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Something New from XOXO

Six years ago, we launched XOXO with a singular mission: to bring together and celebrate artists and creators of all kinds using the internet to make a living.

Since then, every project we’ve taken on carried forward that mission. Last month, we held our sixth festival in Portland, Oregon, bringing together over 2,300 people to share their stories and make new friends. Our Slack team is the year-round incarnation of that community, with thousands of members providing support for one another year-round. (And we still miss The Outpost, our shared workspace for indie artists, which closed at the end of 2016.)

As we’ve seen XOXO evolve from an event into a community, we started thinking about what more we could do to help artists and creators everywhere share their work, connect with their audiences, and most critically, get paid.

We’re very excited to announce we’ve started work on a new project to tackle that problem.

Last year, Kickstarter launched Drip, a new tool to help creators build ongoing support for their creative practice. After this year’s XOXO, Kickstarter approached us to help think about the best way to support creators with subscription-based funding, opening a new direction that closely aligned with our own mission.

With seed funding provided by Kickstarter, we formed a new company, and we’ve started work on a new platform for independent artists and creators to get discovered, find a community around their work, and build a long-term, sustainable career.

As you might expect, we plan on building on our experience with XOXO to create a space that’s much more community-driven, allowing creators to build a following at any point, whether they’re actively looking for funding or not.

While we’re under development, Kickstarter will continue to operate Drip in its current state, supporting existing creators and subscribers until we’re ready to bring them in. We’re working closely with existing Drip creators to make sure that process is as seamless as possible.

XOXO and Kickstarter have a long history together, and we’re very happy to continue the collaboration. Andy Baio helped get Kickstarter off the ground as the company’s first CTO and continued as a long-time advisor to the company, while Andy McMillan was an early adopter, using Kickstarter to launch his design journal The Manual. The first XOXO festival got its start as a Kickstarter project in 2012, and the Kickstarter team’s participated in every festival since.

Kickstarter reincorporated as a Public Benefit Corporation (PBC) in 2015, protecting their mission to help bring creative projects to life at the deepest level instead of solely chasing profits. And Kickstarter is publicly committed to staying independent and private, an unusual stance that separates it from so much of what we dislike about startup culture.

We incorporated our new company as a PBC for the same reason, and we’re structuring it to be sustainable and independent for the long term. We understand the responsibility that comes from building tools that support independent creators—many of them relying on that income for survival—and take that responsibility seriously.

You can read more from Kickstarter in their announcement, and sign up for news about our new project. We’ll have much more to say about it in the days to come.

Food & Drink at XOXO 2018

Every year, we build an incredible food cart pod at XOXO, pulling together our favorites from the local food scene together with our bars serving creative drinks, day and night.

This year, we’re trying a few new things… and keeping a few more secret until you show up. Are you ready? Deep breath. Let’s go.

Coffee & Tea

This year, our coffee service is provided by our friends at Deadstock Coffee, a "snob-free” destination for caffeinated sneaker heads everywhere. They’ve partnered with p:ear, a local nonprofit dedicated to mentoring homeless youth with barista training, to teach the art and science of making exceptional coffee on-site at XOXO.

Drip coffee, decaf, and tea are available for free, with espresso carts making specialty drinks for purchase, on Thursday-Friday from 11am-5pm and Saturday-Sunday 8am-4pm.

Day Bars

During the day, our Pavilion and Concourse bars will be open with a free rotating non-alcoholic lineup of our creative, delicious sodas and shrubs, once again designed by Commissary for this year’s festival from their fresh hand-made syrups.

Naturally, we tapped into the collective wisdom of the XOXO Slack to help name them all:

Cut To The Feeling - Strawberry, Rhubarb, and Citrus Good As Hell - Pineapple, Allspice, Ginger, and Citrus Cool For The Summer - Cucumber, Mint, and Citrus Now or Never - Watermelon, Jalapeno, and Lime Pynk - Blackberry, Cardamom, and Lemon No Scrubs - Rhubarb Shrub Dancing On My Own - Hibiscus, Lavender, and Lemon Curious - Pear-Cinnamon Shrub

This year, we’ve also added kombucha from Portland’s own Happy Mountain Kombucha, with rotating taps of Peach Blossom, Lavender White, Dragon Fruit, and Ginger Root.

As always, all the non-alcoholic drinks from our bars are free for the duration of the festival.

