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SXSW scene report: Random encounters
Clark Parsons is attending for the first time since 1991, when he covered the festival for the Nashville Scene. Now he’s the managing director the Berlin School for Creative Leadership, an “executive education” school. “The last time I came here, I knew a far greater percentage of the bands,” Parsons said. “It’s overwhelming to confront the fact that I’m no longer au courant.” Parsons compares SXSW Music to the Berlin Film Festival. “Both do an amazing job for the people at whom they are aimed.”
Standing at the corner of Sixth and Trinity streets, Victor Ituarte, 23, continued what has become another SXSW tradition: free hugs. This is his second time giving away the arm wraps. He started at 5 p.m. when he got tired of waiting in the Pure Volume Line. “The vibe is that everyone seems really happy, there’s good humor and good energy all around,” he said after about three hours. “Everybody seems relieved that SXSW is finally here. It seems that the wait is longer every year and we start talking about it earlier.” Why the hugs? “It’s all about starting a positive change and making people feel better. Evil begets evil so it makes sense that good would beget good.”
Music badge registrant Bob Somers, from Winnipeg, Canada. is at his fourth SXSW. A former musician turned landscape architect, he comes just for the music. “It seems like it doesn’t seem to change much from year to year, which is something I like about it and why I keep coming, because I feel like I can count on it,” he said. “In Winnipeg, we never get any of the big indie bands and also it’s a size thing. South by gives me the chance to see artists in small venue and clubs that I wouldn’t usually get to.”
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