Fastfwd01's video: Austin SXSW 2018

So, took a trip down to Austin during SXSW and stayed in the area for a few days. I didn’t have a pass because they’re pretty expensive in my opinion. I think the cheapest you can get a pass if you order early starts at around $800 and they go up to over $1,600 I believe and that’s just too rich for me personally. There are still a number of things to do associated with the SXSW festival that you can do with only a guest pass and Austin is full of things to do without the SXSW events. I wanted to see all of the people who showed up and I actually might have been a little surprised that there were as many celebrities and notable figures as there were who were in town. I didn’t really research exactly who all was going to be where and just played it by ear so to speak. There was definitely a lot of excitement in the air with all of the VIP’s in town. Saturday was one of the most incredible spring days that I’ve experienced after being cooped up all winter. I found myself just wanting to walk up and down the river and watch all of the activity on the trails and the water. The skyline of Austin has dramatically transformed from when I lived there in the late 90s. The high-rise condos, etc. are somewhat difficult to believe to be under construction. I ended up hitting the usual scenic sights of Austin after walking the town all day. There was the announcement of Spielberg’s new movie (Ready Player One) being the secret premiere that I guess SXSW is known to have each year. I thought I had reason to make a point to schedule my day Sunday around being sure I could make it to the red carpet and feel fresh and cleaned up after all of the walking I did Saturday lugging my laptop and camera around town. It ended up that Spielberg didn’t even walk the red carpet and there were lots of disappointed people, but the stars of the film did very graciously sign autographs and take pictures with fans. So, not a total loss and I’ve never really done a red carpet like that before. It was an interesting first experience. I hit most of the restaurants that I associate with Austin while down. I also hit several coffee bars in town and just generally had myself a little mini vacation….