South by Southwest (abbreviated as SXSW) is an annual conglomerate of film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas, United States. It began in 1987, and has continued to grow in both scope and size every year.
It's annually when the Austin hippies and techies let the California hippies and techies come to trash the place. Kinda like Spring Break for people too old or ugly to continue on to South Padre Island.