For the past four years, Nicholas Reyes has hosted an unofficial South by Southwest music showcase in East Austin benefitting folks who can't attend the festival — inmates at a women's correctional facility in Lockhart.
Reyes is an assistant math professor at UT Austin who started volunteering to teach at the prison through the Texas Prison Education Initiative in 2019.
"Everything is really lovingly tailored to our students and we as volunteers care a lot," he said. " I always want more showcases to have a charitable cause, so I thought it would be nice to set up donations."
TPEI provides the inmates free college courses taught by volunteer grad students and UT professors.
"It's a really lovely environment to teach in," Reyes said. "The students are lively and energetic."
Reyes is also an established fixture of the Austin music scene. Known as Nicky Christmas, he started playing around town while he was a UT student. His first big show was at South by Southwest in 2015.
Three years later, he began hosting free unofficial South By showcases every year.
"The official South By organization brings in a lot of people from out of town," he said. "The unofficial showcases just give the bands more opportunities to play more shows. This was the biggest thing that I threw every year."
In 2022, Reyes decided to make the show a fundraiser for TPEI. He loved his students and thought a benefit concert was a practical way to help the organization.
The aim is to get as many donations as possible. The money raised is divided: About two-thirds goes to the musicians and the rest goes to TPEI. Often, bands donate whatever they make from the show to the program.
In the past, the show has raised between $600 and over $1,000 for TPEI, Reyes said.
Dorothy Rau, the organization's program coordinator and only paid employee, said TPEI depends entirely on outside funding to cover everything from school supplies like paper and pencils to enrollment fees.
"We have about a hundred students every semester," they said. "We have to pay to register them at the university, so that they can get that college credit and transcript once they get out."
The education helps students land on their feet after prison. They can use the credits to continue their education or to show experience on job applications, Rau said — and also to build their confidence.
Rau said the classes are something the inmates enjoy "in an environment where there's often a lack of things that are enjoyable."
Reyes said he knew his concert would have a bigger audience during South By and that could translate into more donations for TPEI.
"It goes a long way toward buying school supplies," he said. "Our students have to buy nothing for these classes."
Sunday's lineup at Sahara Lounge will feature bands exclusively from Texas and New York. Previous bills featured mostly international bands, but Reyes said fewer of those acts were available this year.
"The first three years we had a big contingency of Mexican bands," he said, "but those bands are not traveling to Texas anymore."
Five of the eight bands performing this year are from Austin. Matt Galceran, a singer and the lead guitarist for one of those bands, Queen Serene, said that Austin energy seems to be a big focus this South By.
"It is feeling like a locals kind of festival as opposed to like this giant international thing," he said.
Sarah Ronan, Queen Serene's lead singer, said unofficial South By shows play a big part in cultivating that sense of community.
"Friends always come out," she said. "The lineups are curated, and there's just heart and soul actually put into it. It feels like that's what South By was supposed to be."
But while the show is important as a space to highlight local musicians, it plays an even more crucial role as a fundraiser for TPEI.
The prison education program used to rely heavily on grant money, but now funding is mostly donation based.
" An organization like this is really hard to sustain," Rau said, "Fundraising takes away a lot of time and energy that can be put toward teaching, getting new volunteers and starting new classes."
The benefit show is one of two yearly fundraisers for TPEI and the organization's only in-person event. Reyes wants to keep putting on the show indefinitely — and maybe even add a second one in the winter.
TPEI's leadership is just as invested in keeping it going.
"Getting to see so many bands I like, be with my friends and support an organization that I really care about is such a beautiful combination of everything that I like about Austin," Rau said.
The shows have become just as much about the musicians playing as the cause they're playing for.
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