Look at that column of fire!

Well another SXSW has come and gone in Austin, TX. In the past I have gotten the badge for the film festival, which is now the third largest film festival on the planet right under Cannes and Sundance. But unlike those two, SXSW has two other "official" festivals going on at the same time the often-looked over Interactive, the mammoth Music festival, and countless other "unofficial" festivals/parties/events/'anyone with a public establishment gets a keg and a PA to attract bands and people'. With more than 1,000 bands officially hitting hundreds of "official" venues, and many more "unofficially", it is large to be sure. Check this quote from wikipedia with the source link and all

(quote)SXSW is the highest money-making public event for the Austin economy, bringing in more revenue than the Austin City Limits Music Festival or the Texas Longhorn home games. [1](end-quote) -- Wiki Article on SXSW

Well, needless to say with all that money comes a bunch of greed, so now the statesmen has reported that SXSW has been sending goons out to spy on "unofficial venues" to see if "official" bands play there in order to bully both the bands and venues to keep their ducks in SXSW's line and no-one else's. Anyhow this sort of behavior has been growing for years, and in the past groups have cropped up trying to tout the alternatives e.g. SouthBySoWhat. Which brings us to my personal favorite of the alternative locations and the title of this here article, The Enchanted Forest. This place is perhaps the grooviest place in austin, which puts it in the running for grooviest place worldwide. If you'll recall Cyclecide that I had mentioned in my MakerFaire article awhile back, well before packing up and heading home these people, Cyclecide , ended up partying down at the enchanted forest for like a week (they even brought the life-size mousetrap contraption seriously see my original MakerFaire article if you have not seen this beast at work). I'm sure they intended only to stay a night, but you kind of get trapped in this place. There is also an awesome organic food vender, Davine Foods, who has set up shop in the front of this place as well, and I get the feeling the same thing happened to them (i.e. they were hanging out one night in The Enchanted Forest, and they just never left). Anyhow a little speculation there, but for sure we must find out more about this wild wooly Enchanted Forest. Friday night they had quite the party with outdoor art, DJ's, live acts, booth's selling stuff like handmade jewelery, art and so much more! This is one venue you cannot miss out on, even if you just stop by to grab an organic bite. There were people on stilts jamming to drum sessions, campfires everywhere, stages with sideshows, a main stage with a huge disco ball hung from a tree and a machine that shot a column of fire into the air, a stream right through the center of the place, little bridges to cross said stream, poets, conspiracy-theorists, more musicians than you can shake a stick at (some just randomly wandering around with an instrument looking for a jam, and some obviously scheduled acts), fire-juggling, strobe-lights, lit forest paths with random art scenes by the side, tents with chillin areas, tents with art shows, tents with people living in them, love, peace and even happiness! It is the coolest place I've been to in a long time. So on with the slide show!

you can also view these pics on my photostream at flickr

You can also see more of what happened last week on the ArtOutside website http://artoutside.org/