SXSW attendance

After years of Roger posting links to the SXSW MP3 torrent, and me faithfully downloading and listening to every song, I'm finally planning to attend the festival. Problem is, there website doesn't help me gain any clue about how to do so.

They mention "registering" to see all the music shows... for $550! It doesn't explicitly say anywhere, but I get the feeling that the fee for music industry workers to get special access and such. Certain wording on the site was the only indication.

Or do I just go there and show up at the venues, like some fan websites are suggesting. I guess there's a fee to enter every venue every night, which could rack up quickly, but not $550 worth.

Can anyone confirm these suppositions? Also, does anyone else plan to go? It would be great to know someone else there (since, so far, I'm planning to go alone). Thanks!

It would be fun to go to this again.

Last time I went (many MANY moons ago), you just paid $80 or so for a wristband and then showed up at any venue, any night, any timeslot and just walked in. If somebody with a lot of buzz was playing the midnight slot at a small club, you might go watch the lesser bands at 10 and 11 to guarantee you got in before the club filled up and they started turning people away.

But in general, you'd just bop to a different club every hour and be able to see every band you wanted to. Dirt cheap. Minimal hassle. Circle 20 bands in the guide in the paper. Go see them all.

Things Are Very Different Now!

Now it's super-expensive, you probably can't flip about from place to place and expect to see anything, every hotel is completely booked (probably already), and the town is swarming with tons of random super-annoying loud-mouthed self-important people from L.A. for a week.

Still... Awesome live music is awesome live music.
And I definitely am up for doing it again... eventually.

Thanks for the tips. I've heard it's still a blast. To be sure, I'll confirm the details with someone I know who went in recent years.

Thanks to the MP3 collections, I've gathered a list of bands that I really like (and lists of bands I appreciate and don't want to hear). It would be great to see some of them, and some new bands all at once.