Visit Philly’s Homesick Philly showcase at SXSW cancelled following Austin crash

Following Wednesday night’s car accident at the South By Southwest music festival that killed two people in a crowd and injured 23, many events are being moved and cancelled – including Visit Philly’s scheduled Homesick Philly event this afternoon.

The showcase, featuring Chill Moody, Bleeding Rainbow and Pattern Is Movement, was intended to be a central gathering place for Philly locals attending the festival as well as a spotlight on the city’s music scene; while there have been Philly-centric showcases on the past several SXSW’s, they have been in far-flung ares that most festival goers don’t typically venture. Homesick Philly was to be the first in the thick of the festival, but was located at Cheer Up Charlie’s, the venue next door to The Mowhawk, where the crash occurred.

(Read More – Chill Moody, Bleeding Rainbow, Pattern is Movement will head up Homesick Philly showcase at SXSW)

According to news reports, the accident occurred after Austin police attempted to engage a drunk driver in his vehicle who sped down 9th Street in downtown Austin, then proceeded to drive through SXSW street barricades and into a crowd. The person was apprehended by the police. At the time, Philly’s Kurt Vile was playing a set from the outdoor stage at Cheer Up Charlie’s. All the shows at the two venues were immediately cancelled, including a later performance by Tyler The Creator.

This afternoon Visit Philly tweeted:

The #HomesickPhilly event at Cheer Up Charlie’s today is cancelled out of respect to the victims of last night’s accident in the area.

— Visit Philly (@visitphilly) March 13, 2014

In an Instagram post, Chill Moody added:

My prayers go out to everyone affected by that terrible car accident last night. The entire block where my 1pm #HomesickPhilly event has been canceled. We are looking into other activation possibilities and I will keep you all posted. My next show today is at 2:30pm at the nicekicks store rooftop. Hope to see you there. #SXSW #ChillXSW

On the scene last night, Philly based freelance photographer Colin Kerrigan tweeted from the scene:

Here’s the scene outside of Mohawk right now at #sxsw after a car ran through dozens of people. pic.twitter.com/XwdspxOf3o

— Colin Kerrigan (@colinkerrigan) March 13, 2014

Kerrigan told Pitchfork:

“Right after I walked out of Stubb’s, I ran right into the nightmare scene that was unfolding outside…Crazy night. It was pretty disturbing overall especially because Kurt Vile was playing at the venue next door to Mohawk and you could hear his acoustic jams out on the street. So he kind of soundtracked the whole scene without ever knowing what all the flashing lights were about.”

As of now, Visit Philly is working on possibly rescheduling the event. There will be more information about the event once it becomes available on Visit Philly’s twitter.