Let's Play a SXSW Game: 3 Insane Fake Pop-Ups and 3 Insane Real Pop-Ups
Can y'all figure out which are which?
Once, there was a day—something long time Austin residents will relish talking your ear off about—when the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival was 100% about the product.
The first one, which was totally dedicated to music (and had only 700 people show up) kicked off in 1987, and a film component was added soon after, in 1994. A year later, the music and film parts became their own separate beings, and since then other bells and whistles like SXSW Interactive have been added, swapped out, and tweaked.
But in the almost four decades since its launch, SXSW has become more, shall we say, corporate. While cool local indie bands can still score sweet gigs, the festival itself is now a behemoth, attracting and cultivating loads of hype and branding attention from both coasts, and in the process becoming unrecognizable to most of y’all in Austin over 50.
It’s here where I want to have a bit of fun by focusing on the branding—specifically, the ubiquitous pop-ups that are so in vogue now at the festival.
To do so, I’m listing six SXSW pop-ups, below. Three are real and three are fake (but still awesome). I need y’all to guess which are which in the comments.
(Note: The art for all of them was A.I. generated specifically for this exercise.)
Here we go:
1. Giant, Inflatable Poop: Curated by a company called Pourri (think ‘Poo-Pourri’, how clever!), this 30-foot high, turd-shaped blowup will be the cornerstone of a feces-focused, Camp Funk. The p(o)op-up will reportedly feature some sweet tunes not from butts—including a gaggle of live bands—and a plethora of scented delights perfect for covering up a litany of perfectly natural but still unsavory human smells.
2. Ain’t No Party Like an Oppenheimer Party: Equipped with everything a tortured, genius physicist needs, from chalkboards and pipes to (hopefully) a well-worn easy chair on which to awkwardly copulate with your chosen mistress of the day (not for real, please), this odd, interactive space called Oppenheimer’s Universe is the bomb and lets you walk in the heavy shoes of Robert Oppenheimer. It also features a fully staffed Martini bar and various farm-to-table, atom-friendly finger foods courtesy of local Austin chef Kevin Fink.
3. Super Fun ABIA Airport Lounge-Themed Bar: What’s better than sneaking away from the airport riffraff by escaping to a swanky executive airline lounge? Sneaking away from the SXSW riffraff by escaping to a swanky pop-up executive airport lounge. Southwest Airlines was reportedly the favorites to land this one, but never showed up at the contract table, so it was re-booked with Delta and, voila, The Delta Lounge at SXSW was born. Using those sky miles to get sauced without worrying about airport parking feels great!
4. Interactive Hallmark Small Town: Whether it’s a big city ad exec from New York City finding love with an old boyfriend while visiting her quaint hometown to help with her sick mom’s music shop or a big city lawyer from L.A. finding love with an old boyfriend while visiting her quaint hometown to save the community arts center, Hallmark Heaven Presented by Crown Media has both plots covered! With wine aplenty, rub elbows with a few of your favorite Hallmark actors (Andrew Walker and Lacey Chabert are slated to appear) while perhaps even finding a small-town love of your own that you never saw coming!
5. Kendra Scott + Mimosas = Yummy!: Many women in Austin and Lakeway have come to adore Kendra Scott’s unique thrift store-quality jewelry at upscale department store prices, but this new SXSW pop-up at Hotel San Jose called Sunday with Kendra Scott ft. Jackie Venson—complete with a mimosa bar—will bring The Domain all the way to downtown Austin. Will there be an appearance by Kendra herself? Y’all had better check it out to see!
6. Devil-Child Movie Confession Booth: It’s only common sense that the Austin moviegoing public has been clamoring not only for a reboot of The Omen—the creepy 1970s origin story for the Prince of Darkness himself, Damien—but also a convenient place to confess their bad deeds at SXSW. Well, partner, I have the pop-up for you in the form of a First Omen Confessional Booth. Unloading your Catholic guilt before downing some Hill Country-sourced “communion wine” is the perfect combo to make your SXSW complete!
That’s the list! Put your guesses for the real and fake ones in the comments, below! Good luck!
All are entirely plausible!
Guessing 2, 4 and 5 for the real ones.