Has anybody ever attended SXSW? One of my college friends has relocated to Dallas and I can get free flights to Houston through work, and since my friends are all film nerds/music fanatics/general party animals we've talked about making the Spring trip down to Austin.

However, none of us are interested in the actual convention (it's very expensive).

Concerns:

  • Will we be able to get a hotel room for less than $200 a night that is within a reasonable distance to downtown?


  • Are we going to be able to get into any film screenings without the convention badge? We'd be willing to wait in lengthy lines


  • I know they call it a music festival but... isn't it basically just a bunch of independent shows in one town over a one week period? What are prices like?


Thanks to anybody with any experiences or knowledge they can share!