Louis Meyers, South by Southwest Co-Founder, Dies

AUSTIN, TX - Louis Meyers, co-founder of the South by Southwest Festival has died, festival representatives confirmed to Billboard and the Austin-American Statesman. His death was announced on the opening day of the festival.

Meyers was one of the four founders of the festival, which was created in 1987. An avid member of the Austin music scene, he managed the popular music venue Liberty Lunch.

"He was a huge part of the Austin music scene, born and raised here, and ran the legendary Liberty Lunch before moving into festival curation and management. Our thoughts are with his family, his friends at SXSW, and all those who worked with him at Folk Alliance International," the organization AustinMusicPeople wrote on Facebook.

According to reports, Meyers died of a heart attack overnight.

Before he helped found SXSW, Meyers worked in the city as a music manager, promoter and agent. He sold his share at the event after 1994. Meyers reportedly grew frustrated with the festival in its eighth year because of the growing number of acts.

"That year, there were 640 acts, and my goal was to scale that back to around 500," Meyers told the magazine the Pitch in 2013. "Now, of course, there's 2,300 official acts. And what you lose by having that many acts is quality. You can't prescreen all that talent efficiently and put it out in a way where the industry can digest it. And so I felt that the continued expansion of South By was — I don't want to say greedy but find a nice way to say greedy."

After that, Meyers moved overseas and then to Kansas City, working for the Folk Alliance International.

This report will be updated.