Tulsa House, SXSW 2024 – Austin, Texas
My count indicated four bar-turned-SXSW venues on Rainey Street this year, where an organization rents an entire bar for a few days and rebrands it for its marketing efforts. It is still a healthy number, yet it seems less than in previous years. It seemed quieter here, too, like the rest of downtown. However, a few staple bars have closed since last year and have been replaced by giant towers, as I indicated yesterday. Thus, the number of rentable locations has decreased.
I noticed Tulsa House was here again. I didn’t attend last year but stopped in for a spell this time. Many regions and cities come to SXSW to promote their area. That could cities, countries and entire geographies. Tulsa House was promoting Tulsa, Oklahoma, an up-and-coming city vying for the startup crowd. I’ve been to Tulsa a couple of times as part of a college visit to the University of Tulsa. The downtown reminded me of Austin thirty years ago, though with more impressive historic buildings.
Austin is getting too expensive, and it makes sense for cities to promote themselves as the next Austin. I saw enthusiastic staff discussing their excellent quality of life and low cost of living.
I don’t know which establishment was transformed into Tulsa House, but I was enamored by this colorful, glowing bar. I snapped several versions of it at varying wider angles. This winning version isn’t very wide, at 23mm, but it adequately captures its width without excessive distortion.
Blog readers, you’ll love my free monthly photography magazine. Signup for the free magazine to get articles and topics not discussed on the blog.
