SXSW is a bangin’ festival in every literal sense. The booming music will leave your eardrums ringing til sunrise, if you’re not kept up by neighboring hotel-mates shacking it up next door. You can thank the myriad of dating apps that popped up during the SXSW for all the sex you’ve seen and possibly smelled this week, if you happen to be at the show.
Most notably, Bang With Friends unveiled its single-purpose edition just for the festival. Bang With SXSW was launched despite the cease and desist letter from the event organizations. “We just want to give people what they want!” a BWF co-founder told us. While the app is as straight forward and self-explanatory as it gets, other apps are spinoffs from popular societal concepts. MeetMeAgain, for example, extracts the Missed Connection section of Craigslist out onto one service. The site allows users to enter their photo, contact information, and new entries of encounter stories in hopes of reconnecting with your Prince Charming.
Still, we’re curious as to how MeetMeAgain would work at an place like SXSW. One can only wonder how a gal rocking high waisted jorts and boots will ever find her missed connection when she’s dressed like everyone here.
LikeBright, on the other hand, aims to make romantic connections a bit more meaningful. Instead of cold introducing people to strangers, interested daters can browse their Facebook contact’s single friends so they can be introduced. It’s like LinkedIn for dating, if your friend is willing to match make. At SXSW, LikeBright also handed our green and pink bracelets to identify single people from those who are coupled up, so daters know how to approach each person. The bracelets doubled as support for LikeBright’s collaboration with New Beginnings, an organization that provides support to victims of domestic violence and abusive relationships.
Sure, love shouldn’t hurt, but unfortunately, the PR babes the site sent around Austin used an odd tactic to garner attention. “Do you want to help end domestic violence??” a girl shouted at me while I was trying to cross the street. If I would have looked back, she could have caused a car to Natt collision. Way to make me look like a jerk for crossing the street/ignoring your fight for a good cause.
Many of these dating apps and services have fun, healthy intentions but our advice? If you want to hook up with someone at SXSW – or anywhere in life – take chances. Chase after them the moment you feel a connection so you don’t have to sign up for hundreds of apps just to find that one true love, or a one night stand.
