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XOXO (festival)

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XOXO
One of the speakers at XOXO 2012, Chad Dickerson of Etsy
StatusDefunct
GenreArt, technology
FrequencyAnnually
Location(s)Portland, Oregon
CountryUnited States
Years active2012–2024
Inaugurated2012
FounderAndy Baio
Andy McMillan
Most recentAugust 24, 2024 (2024-08-24)
Websitexoxofest.com

XOXO was an annual festival and conference held in Portland, Oregon, that described itself as "an experimental festival for independent artists who live and work online".[1] XOXO was founded in 2012 by Andy Baio and Andy McMillan with funding from prepaid tickets and other contributions via Kickstarter. In 2016, technology website The Verge called it "the internet's best festival".[2]

XOXO was held every year from 2012 to 2019 except for 2017. It was not held between 2020 and 2023, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The final festival was held in 2024.[3]

History

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XOXO was an annual festival and conference that focused on indie creators and artists working on the web. Except for a larger conference in 2018, the conference was limited to around 1,000 attendees, and organizers introduced an application and lottery system to promote diversity and discourage attendees who were focused on marketing to other attendees.[4][5] Speakers at the festivals were most often independent creators, and the festival eschewed the corporate nature of other conferences and festivals centered around technology.[6][7] Talks at the first two events generally reflected enthusiasm around being an indie creator,[8] while later events featured more reflection on the challenges of being an independent artist, criticism of the web and the broader technology industry, and focus on social justice and activism.[9][10]

2012

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The inaugural event was held in Portland's Yale Union Laundry Building in September 2012 with approximately 400 participants.[11] That year's event was funded on Kickstarter, raising $175,000.[12]

Associated events included live music, film screenings, an arcade of independently produced video games, a market, and food trucks.[13] News media and bloggers noted an "impressive list of speakers" and an "intimate tone" missing from other technology-focused conferences.[11] Ruth Brown wrote "the audience was overwhelmingly white, male, middle class and educated."[14]

2013

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The festival returned to the Yale Union Laundry Building with speakers, workshops, films, music shows, game events, and a market.[15] Baio described it as being "about artists and hackers and makers that are using the internet to make a living doing what they love independently without sacrificing creative or financial control".[5] To handle increased interest while remaining small (500 conference tickets and 200 "fringe event" tickets), it had an application process with questions intended to filter out people who wanted to market to attendees.[5]

Portland Monthly compared the event to the larger South by Southwest festival, quoting Matthew Haughey saying SXSW speakers are "in the business of selling technologies" and XOXO speakers are "creating things".[16] Rachel Edidin described the event in Wired as a "creative incubator" that is "painfully earnest, unflaggingly positive", and criticized the event for high ticket costs that introduced barriers to access that mirrored some of the issues it sought to resist.[8]

2014

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XOXO 2014 inside The Redd

XOXO 2014 was held at The Redd, a former ironworks facility in an industrial area of Portland.[7] Conference speakers included feminist media critic Anita Sarkeesian, data visualization designer Rachel Binx, software engineer Edna Piranha, Welcome to Night Vale creator Joseph Fink, Lifehacker founder Gina Trapani, lexicographer Erin McKean, and technologist Paul Ford.[7][4] Sarkeesian's appearance was met with controversy from Gamergate supporters, with one protester trespassing the festival grounds and Portland Police being called to the festival. Casey Newton wrote in The Verge about the festival's focus on freelance and indie artists: "this is likely to be the only conference where you see tech CEOs listening to a freelance jewelry designer talk about her struggles paying the rent."[7] Attendance was capped at 1,000 people, and attendees were selected through an application and lottery process that aimed to increase diversity.[4]

2015

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XOXO 2015 was held at the Revolution Hall in Portland, Oregon.[17] Baio and McMillan aimed to increase the number of talks focusing on the challenges of being an independent creator, and to offer more criticism than previous years. They also capped attendance at 750 people.[12] Speakers included video game developer Zoe Quinn, Anita Sarkeesian, and web technologist Eric A. Meyer.[18] Engadget wrote many talks were "emotionally driven... centered around the difficult issues of being independent."[9] The Guardian attributed the festival's popularity to "its gentleness, its emotive undertone and thoughtful curation, but also its commitment to supporting individual artists over businesses and corporates."[19]

In 2015, the festival adopted the chat software Slack, and by the time of the conference the XOXO Slack instance had more than 150 channels.[20] The Verge later credited XOXO for bringing Slack into the mainstream.[20][10]

