{"id":2319976,"date":"2026-03-09T17:08:04","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T17:08:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2319976"},"modified":"2026-03-09T17:08:04","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T17:08:04","slug":"escape-the-sxsw-madness-with-these-9-austin-area-events","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/escape-the-sxsw-madness-with-these-9-austin-area-events\/","title":{"rendered":"Escape the SXSW madness with these 9 Austin-area events"},"content":{"rendered":"

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South by Southwest (SXSW) got a haircut for its 2026 festival that shortened it from its typical run, but locals can still expect a similar level of mass tourism and traffic infiltrating downtown from March 12-18. Many will avoid it as much as possible, but for others, spending time in town is unavoidable.<\/p>\n

We’ve got several ideas on how to escape the SXSW madness \u2014 especially for locals \u2014 without giving up on fun. From a casual night of live music at a coffee shop in South Austin to spending St. Patrick’s Day weekend in a different Texas city altogether, there’s plenty of fun to be had that don’t involve AI conference panels or brand activations.<\/p>\n

For a zoomed-out look at other spring break trip ideas around the state that avoid Austin, check out CultureMap’s monthly Texas travel guide<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here are our top picks for non-SXSW events to look forward to for the next week.<\/p>\n

Events happening downtown<\/strong><\/u><\/p>\n

Live From New York! The Making of Lorne Michaels<\/strong><\/a> <\/strong><\/em>at Harry Ransom Center
<\/strong>Through March 22<\/em>
The humanities research center at The University of Texas at Austin generated a lot of buzz in 2025 when Saturday Night Live<\/em> creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels donated his personal archive<\/a> to the museum, which is still on view as a public exhibition. The collection contains behind-the-scenes rehearsal notes for SNL<\/em>, Coneheads<\/em> dailies, annotated Mean Girls<\/em> scripts, and much more. Admission to the Harry Ransom Center is free.<\/p>\n

The Great Gatsby<\/strong><\/a><\/em> at Bass Concert Hall
<\/strong>March 10-15<\/em>
Broadway in Austin is bringing F. Scott Fitzgerald’s iconic novel set during the “Roaring Twenties” to the stage. The Tony Award-winning musical, directed by Marc Bruni (Beautiful: The Carole King Musical<\/em>), features a jazz- and pop-influenced original score by Jason Howland (Little Women<\/em>) and Nathan Tysen (Paradise Square<\/em>), and it’s choreographed by Dominique Kelley (So You Think You Can Dance<\/em>). Tickets<\/a> range from $48-$210.<\/p>\n

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Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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