At Do512, SX is like Disney World for us. Well, it’s like Disney World if The Mickey Mouse Club were composed of a bunch of beer-swilling musicians living out of busses rather than clean-cut teenagers singing pop songs. In other words, SX is a hell of a lot more fun. Similar to Disney World though, you have to come to prepared or you’ll spend the day waiting in lines and eating $6 churros. Luckily, that’s exactly where we come in. Do512 has a whole host of helpful tips, tricks, and tools to make your time at SX magical (again, like Disney).

Part of the reason SX is so great is the sheer quantity of events. It can get a little daunting at times, so we’ve come up with great ways for you to dip your toes in the festival waters. If you’re looking to discover new bands to go see, we’ve got THE comprehensive list of bands performing both official and unofficial shows under the SX mantle. The list can be sorted by popularity on the site, alphabetically by band name, by genre of music, by recommendations from our All-Stars, by newest additions to the fest, or by propensity to get too wasted to play their show (ok, so we made that last one up).***Click on any of the screenshots to expand them

Once you find the band that interests you, just click on them to go to their page to open up a portal of musical knowledge. Don’t know anything about that punk band playing a house party across the street? Just check out their page on Do512 where you can stream their music, watch videos of the band, read their bio, find links to their website/social
media profiles, and see whatever shows they’re playing in the future.

Once you deem a band worthy of your attention, you can click the “Follow Band” button on their page. This adds all of the band’s shows to your personalized schedule on the “My SX” tab and creates a custom playlist on your profile. If you want to check out tunes from bands other folks are recommending, simply go to their page and play their playlist. Check it out now and listen to Rollo Grady’s playlist – simply hover over a band image and hit the play button and it’ll start right up for you. Plus we’ll email you updates on any upcoming shows for the bands that you follow. It’s a lot of work, but we think you’re worth it.

Of course, SX is so much more than a music festival. For people looking for cheap ways to party, it’s the El Dorado of affordable shindigs. On our SX homepage, we’ve got tabs dedicated to listing all of the panels, parties, and showcases taking place. We’re partnering with as many events as possible to host their RSVP lists on our site. That way, you can attend the maximum amount of events for free just by visiting the event on our site and clicking the handy blue RSVP button.

In the spirit of SX hoopla, we’re living up to our reputation of hosting more events than you can shake a stick at, presuming you like to go to concerts and shake sticks at things. To get everything started, we’re hosting Do512′s Interactive Kick-Off Party (a fancy way of saying free drinks, hors d’oeuvres, and music) at the newly reopened The Belmont on Friday, March 9. Then, in keeping with tradition, we’ll be putting on the mother of all events, “Do512 and Shiner Presents: The Big One.” Just like our Kick-Off Party, you won’t need any high-falutin’ badge to get in; a simple RSVP on our site gets you access to free drinks and some really incredible bands (past artists include acts such as Portugal. The Man, Dawes, and Fitz & The Tantrums). On top of all this, we’ll be up to the gills hosting Lounge Sessions the entire week.

Keep checking the site over the next two months as we continue to frantically add every last SX event. After all, it’s never too early to start preparing for the week when all of Austin comes to party.

One final thing- if you’re one of the hundreds of folks hosting a party, show, or other event during SX, Do512 is a great place to get the word out. We’re happy to run your RSVP list for free, and we have all sorts of publicity options to make sure your event gets the attention it deserves. Contact Kristin Owen with any inquiries.

Do512 opposes SOPA and PIPA, the pending US legislation that creates a punishing Internet censorship regime and exports it to the rest of the world. Do512 could never co-exist with a SOPA world: we could not ever link to another website unless we were sure that no links to anything that infringes copyright appeared on that site. So in order to link to a URL on Venue Webites or Youtube or LiveJournal or WordPress or Twitter or Blogspot, we’d have to first confirm that no one had ever made an infringing link, anywhere on that site. Making one link would require checking millions (even tens of millions) of pages, just to be sure that we weren’t in some way impinging on the ability of five Hollywood studios, four multinational record labels, and six global publishers to maximize their profits.

If we failed to take this precaution, our finances could be frozen, and depending on which version of the bill goes to the vote and our domains confiscated.

Needless to say, this would be a massive logistical and financial burden and make it impossible for Do512 and many other sites to exist at all.

If you don’t want it either, visit http://www.AmericanCensorship.org/ for instructions on contacting your Senator. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (http://blacklists.eff.org/) has more information on this and other issues central to your freedom online.