2016

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XOXO 2016 was also held at the Revolution Hall and was attended by over 1,200 attendees.[21] Speakers included musician Neil Cicierega, journalist Sarah Jeong, satirist Jenn Schiffer, and Itch.io founder Leaf Corcoran.[22][2][23] The Verge called it "the internet's best festival," and highlighted its attention to detail, focus on diversity, and curation.[22] A follow-up article featured highlights and discoveries from the festival lineup.[2] Organizers announced that they would not be hosting an event the following year, instead choosing to focus on the Outpost workspace they had founded in mid-2015.[24]

2018

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After a one-year hiatus in 2017, the sixth XOXO was held on September 6–9, 2018 at a new venue, Veterans Memorial Coliseum.[25] Nearly twice the size of past years, over 2,300 attendees attended XOXO 2018.[26]

The festival opened with a keynote from comedian Cameron Esposito about the production of her "Rape Jokes" standup special.[27] Speakers included author John Hodgman, author Ijeoma Oluo, rapper and producer Open Mike Eagle, and Anita Sarkeesian.[6] The festival closed with an unannounced concert by Lizzo on the festival's main stage, who surprised attendees after the show by performing karaoke in the Blue Ox Bar, a dedicated pop-up dive bar created for the event. Other on-site installations included a secret speakeasy, accessible only by solving a series of puzzles accessible via telephone booths around the venue, and Dear Future Me, an interactive installation by illustrator Alice Lee inviting attendees to mail a postcard to their future selves.[28] The festival also introduced an event called "Art+Code", which showcased quirky web-based art, and a comics night.[6]

2019

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After experimenting with a larger event in 2018, XOXO returned to its previous size and venue for its seventh year, with 1,200 attendees at Revolution Hall. Organizers cited the desire to return to a more comfortable, accessible, and intimate size.[29][10]

2020–2023

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The 2020–2023 XOXO festivals were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In an interview with Willamette Week in 2020, festival co-founder Andy Baio said that, due to uncertainty about the duration of the pandemic, "The last XOXO may have been the last one."[30]

2024

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Rectangular scaffolding creating an entrance to the XOXO venue. Blue, yellow, and purple cutouts form flowers and circular shapes, forming the letters "XOXO"
Entrance to the 2024 XOXO festival

In March 2024, the festival's organizers published a blog post announcing that the August 2024 XOXO festival would be the last. They explained that decreased sponsor budgets, independent artists' financial struggles, as well as the dangers of COVID-19 make XOXO unsustainable.[31][3]

Outpost

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In June 2015, the organizers of XOXO announced they were opening a shared, pay-what-you-can workspace to "bring some of our favorite people and projects in indie art and tech under one roof" in a 13,000 square foot building in Portland's Central Eastside Industrial District.[32][33] The Outpost was open from February 2016 until December 2016, when it closed citing rising rental costs.[34]

