South by Southwest music, film and interactive festival turns Austin into a buzzing city with some of the top names in entertainment. Walking down 6th Street, music will be buzzing out of every door, rarely breaking for a nap. It’s not called the live music capital of the world for no reason. Once a launch pad for indie bands, it has now swelled to include acts like Jay Z and Kanye West, easily some of the biggest names in music—all while still maintaining a record for breaking some of the best new acts.
And then the there is the film festival. Once the little sister of the music festival, in recent years, it has launched the careers of rising filmmakers like Lena Dunham, and has been an important stop for established filmmakers like Richard Linklater and Harmony Korine. If innovative and subversive sounds like your idea of an interesting 90 minutes, the film schedule will be sure to delight.
The Texas State capital also offers plenty to enjoy between screenings and concerts. There are icons of the BBQ world including Stubb’s (be sure to try to pulled pork) or if Asian is more your style, try Top Chef and James Beard-award winning Paul Qui’s East Side Kings or the upscale Qui. And to work off those meals, it should be no surprise that noted yoga studios are in the city where Whole Foods was founded. Wanderlust Yoga, from the folks behind the movement and music festival, is located downtown.
Arts and culture offerings in Texas aren’t limited to the two weeks of SXSW. There’s Marfa, a town located off a dusty stretch of highway in east Texas which is also home to large public works by Donald Judd, Dan Flavin and Prada Marfa, a pop art exhibit replicating a boutique complete with bags in the window.
While the Western aesthetic of big boots and bigger hats are what Texas is traditionally associated with, some might be surprised that it is also home to some of the finest modern and contemporary art in the world. Just down from the comprehensive Museum of Fine Arts, Houston’s Rothko Chapel is a non-denominational chapel and tranquil sanctuary with massive paintings by the namesake artist on the walls. The space with its dramatic lighting is more than just a venue to view art, it’s an immersive experience.
In Dallas, visitors will find more work to gaze upon from the Dallas Arts District to the halls of the Dallas Museum of Art to the Renzo Piano-designed Nasher Sculpture Center, to Modernist homes by Philip Johnson. Just outside Dallas, is the state’s oldest art museum, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, and by that is the indelible Kimbell Art Museum. As a rule of thumb, anything with the De Menil name on it will be in good taste. Using oil money to support almost every major midcentury artist in America, the family also founded New York’s DIA Foundation.
Just be wary of scale and travel times. Everything is bigger in Texas, including the size.
Key Facts
– The 2nd most populous, and the 2nd largest state in the U.S.
– Houston is the largest city in Texas, and the fourth largest in the country
– After winning independence from Mexico in 1836, Texas was its own country for 10 years before being annexed by the U.S. in 1845
– The terrain includes desert, prairies, grasslands and beaches offering a wide variety of experiences and animals, including nearly 600 natives species
– Nearly a third of the population speaks Spanish, including a large Hispanic population
Why Texas
– Unparalleled diversity of experience from rodeos to top contemporary art
– The food: Great Mexican, great BBQ, great high-end cuisine too
– With Spain, Mexico and France all at one point holding a claim over the area, Texas has its own unique flavor that’s a blend of those cultures with the American
Beware Of
– Texas is a big state, plan accordingly
– The winters are mild but the summers can be hot, regularly reaching above 30 degrees Celsius in the summers
– Air conditioning is heavily used during the summers so even if it’s hot outside, it might be frigid in restaurants and museums so bring layers
– With downtown Austin as an exception, most of Texas is unnavigable without a car. The public transportation system is lacking though the city-to-city trains aren’t bad
– Be sure to try the chili, the official state dish, but only if you’re not a vegetarian. Traditional Texas-style chili contains meat, but no beans
– While larger cities, and Austin in particular, are more socially liberal, other parts of the state are less so and LGBT public displays of affection might attract the wrong attention.
Slipstream Travel Diaries 