Live, in Photos: SXSW Music Festival 2023

EventsLive, In Photos

Live, in Photos: SXSW Music Festival 2023

Be Your Own Pet, Bartees Strange, Militarie Gun, Sweet Pill, Debby Friday, Godcaster, and more highlights from the annual music conference.

Words: FLOOD Staff

Photos: Skylar Watkins

March 21, 2023

Militarie Gun crowd at Lost Weekend/Brooklyn Vegan party at Mohawk in Austin, TX. March 15, 2023. Photo by Skylar Watkins

Founded in 1987, the early years of the annual SXSW music conference in Austin, Texas offered a unique setting for a few thousand registrants (there were actually only 700 for their first year) to discover new music and connect with industry folk. For the most part, SXSW lived up to its mission for "creative people to develop their careers by bringing together people from around the globe to meet, learn and share ideas." After panels in the day, the clubs on 6th Street would come alive, as you could wander from club to club to check out new bands or search out the best BBQ joint.

Of course, SXSW has changed in many ways since those early years, as big brands and party dwellers descended upon the city, and the festival reached a breaking point of decadence with over-crowding and over-the-top brand activations. The devolution of SXSW requires a much longer story than we can get into here, but throughout it all, the music remained—it just grew a little more challenging to navigate (and to get into venues, even with a pricey SXSW badge).

In March of 2020, SXSW was one of the first major events to cancel in the wake of the pandemic, and was forced to shut down for two years. But in the interim, somehow, someway, SXSW became fun again after its return last year.

Godcaster at Post Trash (Unofficial Party) at Hole in the Wall

Sure, you've still got Doritos and Coca-Cola sponsoring big branded events, but you've also got hundreds of fantastic developing artists from around the world performing at both official and unofficial showcases and parties. We've talked a lot about our own FLOODfest shindig at the Mohawk, but there were also great events from the likes of Topshelf Records, Marshall, Third Man Records, Stereogum, Brooklyn Vegan, Beyond the Music, NME, Dance to the Music, Tiger Den, Wasserman Music, and countless others.

It was FLOOD photographer Skylar Watkins' first year at SXSW, so she probably has no idea what we're talking about, but along the way she discovered a plethora of cool happenings around the city everywhere from official SXSW venues to abandoned warehouses, while documenting the true underbelly of the SXSW music experience.

Check out her live photos and candid artist portraits she captured throughout the week, from established artists like Bartees Strange, Sunflower Bean, and recently reunited punks Be Your Own Pet, to emerging bands including Sweet Pill, Godcaster, Venus Twins, and Cinnamon Babe.