SXSW wristbands gone in record time

Organizers of music festival might offer more for sale later

By Joe Gross, Kathy Blackwell
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Friday, February 24, 2006

If you hope to attend this year's South by Southwest Music Festival and you weren't at Waterloo Records on Thursday, you might need to come up with other plans for March 15 to 19. The first wave of 4,000 wristbands for the festival were snatched up in record time.

At 10 a.m., 1,400 wristbands went on sale for $130 and sold out in 90 minutes, despite the lack of advance notice. The next 2,000 bands, priced at $150, were gone by 5:30 p.m. The wristbands were sold only on a walk-up basis at Waterloo and couldn't be purchased by phone or on the Internet.

A special sale Wednesday night was an indicator of things to come. At 6:59 p.m., subscribers to the SXSW text-message list received a message that 600 wristbands were on sale at Waterloo. Those wristbands, priced at $130, were gone within an hour.

The wristbands allow entrance — but don't guarantee admission — to festival venues and to the Austin Music Awards at the Austin Music Hall on March 15. More than 1,300 bands will play the festival, which marks its 20th anniversary this year.

The one-day sellout of 4,000 wristbands beat last year's record pace by several days. A year ago today, the first 2,000 wristbands sold out at Waterloo in eight hours for $110 each. The second wave of 2,000, for $130 each, took a couple of days to sell out. A third wave was released closer to the festival for $150.

Waterloo Records owner John Kunz said that several factors contributed to the speed of the sale this year.

The store had five stations taking wristband orders, up from two in 2005.

"That's a good portion of why they sold through faster," he said.

And "last year, there was a four-per-person limit on the second 2,000" wristbands, Kunz said. "This year it was limited to two the entire time."

Kunz couldn't provide an exact figure on how many people bought wristbands, but he estimated that 19 out of every 20 customers were buying the maximum of two wristbands.

There are still options for would-be festival-goers. SXSW organizers are deciding whether to release more wristbands, as they have in years past; they typically sell between 5,000 and 6,000 wristbands.

And music badges are still available for $575. Badgeholders take priority over wristband wearers for admittance into venues. Badges also allow entry to the SXSW festival panels at the Austin Convention Center.

Even as wristbands were selling out Thursday, they were popping up on Web sites such as eBay and Craigslist. Dozens were available, with an average starting price of about $200.

When there were about 30 or 40 wristbands left, Kunz walked out to let the people still in line know.

He was surprised that some were waiting for tickets to other things.

"There was one couple, from an Eastern European country, I think, who were in line after the final person who could get wristbands. English was their second language, and I was trying to explain the wristbands were gone. Suddenly, I realized they wanted Ice Bats tickets."

jgross@statesman.com; 912-5926