[akiselev]

At an event as big as SxSW "crowd control & liability reasons" just don't cut it. You can sure as hell bet that everything is insured with layers of event and general liability policies and the law enforcement is trained to work with these kinds of crowds (as they are, for example, during Burning Man and Escape from Wonderland).

Controlling who associates themselves with their brand is an entirely different issue and should be treated separately. Here it results in (at least in my mind) a devaluation of the SxSW brand because this is the opposite of what I thought it was supposed to represent.

Also, venue fees? Really? In a Hilton Lobby?

Edit: Actually the above is a largely moot point. Hilton called the police, which I would think has nothing to do with SxSW