SXSW is the South by Southwest festival held in Austin every year since 1986. It brought a lot of exposure to emerging artists mostly centers around music but it brought quite a bit of money into Austin and industries it interacts with. While this doesn’t affect your average American too much it is a hit for those who have molded their careers around event services.
And now they have the convenience of a face cover with the mask so you have to get their badge number if you want to properly identify the bootlickers.