SXSW OVERFLOW FEST AT SUPER HAPPY FUN LAND
With South by Southwest just around the corner, it turns out you don’t need to plan your trip to Austin to see tons of bands — you just need to head to the East End.
For 12 years, eclectic venue Super Happy Fun Land has been hosting SXSW Overflow Fest and this year’s event — which runs from March 9 to 20 — includes more than 60 bands.
“It kinda started itself,” says venue owner Brian Arthur of how the fest began. “We were inundated with bands playing in Austin who wanted a show in Houston. We’d get 10 bands all wanting to play on the same day, so we thought we’d just put them all together and make a festival out of it. We want to welcome as many bands as we can.”
“We don’t discriminate against any genre or band,” he says. “If they’re touring and they want to play, then we’ll give them a show.”
“We get a lot of bands from out of the country and this year we have bands from Brazil (Ruído/mm), Chile (Miss Garrison), Australia (The Love Junkies), Colombia (Cirkus Funk), Italy (Brothers in Law) and France (Talisco).”
“There’s a lot of different genres,” Brian says. “We’ve got several hip hop/rap performers, lots of indie rock and metal bands, and really good lineup of eclectic music. It’s such a diverse lineup that no one will probably like every single band, but if you check some of them out, you’ll find some things that will really surprise you.”
He specifically notes the March 11 lineup for including number of “psychedelic, experimental bands” (Bare Mountain, IINY and Golden Triangle), as well as March 14 for headlining post-punk bands Washer and Big Ups, which are just two of the nine bands performing that night.
“Because of South by Southwest, the schedules are constantly changing in Austin, so there’s a lot of flux in our schedule,” Brian adds. “Requests are still coming in and we’ll have a number of bands signing on at the last minute. Right now we have 60 bands but we might end up with as many as 70.”
One-day admission is $8, although a pass to the entire fest is only $24 and includes a free T-shirt and customized lanyard (who needs a SXSW badge anyway?).
Since the lineup is subject to change, be sure to check the full schedule for any updates.
SXSW Overflow Fest at Super Happy Fun Land (3801 Polk) runs from March 9 to 20.
