Just how big was SXSW this year? Well, Taylor McKnight and the team from Sched (good friends of The Baby!) have put together the numbers of SouthBy attendees using the timetable and planning service they provide.

So what did we go though in March? Over a million page views, eight thousand events, five hundred and fifty-eight venues, and there’s more in Sched’s annual report.

But my favourite number? If you add up all the events at SXSW,and how long they ran for you get the scarily big number of 10,652 hours of Austin events. That’s just over one year two months, and three weeks of content… you wouldn’t be finished by the time SXSW 2013 rolls around!

That’s how Kevin Moreno sums up this year’s SXSW in California’s El Pasino:

Whether you listen to hip hop, punk, pop, rock, or electronic, no matter what the genre is, SXSW will have a band you will enjoy. The greatest thing about this festival is whether it’s a big mainstream artist, an up and coming underground band, or somewhere in between, SXSW has it all.

More at El Pasino. We couldn’t agree more – and if you missed it, our 2012 Music Sampler is still available!

Mark Collins takes a look back at this year’s SXSW, although in the best tradition of the press, when he writes SXSW he means SXSW Music)

The price of Lone Star was fairly consistent. On the downside, mainstream America fully embraced SXSW after slowly creeping in on the festival for years. Whether it was the 60-foot-tall Doritos vending machine, the party sponsored by Nike, or American Express broadcasting a live Jay-Z concert on Sixth Street, everybody wants a piece of Austin. SXSW is still about music, but it’s also so much more.

With his favourite (and worst) bands, events, recycling, and the love affair from the hipsters for his Moleskine… it’s a fun read over at HuffPo.

CNBC writer Nate Hideman is back from Austin, and has sat down to think about what he learned from South by Southwest, and has eight concrete takeaways from the event. For example:

It’s often said that the real action at SXSW doesn’t take place at the panels or the keynotes, but in the surrounding cafes and bars where entrepreneurs and investors do deals over a breakfast taco or a shot of tequila. For most attendees, the sit-downs, dinners and parties are more important than the event’s programming because of the business relationships they foster. “One relationship can move the needle $100,000,” said Neil Blumenthal, the CEO and founder of the eyeglasses company Warby Parker, as the clock struck midnight at a Beachmint party. “That’s why I’m not at home right now.”

You can read the full list on CNBC. How many of these did you manage, or have they missed something obvious?

The gig that many were talking about at SXSW? Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. And if you didn’t get a ticket (or if you want to relive the experience), then Michael Mayer has done a fantastic write up:

And on through an hour, two hours, Bruce played. He crowd surfed, at the end of songs he’d heave his guitar 30 feet through the air to a roadie, he climbed on amps and drum kits. He delivered most of his new album to rapturous applause. The hits pushed the crowd into group swaying and singing that seems like it could cure disease…

Even if you think in advance that you’re not someone who sings at concerts, you belt this stuff out. And everyone does, so there’s no reservations. And it’s not like anyone hears you. We’re all standing in the face of a 32-legged hurricane, a jet-turbine engine, the E Street Band. The sound is huge, so huge you don’t think it could have ever been matched in rock history.

More at A+E Interactive.

And it all starts up again – have you considered attending SXSW 2013?

Interactive: March 8th – March 12th 2013.
Film: March 8th – March 16th 2013.
Music: March 13th – March 16th 2013.

Go home.

Really, go home.