By Rachel Bui
There are other components of SXSW that overlaps with the music portion, and the music festival typically begins the Monday following the start of the SXSW. I arrived early this year to avoid long lines to pick up my badge [something I would recommend to everyone], and with plenty of time to kill, I explored other components of the festival I wouldn’t have a chance to see once the first sound check began.
One of the components of SXSW include the Comedy Festival, so “The Daily Show Presents: The Florida Man Presidential Twitter Library” tour made itself comfortable within the programming. The Twitter Library was free to the public (no SXSW registration needed), making it a required stop to those who enjoy The Daily Show with Trevor Noah (No excuses – it really was free).
Stylized as a museum exhibit, the Twitter Library had you get christened by the Nickname Generator, with sketches of other public figures who have been blessed by the president with nicknames of their own [Lyin’ Ted, Crooked Hilary, etc.]. Walking around the exhibit, you’d see tweets grouped by theme, subject, and grammatical errors. Of course, the infamous “covfefe” tweet had a showcase of its own.
There was also a simulation, “The Commander-in-Tweet,” where you’d cosplay as the president and respond to an “emergency,” Florida Man-style. Overall, the library’s collection of tweets served as a nicely-packaged recap of the whirlwind of events in this presidency, letting us laugh at the absurdity of it all before we have to return to the reality.
One other activation I’d like to highlight is The New Japan Islands, which ran Saturday, March 9, to Monday, March 11. Stylized like a Chanoma, a living room of a traditional Japanese home, the activation included various events to showcase Japanese culture, like the sake bar, several art installations, and a cup ramen bar [can’t say no to free sake]. An aspect I enjoyed about this activation was that it included info booths about Japanese startups and tourism to beautiful cities like Sapporo [like the beer] and Hamamatsu. I will admit that I made the horrible mistake of mixing caffeine with alcohol [damn that Yerba Mate], so most of Sunday was spent in a partial comatose state and I didn’t really see the the events for that evening’s program. However, the programming I did experience that weekend overall I really enjoyed.
All in all, I enjoyed my time exploring activations available before the craziness of the music festival, so if you happen to be in Austin a day or two before the music starts, please do walk around downtown – you’d never know what you’d come across.
