Our journey to year three of SXSW was one of our best yet. From morning to night, we expected to have the best experience, and it was met with us to exceed those expectations every day, from networking with tons of incredible people to enjoying the events that the week-long Austin festival offers. Our original plan was to land in Austin on Monday since it’s always been our goal to start fresh at the beginning of the music festival week, but I had other plans.

Every year, I never get to attend a panel featuring the incredible Rosario Dawson, who happened to be one of my celebrity crushes, so to get the chance to be front row during her panel about the storytelling collective Little Indian Girl while getting a deeper insight in her contribution was fascinating to witness. The day didn’t end there as I got one more surprise to endure, which was meeting the always talented & Oscar-winning actor J.K Simmons, who shared his personal experience being the face of Farmer’s Insurance while still enjoying the accolades of the numerous roles he plays on screen. It was fun to see him in a role not hurling a drum set as Terrance Fletcher or attempting to take over the world in his animated role as Omni-Man but to see the genius he is and the personable man he is. Our Monday afternoon, we started with being present in front of AEW CEO Tony Khan, Bryan Danielson & Dr Brittney Baker, D.M.D, who shared a couple of personal experiences, being an enormous contribution to wrestling and some of their career highlights. Also, hearing Tony Khan passionately talking about his brand and what came with building it from inside and out while being a die-hard wrestling fan and seeing everything he wanted to come to fruition was a dream come true. Our days would be filled with moments like these, including seeing the beautiful Sydney Sweeny express the emotional journey she’s been on recently with seeing her appearances in movies more and more with talks of what could be her next big step to see her name become more idolized in films. It’s getting to experience things like this that keep our time in between music showcases and hold our attention with a smile on our faces. Thanks to the good people over at Cinema Center, who hosted a two-night event where stars like Sydney Sweeney, Walton Goggins, Stephanie Beatriz, Jaeden Martell, and many more celebrated the premiere of their movies in an intimate setting and got to hang out with their fellow co-stars enjoying the great moments that the Austin nightlife has to offer. Our week was made to make sure we had something for us to do every day, thanks to the great staff of Pourri, who hosted the legendary Funk Factory, a schedule of fun and interactive events throughout Austin that had us enjoying a book signing with Broken Lizard’s own Jay Chandrasekhar, a podcast sit down with Janelle Monae & Natasha Diggs including a DJ set from Johnny Jane (Janelle’s DJ Alter Ego) & Questlove with performances by BLK ODESSY, Bootsy Collins, Sound Of Horn & more.

The first half of our journey was more than I expected, so good that I wanted to share this part separate from the performances we witnessed during our week. It’s always a good feeling to walk into something familiar but walk out with a new take to enjoy. We left each event excited and proud the more we endured, and I have to say the networking aspect paved a massive way for us to be successful this year. And, of course, the motivation to see more days like these is something at the top of my mind.

The WAVEZ settling in Austin for SXSW