Yelp’s SXSW 2012 Backyard Blowout

The stars aligned, the heavens parted and fairy dust fell from the sky onto our fantastic SXSW event, Yelp's Backyard Blowout, held at the Vortex & Butterfly Bar. We'll try to capture it all here but there's no way to describe what a glorious day in Austin, Texas feels like when the SX gods have smiled, you've got a drink in your hand and there are tunes in the air. 

Katie T makes a good start: "Fantastic brews, fun bands, great food, stellar schwag… Yelp = amazing times 1,000,000." And Krista K agrees: "Best SxSW event I went to last week. Did your Sx party have a baby animal petting zoo?  I didn't think so." Wanna see pics? Check out Andrew Dorer & Chad Adams' great work!

Naturally we had eight incredible bands, thanks to the inimitable Kevin N: The Nouns, The Big Sleep, Hey Marseilles, Chancellor Warhol, Molly Rankin, Sydney Wayser, Dana Falconberry & Carter Tanton. 

We featured a fully stocked bar featuring Crispin Cider, Dry Soda, Enchanted Rock Vodka, Tapena Tempranillo, Segura Viudas Cava, Honest Tea, Independence Brewing, Ranger Creek
Brewing, Ranger Creek .36 Bourbon, Rebecca Creek Whiskey, Red Bull, Adelberts Brewing, Treaty Oak Rum, Vitamin Water and St. Germain. Monica M gets serious: "I was blown away by the generosity and awesomeness of so many vendors at this party.  There were a ton of different local liquors that we had the pleasure of tasting – along with Dry soda, Red Bull and Honest Tea mixers." Thank goodness we had all kinds of awesome NoHo Hangover Defense on hand!

Not to be outdone, Baby Zach's Smoked Hummus brought us proverbial mountains of hummus, Batter Blaster cooked pancakes on site, Coreanos Austin (top 10 food trucks in the US) piqued our palates with fusion tacos, GoodPops cooled us down with their delicious frozen pops and Pirate's Booty saved the day from snack attacks. 

The hunt.gather.style vintage gals set up a sweet pop up shop in a little greenhouse on the property and brought in rack after rack of funky vintage awesomeness. Benjamin Beau Salon jumped on the latest trend and fulfilled all wild child hair dreams by chalking yelpers hair blue and purple and red and rainbow. Halfway into the party, the baby bunnies arrived from Tiny Tails to You. And then it went bananas. So bananas that we kept the party going for another hour and had Segura Viundas Cava toasts all around! Thankfully, EmergenC and No Ho Hangover defense were there to save the day. 

Perhaps Jessica M says it best: "Where else can you sip on St. Germaine and champagne, while simultaneously get purple tips chalked in your hair just to walk outside and see a guy playing the accordian on stage?"

In the immortal words of our favorite rockstar of all time, Jem, we're truly truly truly outrageous. 

Until the next time, SYOY!

Kelly S