SXSW 2023: Here’s Everything We Experienced at This Year’s Festival

There are worse ways to go out than being struck by distinctly Texan lightning at a Lil Yachty show.

As we took shelter from the storm beneath a giant water slide, I made peace with this possibility, confident that someone, somewhere could whip up a fine 200 words or so about it as part of their larger SXSW coverage. I can see it now: “He died how he lived—talking to a public relations VP while guzzling vaguely libatious caffeine.”

Yachty’s set was ultimately canceled, leaving me and my fellow lightning chasers to seek our strikes elsewhere. Thankfully, there’s no shortage of bolts during SXSW. And therein lies the gleefully delirious beauty of art-focused festivals like this one. They move in like a storm and leave almost as quickly. But if you’re lucky—and more (most!) importantly, if you’re open to it—the lightning will find you again and again.

That’s certainly been my experience, and it held true throughout my inaugural trip to SXSW as a guest of festival sponsor C4 Energy. Below, see what struck me during my four days in Austin and beyond.

This piece will be continually updated.