How SXSW Turned Austin Into a Cultural Mecca

 By 
Matt Robertson
 on 
How SXSW Turned Austin Into a Cultural Mecca

As it does every March, the city of Austin, Texas, will welcome the hordes to its SXSW Music, Film and Interactive event starting on Friday. The ever-growing, innovative festival started in 1987 as a music conference attended by a few hundred badge holders and has since grown into a massive meeting of creative minds with more than 50,000 attendees expected in 2014.

So how did SXSW become a behemoth that’s influenced other major festivals around the globe? In the debut episode of the Dailymotion/Mashable series That Was Me, we throw the spotlight on the guy who’s held it all together for nearly three decades -- founder and president of SXSW Roland Swenson.

Bonus Clip: What Makes Austin Weird?

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