Nearly one year ago today I began as an Advancement Team intern in
the Music Festival Department at South by Southwest conferences and festivals
in Austin, Texas. Three months into my internship one of the directors hired me on
seasonally as his assistant and I held that position until the end of this past
April. I went into a month long evaluation period and was then contacted by my
previous boss and was offered a full-time position as a Music Festival Assistant
Coordinator. My main duty is to program nighttime shows with some of our
showcase presenting entities, such as the performing rights organization ASCAP
and booking labels such as the Danny Rose Agency based in Los Angeles. In a
sense I am a “booker,” but I use this term loosely because we do not actually talent
buy as a booker would for a concert venue or typical fan-based festival. SXSW
is an industry driven event where individuals come to share their ideas and
their talents with others in hopes of gaining interest and support. For all
intents and purposes, people come to SXSW to discover and to be discovered.
When I first
started at SXSW I honestly wasn’t sure as to where my career would be going
because the festival circuit was one I had never worked in; I have the majority
of my experience in venue operations and smaller-scale event planning. But it
soon became clear to me that I was utilizing many of those skills, just on a
much larger scale. I had always dreamed of becoming a booker for a music venue, and
now, not too far off from that, I am a programmer for a music festival.
Where this really differs is that I am working
directly with presenters, and indirectly with talent and venues. To explain
that a bit further, we have two types of official music showcases at SXSW:
presented or unattached. SXSW offers showcases to entertainment entities that
we believe well represent current trends in music. The types of companies we
work with include booking agencies, record labels, management and/or PR groups,
other festival brands, and world-renowned venues. Presenters are able to host
showcases because of their strong relationships with artists who could
potentially play their show at our festival.
Presented showcases are most ideal because they
are mutually beneficial to the presenter, our festival, and the performers on
the show. If SXSW sees potential in a company to become an official presenter,
we work with that entity to curate a show that positively represents both the
company and our event, all the while promoting the artists. It is in everyone’s
best interest to have a specific company name on a showcase (besides SXSW)
because it can generate interest from attendees and get them to a show that
they may have otherwise not even considered. Our presenters also work
especially hard to promote their showcases and the artists on their bill, which
helps SXSW out immensely considering we showcase thousands of acts on over a
hundred different stages in five days.
This is not to say that our unattached
showcases do not do well; but overall we strive to attach as many artists as we
can to a presenting entity that we know will promote them so that they have the best
possible outcome from showcasing their talents at one of our events. Considering
it is their responsibility to get themselves to Austin for the festival, we
always want to make sure that it is truly worth their while.
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