December 20, 2007 18:49

Lou Reed to deliver keynote at SXSW 2008

Velvet Underground man will kick off the Austin music festival

Lou Reed will be the keynote speaker at the 2008 South By Southwest (SXSW) Music Conference and Film Festival.

Reed will kick off the 22nd annual music festival at the Austin Convention Center on March 13. A screening of 'Lou Reed's 'Berlin', a documentary film by Julian Schnabel, will be held in conjunction with the speech.

The SXSW music conference is set to take place March 12-16 in Austin, Texas.

Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore will also speak at SXSW, along with Daryl Hall of Hall & Oates, and Seymour Stein, the president of Sire Records who is credited with furthering the careers of artists including the Ramones, Talking Heads, Pretenders, Madonna, Depeche Mode and The Smiths.

SXSW features four days of music-related panels, interviews and workshops, in addition to live performances by more than 1500 acts on stages throughout downtown Austin.

For more information, visit Sxsw.com.

--By our Los Angeles staff.
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