Fareground Food Hall – Austin, Texas

Fareground Austin is a food hall on Congress Avenue between Cesar Chavez (1st Street) and 2nd Street. I was walking along Congress Avenue in search of interest during SXSW 2023. After leaving the Porsche exhibit, I walked north — saw nothing — and then walked south.

Years ago, this food hall hosted talks by Sweden, I believe. They were promoting their country as many geographies do during South By. I headed to Fareground to see if anything was there. In the courtyard outside, Niantic, an AR and games developer, had a collection of activities scattered around in a more than ample space. Unfortunately, it appeared to be scaled incorrectly, at least when I was there — too few activities with too much open space. I quickly lost interest, and it wasn’t even photo-worthy.

Inside the food hall was a different story. The 24mm equivalent (Fujifilm 16mm f2.8) lens worked perfectly to capture the architectural drama — just enough wide-angle without absurd distortion. The compact lens on the compact Fuji X-S10 was so much fun I was in my element. So much preferred over lame SXSW marketing attempts.

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