The 2024 SXSW Film & TV Festival is about screenings, panels, and of course events. The week-long festival in Austin, Texas, always brings a large number of marketing activations that double as immersive experiences for festivalgoers. This year, three took the top spots as the best SXSW 2024 events. With food, drinks, and a love of media, each event pop-up brought fun and added to the festival’s unique immersive experience. Let’s get into the best SXSW 2024 events.
Prime Video’s Filly
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Prime Video always does SXSW right. Last year, they brought together all of their series at the San Jose Hotel, with each room giving fans a glimpse into the worlds of their shows. The year before that, they made Voughtland a reality. But for events at SXSW 2024, their creation of Filly stands as the streamer’s biggest and most immersive event yet.
The streamer transformed a parking lot into an immersive wasteland shanty-town of Filly. With junk, repurposed vehicles, and rust serving as the town’s backbone, vault dwellers entered Filly through an old sewer tunnel, where local residents greeted them and warned them about the dangers of the Wasteland. The actors here are why Filly stands out as one of the top SXSW 2024 events. Fully embodying their roles, guests got to experience the world of Fallout with a Mayor, ghoul, and any number of traders and grifters walking around.
Guests all got a ‘Vault 33 Resident Portal (Va.R.P.)’ to complete scavenger quests, where photographing the wasteland, hunting for pre-war artifacts, and interacting with the various elements throughout the town let them earn Nuka Cola bottle caps to trade.
Filly had games, photo ops in front of Power Armor and in the barber-dentist’s chair. But Filly also had the best themed food of the SXSW 2024 events. have food. With Fancy Lad Snack Cakes and a cut of ass jerky, you could all wash down with a Nuka Cola (the ones sold out everywhere from Jones Soda!).
The Filly event was a great entry point for those who haven’t played the Fallout games to prep SXSW goers for the new Prime Video Original series. That said, it was an even better experience for players of the games to step into a world straight of the Bethesda classics.
Paramount+ Lodge
Quickly becoming a must-attend at SXSW, the Paramount+ Lodge brought the best of the streamer’s television series and films. Halo Season 2, Mean Girls, Law Man: Bass Reeves, Survivor, The Chi, Star Trek: Discovery, and more. The streamer took over the CLIVE Bar on Austin’s iconic Rainey Street and offered special activations for each of its properties. While the free drinks are always something to rave about, Paramount+ did a phenomenal job at highlighting each of their shows and promoting new ones.
Whether it was an interactive Tribal Council stand or taking a picture with Master Chief’s Spartan armor, guests got to immerse themselves in the series. From photo ops to things you can take home, not a single Paramount property was left out, including the CBS Sports pub, which showcased the sheer amount of television that Paramount+ offers. A great learning experience for those looking for a new series to watch and the perfect stop for existing fans too, this SXSW 2024 event is one of the top because of the sheer amount there was to do in the three-story event.
On the Clive Bar’s first floor, guests stepped into the heart of Chicago’s South Side for a photo on the stoop to celebrate The Chi. Take a photo in the hot pink room for the world of Mean Girls (2024) and check out the infamous Burn Book. HALO fans got signature sunglasses in the style of a Spartan visor and took pictures with the mystical Covenant artifact and costumes.
The second floor brought back the Ink Master chair for a temporary tattoo and allowed fans to step onto the iconic bridge of the U.S.S. Discovery.
And the third floor is all about The Lawman: Bass Reeves. This allowed attendees to engage with and step straight into history to see if they are on Bass Reeves’ WANTED list or if they are on the right side of the law before leaving with a U.S. Deputy Marshal badge. Then, guests could enter The Lodge Confessional. In this interactive booth, they shared their thoughts, strategies, and personal experiences just like the cast of Survivor.
The Audible Sound Experience Carnival
Audible has become a mainstay at film festivals. With spots at Sundance and SXSW, the experiences that the Audible team put on are truly fantastic. For the SXSW 2024 events, Audible invited SXSW attendees to explore The Audible Sound Experience. While most festivalgoers are excited to watch the series on the screen, Audbile showcases the diverse array of stories that are available on the audio storytelling platform. And it does so by going over the top with a fantastical carnival experience. Ferris wheel and all.
Festival goers were able to ride on a Ferris wheel with audio-enabled passenger gondolas, offering guests a distinctive experience listening to Audible content spanning genres, including pop culture, celebrity memoirs, non-fiction, romance, well-being, mystery/thriller, and more.
As festivalgoers played Carnival-inspired games that showcased the diverse selection of Audible’s premium audio entertainment with the opportunity to earn Audible-themed prizes as they earned stamps for each game. But no carnival is complete without concessions like corn dogs, cotton candy, and popsicles, alongside festive-themed listening moments for festival-goers to enjoy.
Additionally, the Audible event expanded on Friday evening with an exclusive After Dark Party that featured a live performance in partnership with creative collective House of Yes, a Brooklyn-based performance-infused nightclub and creative collective.
