The Okayplayer Guide to SXSW 2017: A Day-By-Day Breakdown

With the tech and film portions of programming out of the way, it’s time to set our sights to SXSW’s main attraction: the music, of course.

Every year the brightest and most buzz-worthy musicians descend upon Austin to shoot their shot for all of the outlets at all of the houses hoping to nudge themselves past the current tier. For us, it’s an opportunity to point you towards some brilliant new talents. For you, it’s a means of expanding the radar.

But it hasn’t escaped us that getting by on-foot in the annual midwestern music melee can prove to be an undertaking, picking your scheduling sacrifices and plotting out an itinerary that’s more practical than ambitious. With that in mind, we’ve carved out a little track that should prove useful to those partaking in this week’s festivities; a clear and reasonable route to more music and less heart-crushing decision-making (though there will surely be some tough ones.)

In the following pages, you’ll find a suggested route to your SXSW sojourn, broken down day-by-day, pulling no stops whatsoever (unless it's the bathroom, food truck or  though the former will be a harder find, no doubt.) Commencing the week's festivities tonight, there is no better place to be than Empire Garage for The Robert Glasper Experiment, Bilal, Terrace Martin and special guests. It's gonna get weird in a hurry, folks. Brace yourselves.

JuiceLand X Exploded Drawing Showcase @ 606 E 7th St: Anna Wise, Iman Omari, Daedelus and more.

Still Trippin' TX @ 408 E. 6th St.: OG Ron C & The Chopstars

Austin City Limits Live @ 310 Willie Nelson Blvd: Ari Lennox, Cherry Glazer, The Wu-Tang Clan and more.

ADE presents: Appelsap @ 617 Red River St.: Jameszoo, AJ Tracy, Amy Becker and more.

Monster Energy Outbreak House @ 213 W 5th St: Statik Selektah, Divine Council, Ugly God, Young M.A. and more.

YouTube Showcase @ 504 Trinity St.: Solange, EARTHGANG, Amine and more.

House of Vans Chicago x Fake Shore Drive @ 912 Red River St.: Noname, The Cool Kids, Kweku Collins and more.

SCOPE ATX @ 508 E 6th St.: J.I.D., KAMAU, Jay IDK and more.

ATO Records Showcase @ 208 W 4th St - Nick Hakim, Chicano Batman, Benjamin Booker and more.

SPIN Day Party @ 606 E 7th St. - Kelela, Saba, Diet Cig and more.

YouTube Showcase @ 504 Trinity St.: Migos, Maggie Rogers, Chloe x Halle and more.

Photo by Vickey Ford of Sneakshot for Okayplayer

Make Trap Great Again @ 801 Red River Street: Gucci Mane, Ty Dolla $ign, Lil Usi Vert and more.

Stones Throw Records Showcase @ 610 E. 6th St. - Karriem Riggins, Gabriel Garzon-Montana, DJ Harrison, Sudan Archives and more.

Bud Light x The Roots & Friends Jam Session @ 800 Congress Ave : Method Man, Redman, Jidenna and more.