Night Bars

For Friday and Saturday night, we’ve built four bars on site for you all to explore, each with a distinct menu.

Our main bar in the Concourse spotlights the incredible beers from our friends at Gigantic Brewing, who you might remember from our Hops & Kisses IPA collaboration in 2015. At our outdoor Pavilion bar, you’ll find beers from pFriem Family Brewers, and selections from Breakside Brewery in our downstairs Arcade bar. (The fourth bar? You’ll just have to find it for yourself.)

Not a fan of hoppy beers? We hear you. We’ll have a wide range of styles beyond IPAs — pilsners, sours, pales, saisons, and more.

New this year, each of our bars will offer draft cocktails in the evenings, also custom-made for XOXO by Commissary.

Non-alcoholic drinks are free, with beers for $5, wine for $6, and cocktails for $7.

XOXO Cart Pod

This year, we’re centering our food lineups around chefs of color, several of them immigrants who relocated to Portland, each with unique stories and delicious food for sale.

Koi Fusion (Opening Party, Friday Dinner, Closing Party) Bo Kwon was 12 years old when he started fusing his South Korean parents’ food with other cuisines, adding kimchi to his grilled cheese sandwiches. 20 years later, he’s doing it for his customers with a food cart empire—three trucks and five stationary locations mixing Korean BBQ and Mexican flavors in tacos, burritos, and Seoul sliders. Vegan- and vegetarian-friendly.

Tamale Boy (Opening Party, Friday Dinner, Saturday-Sunday Breakfast/Lunch) Growing up as a first-generation Mexican-American in the Northwest, Jaime Soltero Jr. had a hard time recognizing authenticity in the cuisine. He launched Tamale Boy as a trust in 2011, now spanning two brick-and-mortar locations with a seasonally-changing menu highlighting cuisine from various regions throughout Mexico. Grab a breakfast burrito in the mornings, or their amazing tamales at night. Vegan and gluten-free options available.

Pastrami Zombie (Opening Party, Sunday Lunch) A spinoff of popular Chicago eatery Sammich, and winner of Feast’s Sandwich Invitational, the Pastrami Zombie food truck serves their signature Montreal-style smoked, brined pastrami sandwiches, along with Oregon Coast albacore tuna sandwiches, classic burgers, and more.

Ash Woodfired Pizza (Opening Party) Ash is pretty serious about the quality of their ingredients, never using commercial yeast for their sourdough starter, instead cultivating wild yeast from local grapes. Combined with seasonal ingredients from local farmer’s markets, their menu changes weekly, including vegan and vegetarian options.

Adelina’s (Friday-Sunday Dinner, Saturday-Sunday Lunch) Family-owned and operated, chef Adelina cooks Mexican cuisine as she learned it in her hometown of Guerrero, Mexico, from sopes and tortas to chilaquiles and Mexican street corn, each prepared like she’s cooking for her own family. Gluten-free, vegetarian, and vegan-friendly.

Bunk Sandwiches (Saturday/Sunday Lunch) The mobile arm of chef Tommy Habetz and Nick Wood’s sandwich empire, Bunk does one thing incredibly well: simple, high-quality ingredients on damn-good bread. Menu: House-Roasted Turkey Sandwich, Italian-Cured Meats, Vegan Italian Sandwich, plus chips and cookies.

Po’ Shines (Saturday Lunch/Dinner, Sunday Dinner/Closing Party) Contemporary soul food with a Cajun flair, Po’ Shines offers comfort food staples like ribs, pulled pork, and red beans and rice, while providing career development opportunities through its non-profit work force training program, Teach Me To Fish.

XOXO Pop-Ups

In addition to our cart pod on the Pavilion, we’ve asked several chefs to help meet demand during lunch on Saturday and Sunday during the conference in our Concourse, offering a limited menu for quick, grab-and-go meals.

Creole Cravings Growing up on the southwest side of Haiti, chef Elsy Dinvil serves Haitian Creole dishes based on family recipes in a series of local popup events, free of additives and most common allergens. All her food is completely gluten-free, with vegan options for both meals. Menu: Spicy plantains and beef or vegan kabobs, macaroni and plant-based cheese with beef or vegetable filling, and pikliz (Haitian pickled vegetable relish).

