If there is one month when Austin stops feeling like a normal city and starts feeling like the center of the universe, it is March. Balleratx has you covered on insta and fb.

After a quieter start to the year, Austin’s streets, restaurants, bars and music venues are about to be overwhelmed by SXSW, and this year’s festival is bringing the city’s famous combination of music, food, technology, film and nightlife back into the spotlight. But SXSW isn’t the only thing happening. March is also bringing new restaurants, new bars, major concerts and plenty of reasons for locals to explore the city before the spring crowds arrive.

The biggest event on the calendar is obviously SXSW 2022, which runs March 11 through March 20.

For ten days, Austin becomes a giant collection of conferences, concerts, film screenings, parties, pop-ups, brand activations and unofficial events. Downtown becomes the epicenter, but SXSW stretches far beyond the Convention Center. Music venues, restaurants, bars, hotels, parks and businesses throughout the city become temporary stages and gathering places.

The official music festival alone features hundreds of artists performing throughout Austin, with venues ranging from established clubs to temporary stages. This year’s lineup includes major names such as Keith Urban, St. Vincent, Charlie XCX, Kacey Musgraves, Pusha T, Måneskin and Japanese Breakfast, along with a huge collection of emerging artists.

For music fans, March is one of the best times of the year to be in Austin.

You can walk into a bar you’ve never visited and discover a band you’ve never heard of.

You can see an established artist in a tiny venue.

You can stumble across a pop-up concert while walking downtown.

And you can spend an entire night moving from one venue to another without ever needing to plan exactly where you’re going.

That unpredictability is part of what makes SXSW different.

The festival isn’t contained behind a fence.

It takes over the city.

For Baller ATX readers, though, the music is only half the story.

The food scene gets just as busy.

Restaurants throughout downtown, East Austin, South Congress and other popular neighborhoods are preparing for the massive influx of visitors. Reservations become harder to get, bars get busier and restaurants begin creating special menus and events designed specifically for the festival crowd.

SXSW is essentially a ten-day advertisement for Austin food.

Visitors arrive wanting barbecue.

They want tacos.

They want breakfast tacos.

They want craft cocktails.

They want margaritas.

They want food trucks.

And they want to know where locals actually eat.

That makes March one of the best months for Austin restaurants to show off.

One of the most interesting new additions to the food scene is Este, the coastal Mexican restaurant from the team behind Suerte. The restaurant is located on Manor Road and focuses on seafood and coastal Mexican cuisine, with dishes influenced by the food traditions of Mexico’s Pacific coast.

Este is particularly worth watching because it represents a direction Austin’s Mexican food scene has increasingly taken.

The city has plenty of excellent Tex-Mex and taco restaurants.

But newer restaurants are going much deeper into regional Mexican cooking.

Instead of simply serving “Mexican food,” chefs are focusing on particular regions, ingredients and techniques.

Este’s seafood-centered menu fits perfectly into that movement.

And with SXSW visitors arriving from across the country, it is exactly the kind of restaurant that can become an instant destination.

Another highly anticipated restaurant opening is Maie Day, the new steakhouse from the team behind Olamaie. Located at South Congress Hotel, Maie Day is bringing a classic steakhouse concept to one of Austin’s most popular dining and shopping districts.

South Congress is already one of the easiest areas in Austin for visitors to experience several different sides of the city in one afternoon.

You can shop.

Grab coffee.

Eat lunch.

Have a cocktail.

Listen to live music.

And now you can add another major steakhouse to the list.

That makes the area particularly attractive during SXSW when visitors are looking for places to eat between events.

But March isn’t just about expensive dinners.

Austin’s food truck scene remains one of the easiest ways to experience the city without spending a fortune.

During SXSW, food trucks become particularly important because festivalgoers need something quick between concerts, panels and film screenings. Trucks throughout downtown and nearby neighborhoods can turn into unofficial festival destinations.

Tacos are especially popular.

And nobody should be surprised when a line starts forming outside a truck that normally has only a handful of customers.

That’s SXSW.

Everything gets busier.

The same thing happens with Austin’s bars.

Downtown is about to become one enormous nightlife district.

Sixth Street.

Red River.

