Angela Dussault Buffalo NY reports on the SXSW Music Festival

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Buffalo, New York, United States of America (Free-Press-Release.com) April 13, 2011 -- Twenty-five years after the South by Southwest Music festival emerged as a showcase for new bands, it has become as big and eclectic as pop culture itself with spotlights on movies and, increasingly, high-tech.

Fans flocked to this college town for the event known as SXSW to catch performances by some of music's biggest acts -- Kanye West, the Strokes and the Foo Fighters -- and to hear legends like Yoko Ono and Bob Geldof reflect on their careers.

In an around-the-clock, beer and barbeque-fueled frenzy of "showcase" performances, fans jammed into bars, restaurants, churches, hair salons and Lance Armstrong's bike shop to hear over 2,000 acts from around the world perform. They saw a movie about Conan O'Brien's renaissance and caught a glimpse of Mel Gibson's dark side in Jodie Foster's film drama "The Beaver."

But for the industry executives and sponsors that descended on the 10-day music, film, and media marathon that ended on Sunday, it was a chance to walk the digital edge of technology and give advertising strategies the street test, literally.

PepsiCo Inc took over a vacant lot in downtown Austin and converted it to the Pepsi MAX Lot, where fans could sip Pepsi products, soak up free wi-fi and catch performances from big-name acts like Big Boi and Snoop Dogg.

Live performances were "streamed" on the Internet, and fans could share pictures and comments via Instagram, Twitter and foursquare, and PepsiCo offered a real-time "Zeitgeist" ticker to take the "digital pulse" of the event.

Angela Dussault     Angela Dussault Buffalo     Angela Dussault Buffalo NY     entertainment