AUSTIN, Texas — This year's South by Southwest Festival brought in loads of money for the City of Austin.
According to SXSW, the 2019 festival brought in a whopping $355 million. Organizers said that's the highest impact in years. That's $5 million more than the 2018 SXSW festival.
Where did the money come from?
Attendance Impact: $182.1 million - Official attendance impact includes expenditures by SXSW credentialed participants and single ticket holders at all SXSW events.
Operational Impact: $157.1 million - The scale and complexity of SXSW requires year-round operations. SXSW maintains a sizable staff of full-time, temporary, and seasonal workers.
Consumer Impact: $16.7 million - Consumer impact includes expenditures by SXSW Guest Pass and consumer participants as well as official parties.
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"SXSW remains the single most profitable event for the City of Austin's hospitality industry," SXSW said.
The festival booked 12,000 individual hotel reservations totaling more than 51,500 room nights for SXSW registrants.
Austin Mayor Steve Adler said he feels SXSW's impact is on par with hosting the Super Bowl every year.
“SXSW is a quintessential Austin story,” said Adler. “Starting as a music festival, then expanding to include film and evolving further to cover interactive technology, as well as education and gaming, SXSW has become the world’s fair of the future. The economic impact of SXSW is on par with hosting the Super Bowl every year and all participants benefit year-round.”
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