South Side Sanctuary

With 2009 closing, we at South Side Sanctuary feel a time of reflection is in order. It’s been a busy year for us, to say the least. We’ve attended our share of parties, thrown a couple ourselves, opened a new shop, donated to some worthy causes and hit up the live music scene as often as humanly possible.  So as we gear up for the New Year, we’re making a toast to ourselves. Join us in raising your glass to our favorite highlights from 2009.

The River Flows East party on 2/21

February 21: We gave a sneak peak of our 2009 designs at the River Flows East Party with Vinyl Entertainment. The entertainment included a musical performance by What Made Milwaukee Famous, local artists’ displays of graffiti, hair designs, photography, and on-site screen printing by yours truly.

Derek sets up a custom letterpress sign at the Tabernacle of Fun in the San Jose Hotel Parking lot during SXSW2009. It's finger-pinckin-good!

March: During 2009 South by Southwest, we officially debuted our 2009 clothing line at the South by San Jose. The designs were a hit and we had a great time setting up shop during the festival.

Printing Posters on-site at the SXSW MTV Party

We worked hard, and when the time came, we played hard. On March 14, we attended BarCampAustin 4 during the interactive part of the festival. The carnival-like atmosphere was right up our alley. A week later, we attended MTV’s Party to the End at The Compound. The six-hour affair benefited the Genocide Intervention Network and included performances from PHANTOGRAM, Solid Gold, Buddy, The Story Of, CLIPD BEAKS and many others. The event poster was designed and printed by Sanctuary Printshop.

Poster and T-shirt printed on-site at the River Rev 2 on May 2nd

May 2: Vinyl Entertainment combined biking, camping and music to host the River Revolution 2 Party [read post]. The second edition included artists The Story Of, SUNSET, Diagonals, Eastern Sea and Maryann Price. Santuary Printshop designed and produced the poster and t-shirt for this event.

Construction at our new studio and shop on South Congress

June: Southside Sanctuary moves in to their new shop on South Congress Avenue. It’s quickly determined that we fit in well here.

The Dos Equis' Most Interesting Man Academy at the Falkenstein Castle

July 15: Southside Sanctuary had a wild experience when we hit up the Falkenstein Castle in Burnet, TX for Dos Equis’ Most Interesting Academy [read post]. For starters, it was in a castle. With plenty of free beer to go around, exotic birds of prey on display, medieval weapons demonstrations and freakin insane sky divers, it was literally one of the most untamed parties we’ve ever been to.

The Sanctuary Printshop produced limited edition Cherrypeel t-shirts on-site

August 20: The Cherrypeel.com launch party was a huge hit [read post]. Sanctuary Printshop’s Tabernacle of Fun livened the party by printing free Cherrypeel shirts on-site. Our ally, Flipscene produced the party while lighting, video projection and party-site design was provided by our parent company, FC+.

[View with PicLens]

 

The Sanctuary Grande Opening Party

September: We thought it appropriate to celebrate our new shop with a Grande Opening Party on September 12, the day our hero Johnny Cash died. Family, friends and clients crowded into our shop and enjoyed DJ- battles, food, drinks and dancing. The first 100 lucky guests also took home one of our proudest creations: a Johnny Cash religious candle. Thanks to Wahoo’s Fish Tacos, Dripping Springs Vodka, Sweet Leaf and Red Bull for sponsoring the event.

This month also marks the beginning of our “Buy-One, Give-One” promotion. The Health Alliance For Austin Musicians, aka HAAM, became the first recipient of this program, as we provided our “HAAMbassador” t-shirt to volunteers all across the city for HAAM Day on September 22.

October: We started the month off right with Austin City Limits Festival. Not only did we take part in turning Zilker Park into a mud pit, we had our share of fun at Beauty Bar with Phoenix and at The Independent with the Knux for after parties as well.

KISS performing on alloween at The VooDoo Experience in NOLA

This month ended the way it began: with another music festival over Halloween Weekend. This time it was the VooDoo Experience [read post], the annual music festival held in New Orleans over Halloween weekend. Southside Sanctuary got its fill of live music with performances by KISS (on Halloween Night), Justice, The Back Keys and The Flaming Lips.

The Sanctuary designed a shirt for the kid's stage VooBoo, and had a blast helping children and their families print their own shirts on-site with our custom-built printing press.

November: At the start of this month, The Sanctuary continued its support of one of its favorite organizations and printed "Forget the Turkey, Support HAAM" for a special Thanksgiving fundraiser.

Thanks to Craig’s List and an unnatural love for automotive mash-ups, this month also marks the joining of a very important member to the Southside Sanctuary family. Our new 1979 El Camino has inspired us to make 2010 the most epic year yet.

Stay tuned to witness the transformation of the car/truck combo into one of the most bad-ass mobile printing set ups EVER.

It will be a challenge to beat the excitement of 2009, but here’s to hoping that there’s a lot more where that came from.