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It’s nearly that time of the year again: when the music, tech, and film masses trek down to Austin, Texas for SXSW. And with them, Mayor Muriel Bowser and whole host of other D.C. officials.
Like in years past, D.C. will be represented in a big way when the festival kicks off on Saturday. The Washington DC Economic Partnership, along with the Executive Office of the Mayor, the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development’s office, and Events DC are once again hosting a number of SXSW events at the WeDC House, which will be designed by local artist Kelly Towles. Throughout the weekend, a number of local artists, including Wale, Redline Graffiti, Chaz French, Tabi Bonney, Go Cozy, Young Rapids, Visto, Tigers are Bad for Horses, Asheru, BOOMScat, DJ Mathias, and others (no go-go acts though), will be performing as part of the D.C.-centric events, culminating with a showcase on March 15.
It’ll be a pretty packed couple of days for the WeDC House, which will host a startup breakfast, a startup showcase and job fair, a lounge, and panels on “Sports, Entertainment, & Community,” “the Politics of Art in the Global Digital Space,” and the ominously titled “Future Government: Market Creator or Destroyer?” On March 13, Questlove will perform at the We The People: The Nation’s Afterparty following Bowser’s panel on “D.C. as a leading city of tech inclusion,” a release states.
But the big party is the showcase on the 15th, which will be headlined by Wale, along with Maggie Rose, Chaz French, Gallant, Tabi Bonney, Tigers are Bad for Horses, Young Rapids, Mannywellz, BOOMScat, Redline Graffiti, Go Cozy, TROPIXXX, The Borrowers, and Jay IDK.
What else will Bowser being doing during her time in Austin? Arts Desk can’t say for sure, but perhaps she’ll spend some time with SXSW’s music keynote speaker, First Lady Michelle Obama. Perhaps she’ll heed the advice of 2012 keynote speaker Bruce Springsteen and go check out some “black death metal.”