\u201cThere\u2019s about two or three groups on Facebook that have complete schedules lined up for artists that are misplaced, people who are building stages, for bartenders, for door guys \u2014 it\u2019s a huge community effort,\u201d Espada says. \u201cYou pitch in what you have \u2014 I have an artist, I have a venue, I have this, and we\u2019re just, in a week, gonna regenerate something.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The scope of those hit hardest is wide, and the majority are those responsible for making sure the 10-day music, film and tech behemoth runs as smoothly as possible. This includes the people who run SXSW: On Monday, organizers announced that they\u2019d been forced to lay off a third of their full-time staff. Many more, however, are contractors like Sean Dylan, an Austin backline technician, who spends most of the year on tour, but calls the hectic days of SXSW a \u201csaving grace\u201d after the slow winter months. He says the cancellation caught him off guard, and caused him to \u201close quite a bit of income and inherit quite a bit of anxiety.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe timing couldn\u2019t have been worse,\u201d he continues. \u201cEveryone in the industry was locked into the contracts, things had been purchased for the shows, and they waited until the last feasible moment to cancel and left us all hanging. Even if they\u2019d done it a week earlier it could\u2019ve been better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shelly Lashley, the event manager for downtown venue Faregrounds, says that even before the official cancellation, about 80 percent of her events were being axed as companies pulled out early and enacted travel bans for employees. Her brother, Luke Lashley, is the founder of BL&S Films, a production house that was set to cover an array of events and activations; the cancellation not only hit his business hard, but left the 30 or so freelancers they\u2019d hired out of work as well. Compelled to do something, the Lashleys partnered with their friend Mary Kathryn Paynter \u2014 owner of the brand marketing consultancy, MKCO \u2014 to launch I Lost My Gig<\/a>, one of several crowdfunding efforts that\u2019s emerged in the past week.<\/p>\n Paynter, a native Austinite who\u2019s watched her hometown change drastically in recent years thanks to an influx of venture capital and tech jobs, says there\u2019s a big disconnect between those who enjoy events like SXSW and Austin City Limits Festival, and those that make them happen. \u201cThere\u2019s two economies here,\u201d she says, adding, \u201cReal estate prices have gone up [and] wages are not going up, and as a result, it\u2019s pushing a lot of people to take on more than one job in order to stay here, especially if you\u2019re a creative or a contractor. Because we have this huge event that provides so much of that creative work, it\u2019s created this second economy for people who are already struggling to make it.\u201d<\/p>\n I Lost My Gig was set up about an hour after SXSW was canceled. It has a simple layout and purpose: Provide a platform for those who\u2019ve lost work to share what they do, how much money they\u2019re out and offer up direct donation links via Venmo, Cash App and PayPal. The site boasts testimonials from DJs, musicians, engineers, photographers, videographers, visual artists, designers, caterers, bartenders, florists and more, with losses ranging from $800 to $40,000. As of Friday, the site had received nearly 500 submissions with reported losses totaling $3,725,000. (The Lashleys and Paynter have been vetting each submission to make sure they\u2019re all on the level.)<\/p>\n The results, they admit, have been mixed, but the overall impact has been positive. They\u2019ve received messages from people who\u2019ve woken up to avalanches of Venmo payments, and others who\u2019ve received just a trickle. But, Shelly says, one woman who didn\u2019t receive much told her, \u201cit was less about making the money and more about having her story told.\u201d Shelly continues, \u201cI think we\u2019d love it to be monetarily successful for people, but we also want to give visibility to this huge industry of people who are really impacted by this.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite being canceled due to fears of the coronavirus, South By Southwest banners still decorate the streets in Austin. **<\/p>\n The decision to cancel SXSW<\/strong> has also left the festival\u2019s most \u201cvisible\u201d people \u2014 the hundreds of touring artists that flood Austin each spring \u2014 in a difficult spot: Travel and lodging costs can be exorbitant, but few bands come close to making back the money they spend just to play SXSW. Brooklyn indie rock musician Mal Blum had four of their five shows canceled and decided to pull out of their one remaining unofficial gig, which hadn\u2019t technically been called off. Blum was bummed, but said they were surprised to see so many tweets calling for donations on behalf of bands.<\/p>\n \u201cWe weren\u2019t getting money to go to South By,\u201d Blum says. \u201cIf we cancel the rest of our tour, then yes, please give us money.\u201d (One day after speaking with Rolling Stone<\/em>, Blum did end up postponing<\/a> their entire spring tour.)