Tragedies and injustices aside, there's not much worse than conference food.
Fifteen dollar ham and cheese sandwiches from a cold case. A shitty salad topped with plastic chicken. Or a bag of Dorito's once the synthetic chicken is sold out.
At long last, SXSW has taken note of the conference-goer's plight and introduces an official food court sent from the heavens: SouthBites.
For all nine days of SXSW (March 8 - 17), Paul Qui (Shall we list the notables again? East Side King owner and chef, Top Chef: Texas winner, James Beard Award winner) will curate a selection of local food trucks that will serve fresh, gourmet food in a vacant lot across from the Austin Convention Center.
The lot will be open to the public, and you can expect an array of cuisines worth the wait during your lunch break or before you head out to evening events around town.
Now that Eco, Edu, Music, Film and Interactive are all nailed down, we wouldn't be surprised if a SXSW Food conference cropped up in the near future.
Rosie Flores and Robert Plant are hitting the road together again.
An Austin guitarist is embarking on a musical journey with one of rock's biggest icons — for the second time. Rosie Flores will be a special guest on Led Zeppelin vocalist Robert Plant's 2026 Saving Grace tour. Austinites can see the show on Saturday, March 21, at ACL Live at the Moody Theater; then they can spread the word to friends across the country.
According to Flores' tour calendar, she kicks off the tour in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on March 14, and wraps it up in New York, New York, on April 7. She'll be joined by Austin drummer Chris Sensat and bassist Tommy Vee from St. Cloud, Minnesota, to form her band; singer Suzi Dian will accompany Plant.
Flores, who was born in San Antonio and has lived in Austin for many years, is known for her rockabilly style, both in sound and fashion. She is almost always pictured with a guitar, but she is also a singer and songwriter. At 75 years old, she is still playing live regularly outside of the major tour with Plant.
Although Flores certainly knows her niche, her rockabilly reputation doesn't flatten her appeal; she consciously pulls from many genres that she reckons all fit under the umbrella of "American roots music" in a video for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). In 2024, the government organization presented her with the NEA National Heritage Fellowship Award, their highest honor for folk and traditional arts.
Flores opened 16 dates on Plant's tour in November 2025. Her stylistic fluidity with rock-and-roll roots is a great complement for Plant's style, which since his Led Zeppelin days has mellowed out and drifted deeper into folk rock. (Led Zeppelin, many would argue, was already at least a cousin to folk rock.)
“Opening for Robert Plant last fall with my Rockabilly trio was one of the greatest honors of my life,” said Flores in a press release. “We're thrilled to have been invited back for the Spring tour. And I'm excited to once again get to see Robert with singer Suzi Dian and their killer band performing songs from their latest release, Saving Grace."
Saving Grace is Plant's 12th studio album, presenting covers of songs by blues artists like Blind Willie Johnson, as well as Plant's take on traditional tunes. It was released in September of 2025 and reached No. 1 on the U.K. Americana Albums chart and No. 17 on the U.S. top album sales chart.
Tickets to the Saving Grace Tour are available via rosieflores.com.
