SXSW Co-Founder Louis Meyers Passes On Festival’s Opening Day

Louis Meyers loved music, and he brought that affections to life with major roles in the music industry's two most music-centric and indie-minded conferences – SXSW, which he co-founded and Folk Alliance, which he ushered into the 20th Century as Executive Director.

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The Austin Statesman is reporting that Louis Meyers, one of the co-founders of the South by Southwest Music Festival, has died. Roland Swenson, who currently serves as the festival's director, confirmed Meyers' passing to the Statesman, which reported that Meyers suffered a heart attack at his Austin home on Thursday night.

Meyers helped to launch the initial SXSW festival in 1987 with partners Roland Swenson, Louis Black and Nick Barbaro, but sold his stake in the event in 1994, seven years after it began.

Meyers sold his stake in SXSW in 1994, seven years after it began. He then moved around, from Denmark to New Orleans to Amsterdam and back, eventually, to Austin.

Following his tenure with SXSW, he traveled overseas for several years before returning to the U.S. to become the director of the Folk Alliance International conference in Kansas. In 2014, he returned to Austin, where he was managing the career of singer-songwriter Sam Baker and The HillBenders.

Meyers was featured in CelebrityAccess profile by Larry LeBlanc in 2009

via CelebrityAccess