AUSTIN, Texas — On Sunday night, all of Austin’s favorites in the local music industry came together at Antone’s for The Austin Chronicle’s 42nd annual Austin Music Awards.
"It's kind of like a collaborative environment," Sarah Wolf, who does marketing for The Austin Chronicle, said. "You get to see these mashup performances that you don't get to see if you just buy a ticket to a regular club show."
The Austin Music Awards started as a way to honor the winners from The Austin Chronicle’s reader’s poll, where people can vote on all their favorites in the local music industry. There are 51 different categories to vote on, including favorite band, favorite record shop and favorite radio station.
This year, more than 15,000 people voted to choose their favorites.
Organizers for the event said what makes this awards show special is the local bands you get to see before they make it even bigger.
“If you come to the Austin Music Awards before South by Southwest, you get kind of a good idea of who to keep an eye out for during South by,” Wolf said “Last year, one of the winners was a punk band called Die Spitz, and they played our show at the Mohawk, and then that year during South by, they really blew up.”
All of the proceeds from the event go to the SIMS Foundation, a nonprofit that supports mental health and substance use recovery programs for musicians and their families.
The doors opened at 6:30 p.m. and the event started at 7 p.m. A select number of tickets were available at the door.