Suffice to say the Raincity Studios clan are pretty excited about SxSW in Austin, Texas.

Yup, I'll be rolling with a posse of Vangroovy SxSW veterans. The Raincity Studios "away team" consists of Scales, KK+. Erik, Roland "Mr. Furley" Tangalo, and me and we're hosting a 10x20 booth (I prefer to call it a lounge) with all sorts of activities in mind during the Interactive and the Music portions of the shindig.

As pointed out in the Tokyo Ramen and SxSW vidcast - social media lunatic Roland Tanglao and I plan to brew up a variety of coverage - live, on-demand, useful, incidental ... interviews with geeks doing neat things, bands, bloggers, labels, fanzines, you ... whoknows?

If you are not in the know, SxSW started as genre-spanning, indie music showcase in the party-ready town of Austin about 15 years ago. It's grown into a multi-part festival/trade show/conference covering music, film and interactive media.

Here's how SxSW tell their own story:

National interest in SXSW was immediate. For years, music businesses on both coasts had been intrigued by what was going on in Austin. The cosmic cowboy, blues, punk and other scenes had already proven that Austin was a receptive place for bands to be creative. With SXSW, music industry executives gained a good excuse to visit.

{snip}

The music event has grown from 700 people in 1987 to nearly 10,000 people. As Austin has grown and diversified, film companies and high-tech companies have played a major role in the Austin and the Texas economies. In 1994, SXSW added a film and interactive component to accommodate these growth industries. SXSW Film and SXSW Interactive events attract approximately 7,000 people to Austin every March.

Here's how the 2008 schedule breaks down:

SXSWeek 2008 › March 7 - 16
Interactive › March 7 - 11
Film › March 7 - 15
Music › March 12 - 16

At last year's SxSW Vancouver photographer (and Raincity Pres) Kris Krug and international man of Drupal (and Raincity CEO) Robert Scales took tons of awesome rock and roll pics during photo shoots and performances - including the leathery Iggy Pop. Besides being a lot of fun, by releasing their shots with a Creative Commons license, their photos have helped a lot of bands with free/cheap publicity.

As an long-time indie music enthusiast, I've long wanted to go to SxSW, and based on what i've heard from the veterans, I am in for a bit of an overwhelming, sensory overload experience.

Vancouver tech enthusiast John Biehler gives a good sense of what's in store:

This will be my third trip to the Lone Star state and look forward to meeting up with friends again as well as taking in all it has to offer. It’s also one of the least expensive tech conferences and there is arguably no better place to meet and interact with the brightest people in the tech world. If you haven’t already booked a hotel expect a long commute as all the good ones were booked months ago…I had the foresight to book mine last September. It’s worth the trip for the BBQ beef brisket alone and the Raincity Studios folks put on the best party during the event.

Indeed, the NxSW party at the Iron Cactus (promoted with our friends at Blue Flavor and and Serverbeach) is a go with custom fancy artwork to promote the gig (the requests are already coming in) and help consume the liberal bar budget. Fortunately, I went to the "Hunter S. Thompson school of journalism" so I'll be providing grassroots coverage from whereever/however is possible.

Though I''ll be holding court at the booth much of the time, I do hope to catch some interactive media and music panels - really the list is epic and laden with potential knowledge.

Ditto with the Confirmed Speaker List - this event attracts some of the most compelling people doing the tech, new media punditry schtick from Facebook's youthful chief to Africa 2.0: Affecting Change Using Technology by G. Kofi Annan (not the former UN General Secretary).

Again, savvy John Bielher vetted the list for the tastiest SxSW selections including Kris Krug's panel on Monday, March 10th titled "Blame Canada - Seven ways Canada is further ahead than the USA in new media." Here's a snippet from his SXSW 2008 Preview:

Ironically, I had gone through the schedule before the names were attached and had actually circled the “Blame Canada” session without even knowing that kk+ was the one giving it so I’m sure it will rock.

During the day, there's plenty of learning and business to do, at night the parties roll on with a ridiculous bounty of acts - big and small - playing at club venues for audiences of students, dot-commers, labels execs and other rockers.

The Austinist points out their highlights:

Highlights include:
R.E.M.
My Morning Jacket
Dolly Parton
Vampire Weekend
Shout Out Louds
Bon Iver
Billy Bragg
British Sea Power
The Cribs
Cut Copy

...and about 1,500 other acts.

Last year I listened along to many of the SxSW speakers via podcasts and encourage you to peruse the 2007 SxSW archival site, particularly the SxSW podcast blog archive (i'll make it easy and give you the SxSW podcast feed).

Importantly, with this level of visibility and renown, the fest has a Sustainability policy posted - not sure if we can make up the carbon footprint from the airlines but they are giving a good start:

The SXSW Festival is working with Ecology Action of Austin to recycle all waste from our outdoor parties and events and will use biodiesel in generators and production trucks. We've got our name on a waiting list to purchase green electricity from Austin Energy's Green Choice Power Program and are supporting the Austin Convention Center in its goal to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Certification by 2008. We've bought wind energy credits from Green Mountain Energy Co. and donated $5000 to the Austin Parks Department for the purchase and maintenance of native trees.

Finally, a Vancouver Blogger Duane Storey is eager to find crash space - i can vouch that he is a decent guy, enjoys beverages, hacking web apps and taking hyper-real photos - hook him up (PS Duane, you owe me a beer is this helps ;-)!)