Looking to go to a music festival? Coachella is sold out, so instead, you should mosey out to Austin, Texas (Mar. 14-18) for this music spectacular, which features 1,300 acts from around the world. Walking from venue to venue is like putting your radio tuner on seek -- every style of music is represented. Besides performances, musicians like Pete Townshend, Iggy Pop, David Byrne, Emmylou Harris, Gilberto Gil, and Booker T. Jones are giving talks as part of the music conference.

Music not enough of a draw to make the trip out? Here are nine other reasons:

#1 You’ve been wanting to get out of town. The drive is totally doable in two days with time to stop and sight-see along the way. Or you can wear adult diapers and make it there in one.

#2 It doesn’t take place in a desert. Austin’s weather is more comfortable than Indio's in April. You won’t be roasting at midday, then freezing your ass off when the sun goes down and spending $40 on a sweatshirt you will never wear again.

#3 Movies. You might get sick of music. SXSW is also a film fest, with over 100 features and eclectic panels with Austin filmmakers Robert Rodriguez and Richard Linklater. Venues include the Alamo Drafthouse (tapped as Best Theater in America by Entertainment Weekly).

#4 Parties. Official music performances take place in the evenings, but the parties for various music labels and sponsors go on all day -- most of them showcasing the same talent you pay to see at night. This leads to the next two reasons to go…

#5 Free BBQ. It’s Texas! Many of these parties provide local favorites for hungry guests.

#6 Free beer. No #3 without it.

#7 People in Austin are nice. No celebutantes and no velvet-rope pretension. Austinites take off work and don’t mind having their city invaded by thousands of out-of-towners. One local tells us, “SXSW is timed every year to take place when Univ. of Texas is on spring break. That means for one glorious week a year, all the frat guys and sorority girls leave town. Their vacancy is filled with thousands of much more interesting people.”

#8 SXSW is carbon neutral.

#9 Bats. You’ll see when you get there.

Photos by mrmatt, nika, Parvati and nevbrown via Flickr