Easygoing Austin is Texas' Capital of Creativity

Music, Independent Film and Tex-Mex in Texas’ Hippest City

Nov 20, 2008

While San Antonio may have its history, Austin's food, music and film scene mark it as the undisputed hip, high-energy, brash younger brother of Texas Hill Country.

Home to the annual South by Southwest (SXSW) film and music festival, Austin, Texas has attracted a young and vibrant community of filmmakers and musicians who live and work year-round in the comfortable laid back climate of Texas Hill Country. The result is a city filled with over 200 music clubs and reportedly the best music scene in the U.S.

The Good Life

While it is most known for its film, food and music, Austin is also the corporate home of Whole Foods, and home of the University of Texas. This fusion of creative energy, politics and progressive thinking result in Austin ranking consistently near the top of Money magazines’ “Best Places to Live” surveys. And MSN has rated it among the “Greenest Cities in America”.

With filmmakers like Robert Rodriguez (El Mariachi, From Dusk Till Dawn, Sin City, Spy Kids etc.) and Richard Linklater (Dazed & Confused, Before Sunrise, School of Rock, etc.) calling Austin home at various points in their careers, it’s no wonder that film, like seemingly everything else in Austin, has taken on near mythic proportions, and is often cited as the “next Hollywood”, or eclipsing New York and Vancouver as the Mecca of independent film.

Film, Music & Art

With music and film in the city’s creative blood it was just a matter of time before a music and film festival would grace the city.

Begun in 1987, South by Southwest has morphed into a three-headed festival comprised of film, music and interactive media. Each arm of the festival is run somewhat autonomously, with each having its own start and end dates, highlights, screenings, concerts, parties, product showcases, panels and speakers.

Austin’s musical heritage is Mexican, German and colonial in origin and encompasses a wide variety of music including country, folk, jazz, blues and rock. The music scene is so rich that the city’s nearly 200 live music venues are divided into a number of districts (Red River, University, Warehouse & Downtown, Eastside, Sixth Street, South Lamar, South First, South Congress). Each area has its own standouts and genres for which it’s best know.

Lest visitors think that Austin is a wasteland of youthful exuberance, it must be noted that the city is home to a number of terrific arts and culture collections including the Austin Museum of Art, Umlauf Sculpture Garden & Museum and the Elisabet Ney Museum. And with the opening of the University of Texas at Austin’s Blanton Museum of Art some 17,000 works of art have found a permanent home in Austin.

Tex-Mex & Fine Dining

With so much to see, do, and hear, most Austin visitors find themselves starving by day’s end. This may be attributed to the almost constant aroma of good fresh food. With the influx of musical and film talent, the city has simultaneously found itself blessed with culinary talent as well.

Long known as a haven for Tex-Mex food and barbecue, Austin now boasts a growing number of gourmet restaurants. In addition to burritos, ribs, fajitas, and all things Tetx-Mex, Austin has turned it’s progressive self toward sustainable food and drink and the slow food movement.

Somewhere between the high quality of life, music, film and the terrific food the city wins visitors over. It’s not one thing. Something deeper draws people in, and a piece of that either goes home with them, or never lets them leave.

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