Rainey Street.

Congress Avenue.

East Austin.

Everywhere will be busy.

Bars that are normally neighborhood hangouts suddenly have tourists standing outside.

Cocktail lounges get reservations.

Music venues fill.

Rooftops become packed.

And every empty piece of sidewalk seems to become a gathering place.

The trick for locals is knowing when to embrace the chaos and when to avoid it.

If you love crowds and discovering new music, SXSW is one of the best times of the year to be downtown.

If you hate crowds, March is probably the month to explore restaurants and bars outside the central festival areas.

Either way, the city is going to be busy.

And then there are the unofficial parties.

Some of Austin’s most memorable SXSW experiences happen outside the official festival.

Brands rent buildings.

Record labels host showcases.

Restaurants organize parties.

Bars book special performers.

Companies give away food and drinks.

Local businesses host events that don’t require an official SXSW badge.

For Austinites, these unofficial events are often where the festival becomes most accessible.

You don’t necessarily need a wristband to experience SXSW.

You just need to know where things are happening.

That is one reason March can be so much fun for Baller ATX readers.

There is always something going on.

Even if you don’t attend a single official conference session, you can still walk downtown, listen to music, discover a new restaurant, grab a drink and stumble into an event.

The city becomes the festival.

Music isn’t the only part of SXSW either.

The film festival brings premieres, screenings and celebrities into town, while the interactive and conference portions attract entrepreneurs, technology companies, artists and business leaders from around the world.

For restaurants and bars, that means a constantly changing customer base.

One night you might be surrounded by musicians.

The next night it’s filmmakers.

Then technology executives.

Then college students.

Then tourists.

Austin becomes an international meeting place.

And the food and nightlife industries get to serve all of them.

Outside the official festival, March is also the beginning of Austin’s spring outdoor season.

The weather is warming up.

Patios are becoming more attractive.

Outdoor concerts are returning.

Breweries are getting busier.

Restaurant patios are filling up.

People are spending more time outside.

That makes March one of the best months to explore Austin’s outdoor drinking and dining scene.

A brewery afternoon can easily turn into dinner.

Dinner can turn into a concert.

A concert can turn into drinks.

And drinks can turn into tacos.

That is the Austin March itinerary.

Another thing to watch this month is the continued growth of Austin’s cocktail scene.

New bars and restaurants are increasingly emphasizing specialty cocktails instead of simply offering the standard beer-and-well-drink menu.

Austin has become a serious cocktail city, and SXSW gives those bars a huge opportunity to introduce themselves to visitors.

A good cocktail bar can become one of the most talked-about discoveries of someone’s trip.

That is why March is such an important month for new businesses.

A restaurant that opens quietly in January can suddenly find itself packed with SXSW visitors in March.

A new bar can gain thousands of new customers in a single week.

A local chef can suddenly get national attention.

And a small music venue can host an artist who becomes the next big thing.

SXSW has always been about discovery.

That is true for restaurants and bars just as much as it is for music.

So if you’re looking for something new to do this month, don’t automatically head to the places you’ve already been.

Try something new.

Eat at a restaurant that just opened.

Check out a new cocktail bar.

Go see a band you’ve never heard of.

Walk down a street you normally drive past.

Try a new food truck.

That’s how you experience Austin during March.

The city is changing quickly, and SXSW makes those changes much easier to see.

By the middle of the month, downtown will be packed.

Music will be coming from nearly every direction.

Restaurants will be full.

Bars will be busy.

People will be standing in lines.

The sidewalks will be crowded.

And Austin will once again feel like the unofficial capital of live music, food, technology and nightlife.

For Baller ATX, March is the month to get out and experience it.

You don’t need to attend every SXSW event.

You don’t need to buy an expensive badge.

You don’t need to spend every night downtown.

You just need to take advantage of the fact that the entire city is putting on a show.

March is when Austin becomes Austin.

The music is everywhere.

The food is everywhere.

The bars are packed.

New restaurants are opening.

New businesses are trying to make a name for themselves.

And thousands of visitors are coming to town looking for the next great thing.

The best part?

Some of those visitors are going to discover something that locals already know.

Austin is pretty damn good at throwing a party.