Don Churro This family-owned cart is a favorite at the Portland Mercado, a hub of Latino culture and an incubator for Latino entrepreneurs. The Pozos family—Luís, Flor, and Valeria—make sure their signature dish, churros, are as close as possible to the real thing, following the classic Mexico City-style recipe of their ancestors. Menu: Gringas (stuffed quesadillas), Nachos (meat/ vegetarian options), and vegan churros.

Barkada PDX “Barkada,” in Tagalog, means a group of best friends. With his popup dinner series, Chef Melvin Trinidad creates casual, modern Filipino family cuisine, inviting guests into his own barkada. At XOXO, he’ll be serving his family recipe Pork Lumpia and Sisig Rice Bowls.

Chuparrosa Artist/chef Héctor Guerrero brings the food and culture of his native Mexico City to Portland with a series of popups and private events, serving healthy and thoughtful Mexican food made from the best local ingredients. Menu: Pork Cochinita Pibil Torta w/Pickled Onions and Salsa. Pork Carnitas Torta w/Slaw. Gluten-free bread option available.

Tapalaya Born and raised by Vietnamese immigrants in New Orleans, Chef Anh Luu transforms classic Cajun dishes by utilizing Vietnamese ingredients and Pacific Northwest produce, meat, and seafood at her NE Portland brick-and-mortar restaurant. Menu: Andouille Sausage Banh Mi Sandwich.

Brown Sugar Cookie Company & Catering Chef Sakile Mitchell serves up deliciously-unique seasonal cookie flavors, most gluten-free and vegan, and soul food made from the heart at popup dinners at events around Portland. Menu: Vegan and seafood Jambalaya. Sweet Potato, Honey Butter, and Whiskey Chocolate Chip cookies.

Desserts & Treats

Churros Locos (Opening Party) Born in the U.S. and brought to Mexico as children, Daniel Huerta and Isabel Sanchez both fell in love with churros from street vendors, opening their adorable dessert truck in Portland in 2013 with freshly-made churros and decadent churro sundaes.

Little Bean (Opening Party, Closing Party) Get a sneak peek of the upcoming launch of Little Bean, a new take on non-dairy ice cream, made entirely from sustainably-grown chickpeas. Free of dairy, gluten, nuts, and soy, in creative flavors like Strawberry Sichuan, and Chipotle Chocolate.

Nineteen27 S'mores (Opening Party) Toasted s’mores, made to order, with your choice of Bourbon Salted Caramel or Water Avenue Espresso-flavored marshmallows, and unique toppings.

Pip's Original Doughnuts & Chai (Saturday-Sunday Breakfast/Lunch) Pip's is a family-owned business making hot, made-to-order mini doughnuts and handmade chai tea out of a '71 Chevy Step Van, bringing the full experience of piping hot doughnuts and unique chai tea straight to you. Doughnuts contain eggs, milk and wheat. Chais can be made vegan.

Patronage at XOXO

We’ve never really talked publicly about how we do sponsorship at XOXO.

You know how event sponsorship usually works: event organizers sell the attention of their attendees, plastering corporate logos all over program materials, the venue, and stage. They work their way into the programming with sponsored talks and booths, branded swag plied onto attendees during registration, and, too often, the free sharing of attendee information and contact details for marketing purposes.

We’ve committed to never do that kind of thing at XOXO.

Instead, we built up a community of patrons — like-minded companies that would contribute to make the festival better in meaningful ways. In previous years, our patrons have supported the cost of offering free childcare, live captioning, non-alcoholic drink options, accessible transportation, and increasingly, subsidize the cost of passes for attendees.

This year, we’re grateful to MailChimp, Intel, Intercom, and Figma for contributing to make XOXO more welcoming and inclusive for everyone.

In exchange, we invited our patrons to bring some of their team to XOXO, and credited them on stage and throughout the festival for their contributions. Every year, the feedback we heard was that this was far more meaningful and impactful than swag bags or sponsored talks.

Subsidized Passes

In the past, we’ve found that the most impactful thing to make XOXO more inclusive is to provide passes for free to those who couldn’t afford to go otherwise.

As a result, this year, we gave out more than 20% of our 2,000 passes for free to people who requested them during registration. This was over 400 passes, more people than attended in our entire first year of the festival in 2012!

We were committed to giving out these passes, whether or not we could find enough patrons to cover those costs. We grew the festival this year, in large part, to help make that effort possible. Making the event accessible to hundreds of indie artists and creators is incredibly important to us, and seeing everyone it’s brought in, we know it was the right choice.

