Mapping Austin’s Favorite Places at Music by the Slice 2011

Last week, we teamed up with Austin’s Home Slice Pizza to host Music by the Slice, their annual day party during SXSW. It was three days of great bands, great pizza and fun with Google Maps (full gallery of photos here). We asked eventgoers to share their Austin Best Evers by sticking Places pin–shaped stickers on a 25-foot map along the side of Home Slice:

And you guys rocked it. You shared hundreds of places, including your favorite BBQ places (Stubb’s, anyone?), your favorite parks (Barton Springs being the clear winner!), and even where you proposed to your significant others (we loved hearing those stories).

Of course, what’s a Google event without some awesome schwag? We had frisbees, sunglasses, tube socks, and special Spinal Tap–themed tees for our Hotpot app users and map participants:

 

While playing with the map and collecting sweet Google goodies, revelers enjoyed the sounds of a great music lineup, including Aesop Rock, Kimya Dawson, The Submarines, Ivan & Alyosha, and Typhoon, who you may remember from a little thing we threw called the Best Ever Concert Series in Portland, Oregon:

All proceeds from the event went to Urban Roots, a youth development program that’s part of YouthLaunch. The group uses sustainable agriculture as a means to transform the lives of young people and increase access to healthy food in Austin. We asked Shirene Garcia, the Outreach Program Specialist for YouthLaunch who was on hand at the Home Slice event, to tell us more about their program:

We hire teenagers between the ages of 14 to 17 as Farm Interns to work on 3.5 acres of urban farmland. Each year, we donate 40 percent of our annual harvest to hunger relief organizations and we sell 60 percent at farmers markets and through our CSA (community supported agriculture). Last year we harvested more than 26,000 lbs of produce and donated more than 8,000 lbs! Youth Farm Interns also volunteer at local hunger relief organizations, where they see the impact of their work and learn about hunger in Austin. You can learn more about YouthLaunch, Urban Roots, and volunteer opportunities on our website: www.youthlaunch.org.

The team at Urban Roots wants to say a big “THANK YOU!” to our friends at Home Slice Pizza for throwing Music by the Slice as a benefit for us and to the folks at Google Hotpot for sponsoring this stellar event! Music by the Slice is one of our favorite SXSW parties, hands down.

And we have a few thank yous ourselves: to Home Slice Pizza and Urban Roots for having us, and to everyone who shared their favorite Austin places!

Posted by Vanessa Schneider, Hotpot Team. Photographs by Nathan Folkman.