<\/p>\n Blum has played SXSW seven times, and has often done so at a loss. While plenty of bigger acts receive adequate paydays, most bands, especially those that end up playing like six shows in four days, are barely compensated. Many showcases \u2014 both official and unofficial \u2014 don\u2019t pay at all, prompting bands to either strike up side deals with brands or sponsors, or hope a promoter is kind enough to slip them some money under the table. Blum notes that while most corporate-sponsored festivals will pay smaller bands between $700 and $5,000 and provide access to the rest of the festival, SXSW, because it hosts hundreds more artists than a regular festival, offers just a daily stipend of a couple hundred dollars. But, if you take it, you forfeit your access to the rest of the festival, thereby limiting your ability to attend other showcases and meet other bands, managers, label people, agents, journalists and publicists. While the myth of \u201cexposure\u201d as currency has largely been punctured in the indie world, Blum says SXSW is one of the few places where it still holds weight.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s sort of like money itself,\u201d they joke, \u201cin that we all believe in it and thus it functions.\u201d<\/p>\n Blum acknowledges that they\u2019ve still benefited from SXSW in this way, and adds that the cancellation could be particularly devastating for a band that\u2019s structured an album release around the festival. But the gauntlet bands run themselves through in order to make the most of this situation often has brutal consequences. Blum says three of their SXSW appearances have ended in a terrible illness, including a case of mono contracted from a microphone. When SXSW was canceled outright, Blum admits they first felt it was weird decision, \u201cBut then I was like, \u2018Wait a minute, I get sick every year when there isn\u2019t a contagious virus going around!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n **<\/p>\n While Blum won\u2019t be among them,<\/strong> a slew of bands and fans will still arrive in Austin next week, and there will still be plenty of shows for them to play and attend. Many unofficial shows will go on as planned, but a new festival has already emerged to fill the void South by Southwest was forced to leave. Red River Cultural District, a merchant\u2019s association that comprises 50 live music venues and other establishments in the titular area of downtown Austin where much of SXSW takes place, organized We Can Do Magic. The festival will run March 16th through 22nd, with shows scheduled at the same venues that were previously slated to host official SXSW events. RRCD also launched a GoFundMe campaign, \u201cBanded Together ATX,\u201d<\/a> which has so far raised over $25,000 to provide relief for those in the live music community.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had to rebook all those spaces last minute,\u201d says Cody Cowan, executive director of RRCD. \u201cWe had to band together, share booking contacts, share agents, talk to all of our local musician allies and really rebook, top to bottom, every space. It\u2019s ridiculous that we were able to work like this and pull it off in the timeline.\u201d (A current lineup and schedule is available on the RRCD website<\/a>, and more events are expected to be announced soon.)<\/p>\n We Can Do Magic can exist because official Austin health guidelines still allow for public events with a maximum of 2,500 people (As of Friday, Travis County, where Austin is located, reported two cases of coronavirus.) Still, the festival will be taking extra precautions, with venues increasing their sanitation budgets to allow for deep cleanings prior to events, while hand-washing and sanitizer stations will be added throughout the district.<\/p>\n The chaos and uncertainty that\u2019s followed the cancellation of SXSW shows just how important the festival has become to Austin; and the desire to help those affected most and literally create a whole new festival in its absence shows just how tight-knit the community is in the \u201clive music capital of the world.\u201d And in these efforts, the city may end up reclaiming a bit of the old, weird Austin that prevailed before the tech companies, venture capitalists and Doritos stages arrived.<\/p>\n \u201cThere will be some sense of \u2018going back to the roots\u2019 of what SXSW once was, with an emphasis on local talent, brands, sponsors, etc.,\u201d says Courtney Goforth, director of marketing for Hotel Hot Burrito, an ownership group that oversees venues like Barracuda, Hotel Vegas and Kinda Tropical (Barracuda is an RRCD member). \u201cThere are still plenty of national acts that have already routed tours through Texas that will still be coming. For the most part, there\u2019s a lot that\u2019s remained intact, it\u2019s just a matter of filling in some holes where artists have had to drop\u2026 There may be a few half-erected \u2018activations\u2019 floating around Rainey Street that give off an apocalyptic vibe, but people are definitely going to still be partying \u2014 just washing their hands more.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Despite](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/SXSW2.jpg\")
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Photo by Gary Miller\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n