Graph: SXSW, the Austin Brand and the Boom

This week, SXSW hits Austin, Texas with the 27th annual tech, film and music festival. Check out our infographic to explore how SXSW’s growth parallels that of the Lone Star State’s hippest city.

Credit: Erica Sachse

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This week, SXSW will bring more than 40,000 people, many of them famous, hocking zany high-tech doodads or very well-dressed, to Austin, Texas, population 830,812.

SXSW has been doing its thing in Austin for 27 years now. Over that time, the city has transformed from a charmingly eccentric den of country-influenced musicians and perma-students surviving on $2 breakfast tacos and $400 rent (see: Slacker) into one of the nation’s fastest-growing regions, with a tech industry other cities would give many, many tax breaks for and a cutthroat real estate market. In a 2011 interview, SXSW co-founder Roland Swenson described how the internationally known festival grew “along with Austin.”

No doubt the city and the festival have a symbiotic relationship. Explore it with our timeline and economic impact graphic.

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Tags: economic developmentaustindemographicsfestivals

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