Another year has flown by: SXSW 2024 begins on Friday, March 8.

Registration was deserted when Bill and I picked up our SXSW badges on Monday. We each decided to take a SXSW tote bag, even though they were empty. Gone are the days when those bags were full of swag, coupons, and printed schedules. Bill still asks about printed schedules, but most volunteers don’t know about them.

The City of Austin is getting ready for the onslaught of visitors. As usual, downtown is wrapped in a lot of plastic. Soon that plastic will be covered with posters and stickers.

On Monday, downtown buildings were just starting to be converted into logo-ed event centers.

A neon ferris wheel was being set up next to the Austonian. Tomorrow we’ll see what other exciting but temporary changes have been made to our city…