The 23rd annual South By Southwest Closing Barbecue and Softball Tournament, the traditional closing social event of the SXSW week, runs from 12:30-5:30pm Sunday, March 22. Free for all SXSW Music and Platinum registrants!

The Tournament Draw Ceremony

For 2009, The official Softball Tournament Draw Ceremony will take place at 3pm Friday, March 20, in the SXSW Music Trade Show Bar. Free beer for all!

Schedule

11:45am First shuttle buses leave hotels
Noon-1pm Player check-in and warmup
12:30pm Barbecue & beer service begins
1:00pm First round games begin
2:30pm Semifinals (fields available for pick-up games)
4:00pm Championship game
Eat and Drink

The SXSW Barbecue is an authentic Texas spread, with all the trimmings.
Menu: Beef brisket, chopped beef, pork spare ribs, smoked chicken, sausage, vegetarian jambalaya, potato salad, beans, 2 varieties of coleslaw, bread, butter, pickles, onions, sauce and a variety of cookies.
Drinks: Beer, water and iced tea.

It’s free for all registrants and performing artists (one meal per badge; you MUST bring your badge), but the area is also open to the general public, with food and soft drink tickets available for sale.

Note: For insurance reasons, we cannot sell beer to non-registrants; however, you’re welcome to bring your own (no glass containers, please).

There’s plenty of bleacher seating, three rounds of usually entertaining softball to watch, and a great chance to catch up with other registrants in a relaxed setting, and make plans for Sunday night’s closing showcases.

Play in the Softball Tournament

Any SXSW music or platinum registrant can sign up to play in the SXSW Softball Tournament. Register to play on Friday and Saturday from 1-5pm, outside the SXSW Trade Show, at the top of the escalators on the Convention Center Third Floor. There are eight teams, divided by type of business:

• Clubs/Talent Buyers - Musicians
• Agents/Managers - Print Media
• Record Companies - Radio/Online
• SXSW Staff & Volunteers - Mixed Media

But you can sign up with whichever team you feel the most allegiance to.

There are three rounds of games: quarterfinals, semifinals, and a final that starts at 4pm, with live announcers and a rendition of the Star Spangled Banner.

We recommend you bring your own glove, if you have one, but we have a lot of loaners as well, which you can sign out with proper ID.

Transportation

Krieg Fields are about a 10-minute drive from downtown, and about 15 minutes from Austin-Bergstrom airport. SXSW will run a van shuttle between the fields and most of the downtown hotels, beginning around 11:45am, and running every 20 minutes or so. With advance notice, we can also take you directly to the airport from the field; please notify the softball table at the convention center if you’re going to need that.

View Larger Map

Driving directions: From downtown, south of the river, take Riverside Drive east. Turn left on Lakeshore Blvd., a couple of blocks past I-35. Make another left on Pleasant Valley when Lakeshore dead ends, and then take the first right, at the traffic light, into the first parking lot for the Krieg Softball Complex. Follow the park road around until you can’t go any further.

Rain plan: Barbecue will be served 1-4pm, at the Fiesta Gardens Pavilion on Bergman Street and Lady Bird Lake. (From the Convention Center head east on Cesar Chavez Street about 10 blocks. Turn right on Chicon and the Fiesta Gardens Pavilion is on your left two blocks before Chicon dead-ends at Lady Bird Lake.) If the weather looks iffy on Sunday morning, call the SXSW Softball Hotline, 467-7979, to find out whether the game is on or not.

Have questions? Email softball at sxsw.com