References

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  1. ^ "XOXO Festival". XOXO Festival. XOXO. Archived from the original on June 30, 2020. Retrieved July 7, 2020.
  2. ^ a b c Newton, Casey (September 11, 2016). "Our favorite discoveries from the internet's best festival". The Verge. Archived from the original on November 16, 2016. Retrieved February 23, 2018.
  3. ^ a b Hazel, Jess (August 20, 2024). "XOXO in Portland looks back on years of connection for online community with final festival this weekend". Oregon Public Broadcasting. Retrieved September 1, 2024.
  4. ^ a b c Hatmaker, Taylor (September 18, 2014). "Thinkers, makers, and dreamers anonymous". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on May 19, 2024. Retrieved September 1, 2024.
  5. ^ a b c Edidin, Rachel (September 20, 2013). "The Record-Breaking XOXO Festival Returns to Cross-Pollinate Art and Tech". Wired. Archived from the original on November 21, 2013. Retrieved November 10, 2013.
  6. ^ a b c "Independent internet festival XOXO is back, featuring the best of the online world". The Oregonian. September 4, 2018. Archived from the original on December 6, 2022. Retrieved September 1, 2024.
  7. ^ a b c d Newton, Casey (September 16, 2014). "A tiny gathering of artists has become the most interesting weekend in tech". The Verge. Archived from the original on August 27, 2017. Retrieved August 27, 2017.
  8. ^ a b Edidin, Rachel (September 30, 2013). "XOXO and the High Costs of Not Selling Out". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved September 1, 2024.
  9. ^ a b Lee, Nicole (September 19, 2015). "How an independent art and technology festival captured my heart". Engadget. Archived from the original on January 23, 2016. Retrieved January 22, 2016.
  10. ^ a b c Pavlus, John (June 3, 2019). "Your conference is too damn big". Fast Company. Archived from the original on October 27, 2021. Retrieved September 1, 2024.
  11. ^ a b Gantz, Ryan (September 19, 2012). "The Dream of the Internet is Alive in Portland: Inside the XOXO Festival". The Verge. Retrieved December 30, 2012.
  12. ^ a b Hudson, Laura (August 24, 2015). "The Radical XOXO Conference Thinks It Knows the Secret to Great Ideas: Get More Women". Portland Monthly. Archived from the original on September 1, 2024. Retrieved September 1, 2024.
  13. ^ Wortham, Jenna; Gallagher, David F. (September 18, 2012). "XOXO: A Festival of Indie Internet Creativity". New York Times Bits Blog. Archived from the original on December 27, 2012. Retrieved December 30, 2012.
  14. ^ Ruth Brown (September 18, 2012). "Reflections on the XOXO Festival". Willamette Week. Archived from the original on March 6, 2015. Retrieved September 28, 2014.
  15. ^ Larsen, Luke (September 20, 2013). "Technology, creativity cross at XOXO". The Oregonian. Archived from the original on November 11, 2013. Retrieved November 10, 2013.
  16. ^ Patall, Marty (September 3, 2013). "How the XOXO Festival Charms Cutting-Edge Thinkers". Portland Monthly. Archived from the original on November 11, 2013. Retrieved November 10, 2013.
  17. ^ "XOXO". 2015.xoxofest.com. Archived from the original on June 23, 2016. Retrieved September 1, 2024.
  18. ^ Newton, Casey (September 14, 2015). "How Gamergate's earliest target came to empathize with her abusers". The Verge. Archived from the original on May 2, 2023. Retrieved September 1, 2024.
  19. ^ Kiss, Jemima (October 28, 2015). "Makerbase and the mission to dispel tech's 'founders' myths". The Guardian. Retrieved January 22, 2016.
  20. ^ a b Newton, Casey (2015-09-18). "Why Slack could be the future of conferences". The Verge. Retrieved September 1, 2024.
  21. ^ "XOXO". xoxofest.com. Retrieved August 27, 2017.
  22. ^ a b Newton, Casey (September 12, 2016). "In praise of the internet's best festival, which is going away". The Verge. Archived from the original on February 23, 2018. Retrieved February 23, 2018.
  23. ^ Hernandez, Patricia (November 29, 2018). "The game store that outshines Steam by staying small and weird". The Verge. Archived from the original on July 9, 2024. Retrieved September 1, 2024.
  24. ^ Baer, April (August 26, 2016). "XOXO 2016 Fest Will Be Its Last — For Now". Oregon Public Broadcasting. Retrieved September 1, 2024.
  25. ^ "Bringing XOXO Back". XOXO Blog. Retrieved January 6, 2019.
  26. ^ "Patronage at XOXO". XOXO Blog. Retrieved January 7, 2019.
  27. ^ Smith, Suzette. "XOXO Fest, Day 1: FREE Carly Rae Jepsen Soda, the Albina Vision Project, Cameron Esposito's Rape Jokes". Portland Mercury. Archived from the original on January 8, 2019. Retrieved January 8, 2019.
  28. ^ Damewood, Andrea. "Snapshots of the Coolest Things at XOXO Fest 2018". Portland Mercury. Archived from the original on September 1, 2024. Retrieved January 8, 2019.
  29. ^ "Return to Form". XOXO Blog. XOXO. Archived from the original on 2021-03-08. Retrieved September 16, 2019.
  30. ^ Singer, Matthew (May 23, 2020). "This Year's XOXO Festival Got Canceled Early in the Pandemic. Co-Founder Andy Baio Isn't Sure It'll Ever Return". Willamette Week. Archived from the original on January 22, 2021. Retrieved March 5, 2021.
  31. ^ "One Last Time, With Feeling · Blog · XOXO". xoxofest.com. Archived from the original on August 27, 2024. Retrieved August 18, 2024.
  32. ^ Bell, Jon. "Portland's XOXO Festival lands 13,000-square-foot year-round home in Central Eastside". Portland Business Journal. Archived from the original on February 25, 2021. Retrieved January 22, 2016.
  33. ^ D'Cruz, Andrew (June 13, 2016). "This Shared Portland Office Could Save Our Souls (and Our Wallets)". Portland Monthly. Archived from the original on March 21, 2023. Retrieved September 1, 2024.
  34. ^ "XOXO Outpost". XOXO Outpost. XOXO. Archived from the original on December 6, 2016. Retrieved December 30, 2016.
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