How You Can Help

As you might imagine, it’s hard to find companies willing to make the leap into nontraditional sponsorship. So, for the first time, we find ourselves looking for companies big and small willing to help offset those costs.

We’re calling it Community Patronage — a way to help more people attend the festival who couldn’t afford to go otherwise.

If you want to help cover the costs of one or two passes for others, we’re hugely grateful to you for the contribution, and we’ll list you on our site as a Community Patron with a link to you or your work.

If you can cover the cost of five passes with a $2,500 contribution, we’ll give you a complimentary XOXO pass and credit on stage at the festival and on our site. If you’re able to cover the cost of at least 10 subsidized passes with a $5,000 or higher contribution, we’ll add in a second pass for a guest.

If you’re interested in making a larger contribution as a Company Patron, we’ll work with you to bring more of your team to the festival and collaborate on a project to make the event better, and credit you for that effort on stage to our over 2,000 attendees, speakers, and performers.

If you’re interested, drop us a line at [email protected]. Thank you!

Hotels and Accommodation for XOXO 2018

September is an extremely busy month for events in Portland, with a lot of other festivals going on during or around the weekend that XOXO takes place.

We’ve booked some heavily discounted room blocks at some of our favorite hotels for attendees. These room blocks won’t last long, so don’t delay!

When to Book

Short version: If you can swing it, we highly recommend coming in Thursday, September 6, during the day and leaving on Monday morning, September 10.

XOXO opens up on Thursday with registration at noon, our opening party at 6pm with our opening intro at 7pm, followed by Cameron Esposito’s keynote. XOXO Social is all day on Friday with Film & Animation, Art+Code, Arcade, and Tabletop on Friday night. The first day of conference talks starts on Saturday morning, with Story, Comics, Arcade, and Tabletop on Saturday night. The second day of the conference starts Sunday morning, with a big closing party on Sunday night.

Getting Around

Like past years, we’re running a complimentary, accessible shuttle from all of our hotels below to our venue for the duration of the festival.

The City of Portland offers excellent, affordable public transportation, and we encourage everyone to use it. Memorial Coliseum is conveniently located next to two MAX Light Rail stations, the Portland Streetcar, and the Rose Quarter Transit Center.

Portland also has its own public bike share scheme, BIKETOWN, with stations conveniently located all over Portland. Memorial Coliseum is within a ten minute bike ride from all our downtown hotels, a short trip across the Broadway or Steel Bridge, with dedicated bike and pedestrian lines on each.

Update: All our official hotel blocks are now taken! If you’re still looking, we have some discount codes available for two unofficial hotels, the Jupiter and the Eastlund. (Note that these hotels are not shuttle stops, but both close to Memorial Coliseum.)

The Jupiter Hotel and Jupiter NEXT are offering a discount with the booking code “SAVED,” and the Hotel Eastlund with the booking code “XOXO.”

If you’re still looking for a room, or interested in sharing a place, join the XOXO Slack and check the #roomshare channel.

Portland Marriott City Center

520 SW Broadway

Sold out! The Portland Marriott City Center location is one of our biggest room blocks, and will be packed with attendees, in convenient proximity to great coffee, the downtown cart pods, and public transportation to/from the airport. Our shuttle will also pick up right in front of the Marriott, and runs continuously during XOXO. Our attendee discount brings King and Double rooms down to $189/night + tax, including complimentary wifi.

Book now or learn more.

Society Hotel

203 NW 3rd Ave

Sold out! Our most affordable option, the Society Hotel is a former sailor’s hotel in Old Town/Chinatown renovated into a boutique hotel with shared room options, a block away from Ground Kontrol, Floating World Comics, and other attendee favorites. Our Triple bunk beds for solo travelers are available for $58/night, with semi-private groups of bunks for up to six people. Standard Queen rooms with shared private bath start at $137/night, with King suites for $177/$187 per night.

Book now with promo code “XOXO”, or learn more.

AC Hotel Portland Downtown

888 SW 3rd Ave

Sold out! The AC Hotel is Marriott’s offshoot brand of European-style hotels, with better design and more modern amenities, ostensibly (and hilariously) targeted towards millennials. In this case, that means nicer beds, hardwood floors, rain showers, better coffee, and solid wifi. With our attendee discount, King rooms are $169/night and Two Queen rooms for $189/night.

