Colorado Music Party brings Mile High sounds to Austin for South By Southwest

By Quentin Young

AUSTIN, TEXAS — A Colorado flag is flapping over Sixth Street during the South By Southwest Music Festival this week. It’s symbolic of the state’s elevated ambitions at the event.

A coalition of Colorado music interests that includes artists, the nonprofit organization SpokesBUZZ and the state of Colorado is putting on the Colorado Music Party, a five-day showcase of music from the state.

The party is costing $150,000 to put on, not including months of staff time, according to SpokesBUZZ’s Dani Grant, who spearheaded the event.

Other organizations put together geographically oriented showcases during SXSW, but the Colorado Music Party appears to be unique in its scope. No other state flags are flying over Sixth Street, the heart of the annual music festival.

Party participants expect the event to foster connections among artists and provide them with professional opportunities.

“They get a real life experience of having to maximize potential,” Grant said.

SXSW, one of the biggest annual music showcases in the world, is a huge party, but artists have almost limitless chances to connect with new fans or network with industry professionals and other artists.

In the lead-up to the Colorado Music Party, SpokesBUZZ representatives worked with the more than 120 artists it selected for the showcase so that they will get the most out of their trip to Austin.

This could include networking strategies, social media activity and other forms of exposure, Grant said.

The Denver band High Five Hip Hop typified this approach.

While the group performed Wednesday at the 512, the Colorado Music Party venue, the brother of band member El Brinosaurus waved a hand-shaped “High 5” sign on the 512 balcony to passersby on Sixth Street. After the show, El Brinosaurus was ready with CDs of High Five’s music to hand out.

“We take this very seriously,” he said. “We’re not here on vacation.”

Artists must pay to get to Austin and for lodging while they’re there, but the Colorado Music Party provides the stage, stage equipment, promotion and professional coaching.

Colorado Creative Industries, part of the Colorado governor’s Office of Economic Development, put $10,000 behind the Colorado Music Party last year. It was the party’s second year, and it was only two days of music.

“It was putting our toe in the water,” said CCI director Margaret Hunt, who is in Austin this week. She saw great potential in the event, and this year CCI invested $25,000 in the Colorado Music Party.

Paradoxically, many Colorado artists say an event like SXSW offers a rare opportunity for them to directly interact with each other, which can lead to professionally advantageous relationships, and this is one of the reasons the Colorado Music Party is worth supporting, Hunt said.

“They’re all in one place at one time,” she said. “It doesn’t happen very often.”

The core of the SXSW is the event’s official showcases, and unofficial events such as the Colorado Music Party maintain a symbiotic but delicate relationship with SXSW.

The letters “SXSW” are not to be found on the Colorado Music Party website, for example, and the party must refrain from staging official SXSW artists after 7 p.m.

Several Colorado artists are, in fact, official SXSW performers. But the Colorado Music Party is where the pulse of Colorado music beats in Austin this week.