trying to ban unofficial events because, even if we could, we wouldn’t try to do that. We totally get that unofficial events are part of the appeal of SXSW, though the line between “official” and “unofficial” can be hard to distinguish.
The Populous report is their expert assessment and opinion, not ours, and we agree with most of it, but not all of it. In our own statements we’ve been careful not to imply a threat to relocate SXSW, and have also explicitly stated that is not our position numerous times.
What we’re asking the City to do is put a limit on the number of permits issued for events that require temporary permits, based on location, capacity and infrastructure. The City did that for the first time this past year, and we think it was a common sense move that should be a standard procedure. Parts of 6th Street are severely overcrowded and can’t support more pop-up events. The majority of the unofficial events are in existing businesses and this would not affect them.
The most important part of what we’re asking for is a comprehensive safety plan that will include not just SXSW events, but every other significant activity downtown during our event. Marketing companies are fond of the tactic of keeping everything a secret until the last minute to avoid scrutiny. SXSW, the unofficial events, and the City all need transparency in order to plan for safety properly.”
