Corporate sponsors? Big buzz? Homegrown Texas queers say “No thanks” to the South by Southwest hype machine.
While SXSW scene-stealers were busy bagging swag at events sponsored by companies from Scion to Levi’s to Dell, a group of volunteers was hard at work decorating a stage that stretched across two huge dusty backyards in east Austin, miles away from the hubbub. The daylong counterfest, affectionately called GayBiGayGay, is now in its fourth year. It has become a community hub for Austin queers and their visiting friends looking to escape the largely hetero commotion on the final Sunday of SXSW.
“It’s done our style, in our place, with our kindness and our talent,” said event host and Austin drag icon Rebecca Havemeyer. “We have corporate gays, we have the fairy unicorn queers, we have the diesel dykes, we have the drag queens, we have kids. It’s all underneath an umbrella of the most friendly environment you could possibly wish for.”
Originally by Alex Cho at Advocate.com
