Wrapping up my SXSW Interactive coverage, here are more cinematics of downtown Austin. Cinematics is what I call these wide-angle, 16×9 format, near-panoramic photos that I’m creating with the Canon G7X Mark II. It’s not exactly a real word, I think, but descriptive in a sense it has a look similar to the wide aspect views you get in cinemas, aka. movies.

I shot these all on Friday, the first day of the Interactive portion of SXSW, which kicks off before the music events. This year seemed a lot quieter than in past years. Perhaps the bulk of the people didn’t bother venturing out on the first day, waiting instead for the weekend. I saw multiple venues still under construction, even though I would expect them to be finished before day 1.

The photo at the top and the SXSW sign are from the convention center, which is usually the center of activity. There is a curious lack of crowds.

East 6th Street, also knows as “Dirty 6th” featured fancy crowd control barricades this year. Except there were no crowds to control. Granted the really crazy mobs are at night and usually later the next week, when the music starts. Even so, in past years, there were more people on the street with performers, activities and vendors promoting their wares.

Mashable and a few others were the only bar-turned-sxsw-venue that I saw on 6th Street.

More of the action was on Rainey Street, south-east of 6th Street and the convention center. I guess that’s understandable. Rainey Street is a lot nicer and the small-bungalow-turned-bar makes for more of an intimate party-like setting, compared to the Dirty 6th buildings.

The colorful accordion was in front of Facebook’s “house”, before the recent Cambridge Analytica controversy. It was next to Twitter and near other social media sites, including Pinterest, as I recall.

TV shows were featured too, with this spread from Condor.

I’m familiar with many of the companies doing their promotions but Nerdist didn’t ring a bell. It turns out it’s a podcasting network, probably specializing in tech. I guess they assumed people knew who they are since I didn’t see any obvious promotional information.

I did find pinball games, however. I knew they were making a comeback but didn’t realize they are still making new machines. Guardians of the Galaxy is a 2014 movie, so that machine must be quite new.

I thought his circus-like themed place was a set for another promotion, until I realized it’s a regular Rainey Street bar.

After a quick tour of Rainey, I headed back towards The Belmont for the Vox Media event. This year’s SXSW coverage centered around Vox Media, mostly because it was a pleasant place to hang out, and after my quick downtown visit, I didn’t see anything else worthwhile. I was more impressed with the new Fairmont Hotel.

I did come across this Tesla display under the Frost Tower. Nothing that I couldn’t have seen at the local Tesla showroom here in Austin, but I stopped anyway, if only to admire the technology. The Model S and X are more than I want to spend on a car, no matter how fast they go.

The newly introduced Model 3 is more of a possibility. Too bad they didn’t have that one on display. With over 500,000 units on backorder and the fact that I don’t have a deposit on file with Tesla, I suspect it would take a long time to get one. I would probably opt for the base model anyway, which they are not building just yet.