![]() ![]() Her weeklong booking canceled because SXSW isn’t happening. ![]() Kate Kniejski, who runs an Airbnb with her parents. SXSW canceling sucks, but we totally understand why it had to be done.” Our little Airbnb business helps supplement my parents’ retirement, and helps my husband and I to keep up with rising property taxes in East Austin. "Because we operate year round, it’s not catastrophic, but March is our best month of the year, of course, because of SXSW. We are gonna try and do the best we can given the situation.” The cities decision to cancel SXSW will have a permanent and negative effect on a lot of local businesses. "Me and my staff are more worried about being robbed or stabbed by a local homeless vagrant than we are catching coronavirus. We were counting on SXSW income to help make up that price inflation. My building was sold and on January 1st, my rent was increased 88%. I am hoping the people that do still come to Austin as well as the locals come out and support all of us during this trying time. "However, we are a live music venue and bar 365 days a year and I still have over 100 bands coming to Austin to perform. The sheer loss of the amount of people alone affects my bottom line, my staffs tips, hourly pay, etc. "Naturally, the cancellation of SXSW is going to hurt my business very negatively. – Carmen Valera, co-owner of Tamale House East on East Sixth Street, on catering bids she’d sent to companies coming to town for SXSW “There’s probably been a lot of ups and downs since 1958 and we’ve weathered them. Last year we did UberEats, which is probably the type of marketing campaign I couldn’t afford. “The media exposure you get with South by – if some giant company is doing an event with you, they’re promoting you. and lo and behold, I read those three companies aren’t coming anymore. “Last week I just didn’t hear from anymore. – Carlos Acosta, owner of Rosarito Food Trucks We're probably going to feel it in a month or two. So I can see every small business in Austin doing the same – buying new equipment, hiring more people. We made a timeline to open a week before South By. That's why we opened this second food truck. So South By is when you're able to make those two months back in a week and then some. Basically, January and February is very slow for most businesses, but especially for food trucks because of the weather. KUT Carlos Acosta, owner of Rosarito, opened a second food truck in anticipation of South by Southwest. – Jonny Wolf, a member of the Austin-based band The Ghost Wolves So that’s what we were looking for this year, and now we won’t have that necessarily.” So every year we play we seem to meet somebody that helps. We did a record with a label from Nashville after playing it a couple years ago. We ended up with a European booking agent after playing it a couple of years ago. “The past couple of years we played, it’s always led to opportunities for us. – Dossey, an Austin-based musician and official SXSW artist this year, who was hoping to find label representation at the festival I make pop music, there is a very small community of us here in town, but we still have to reach outside of the city because the city is not set up as a pop loving city so much.” So this was a good reason to do and timely for me for sure. “Being in Austin you don’t get to see a lot of people from LA or New York, industry wise, very often. – Rebecca Charles, a special event bartender, via Facebook Our spot isn’t a regular bar, without the events, we have no work." " out so much money that I don’t even want to say it. – Steve Sternschein, managing partner of Heard Presents, which operates Empire Control Room and the Parish We need people who care about new ideas, new music, making new connections, and we can still do that regardless of whether there's a huge South By logo at the top of the stage.” That's great. We don’t need those people. “Some folks are coming to town just to collect money. And part of the reason why we throw music events is to give people a break from the harsh reality that we're hurtling through space at millions of miles an hour on this little rock, and we're just specks of dust. But, I think that the world is a f- scary place all the time, and there's so many different ways you can go. It's really scary – especially for the groups that are most at-risk. KUT Stephen Sternschein, owner of Heard Productions, talks at Empire Control Room with members of the music industry in Austin about organizing after SXSW's cancellation. ![]()
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