Abraham Alexander is a singer-songwriter from Dallas Fort Worth. He had plans to attend SXSW just like thousands of other artists with high expectations.
“So that’s what SX means to musicians, like myself, is hope and an opportunity to be seen,” Alexander said.
He’s performed there three years in a row and made a lot of connections. That won’t happen this year now that SXSW is canceled over coronavirus concerns.
“All the hard work,” Alexander said. “The musicians that were expecting this event to be in front of labels, to be in front of management, to be in front of booking agents. Hope was lost because of this.”
Even before the first band hits the stage businesses and tech companies hit SXSW to show off their latest apps and technology at Interactive.
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Christiana Yebra is the CEO of a dating company called Vouch. She was planning a launch in the Austin market at SXSW.
“Meet new people,” Yebra said. “Launch that we were going to formally be in that city in a couple of weeks. Meet investors. We had a lot of conversations lined up that just aren’t going to happen anymore.”
Although this will mean a financial hit for Austin, businesses, and thousands of artists. These two agree with the decision.
“I don’t know if it’s too soon, but I definitely know we don’t want to wait until it’s too late,” Yebra said. “So as long as we are keeping people safe. That’s the main concern.”
“Making sure everyone is healthy and that it’s contained and taken care of that’s number one priority,” Alexander said. “I completely understand why Austin took that stance.”
Now Alexander is just trying to encourage all artists to keep the music going until next time.