Book now or learn more.

Canopy

425 NW 9th Avenue

Sold out! Opening in July, Canopy is a brand new Hilton hotel, and our primary hotel for attendees this year — we’ve booked out every room!

Canopy is one block from the Portland Streetcar, which drops off a block away from our venue, and a quick 7-minute bike ride away or a chill 20-minute walk across the Broadway Bridge. (Or, of course, hop on our shuttle right outside.)

With our attendee discount, both King and Double Queen rooms are $199/night, including complimentary wifi and breakfast daily. If you’re coming before Thursday or leaving after Monday, you can book outside the block by calling Canopy directly at (971) 351-0230 and using the “XOX” code to get your room.

Book now or learn more.

Ace Hotel

1022 SW Stark St

All booked up. The quintessentially Portland hotel is spendy, but the location is pretty much perfect — The Ace Hotel is a block from Powell’s, Blue Star, and everything else. With our promo code, attendees will get discounted Queen rooms starting at $225/night, with Double rooms starting at $234/night. If you want the full Portlandia experience, here you go. Put a bird on it.

Book now with promo code “xoxofest2018” or learn more.

If you have trouble with any of these room blocks, or hear that they’re sold out, let us know and we’ll take care of it. Thanks!

Bringing XOXO Back

This is a deeply disturbing time in American history. The basic rights and protections of the country’s most vulnerable are under attack, distrust in every institution — education, science, journalism, and of course, government — is at an all-time high, and every day’s headlines brings new horrors. Our system of checks and balances is broken, seemingly powerless to slow it down, let alone stop it.

So, why are we bothering to bring XOXO back when the world is falling apart?

A Shifting Focus

For the first five years of XOXO, the focus of the festival evolved quickly. When we started, we talked about the emerging trend of artists and creators using new platforms to make a living independently online.

Very quickly, it became clear that the most interesting stories weren’t about success, but everything that went wrong. It was less about the work they were doing, more about the emotional experience of living and working online. Being an indie online is really hard, even for those we view as successful.

For its last three years, XOXO featured many speakers covering dark and difficult territory like financial insecurity, online harassment, impostor syndrome, mental health, and discrimination. We heard stories of loss, failure, and fighting just to stay alive.

All of these stories were reminders to everyone in the community that they weren’t alone, a powerful message in dark times.

And then the 2016 election happened — two months after the last XOXO.

Now, our community is facing a host of new challenges and stresses. Along with everything they’re already going through, artists now feel like all their problems are trivial relative to larger world issues.

Being an independent artist in 2018 is a continual cycle of using your platform to balance your own activism and causes with the logistical day-to-day requirements to promote your work and be heard through the turmoil, while trying to protect your own mental health and make enough money to survive. Independent artists don’t have the luxury of stepping away from the internet — it’s a fundamental part of doing their job.

Online Culture and Activism

This year, we’re featuring people and projects who are showing us the way forward — artists balancing activism with their creative work, fighting for what they believe in while making wonderful and amazing things.

The majority of this year’s lineup came from suggestions from the community, and it shows. We solicited speaker and performer recommendations from our #suggestions channel in Slack, and the community responded with hundreds of people and projects they love.

This year’s conference lineup is full of our favorite artists and creators, but all of them use their respective platforms to fight for what they believe in.

For example:

Cameron Esposito pioneered inclusive television production with Take My Wife, her brilliant series with real-life partner, Rhea Butcher. Cameron’s new standup special, Rape Jokes, confronts issues of consent and sexual assault from a survivor’s perspective, raising more than $40,000 for RAINN, the largest U.S. organization fighting sexual violence.

Ijeoma Oluo is editor at large of The Establishment, and the author of So You Want to Talk About Race, her powerful new book that shifts the burden of explaining difficult conversations around systemic inequality from people of color onto white audiences.

Hari Kondabolu is an enormously talented standup comic and podcast host whose documentary, The Trouble with Apu, made headlines and raised awareness of how the the popular Simpsons character impacted South Asian-Americans like him for decades.

Beth Newell and Natalie Pappalardo are the creators of Reductress, the first and only satirical women’s magazine, brilliantly skewering condescending and outdated popular tropes in women’s media with cutting humor, including a newly-greenlit show for Comedy Central.

Matt Furie is the illustrator behind Pepe the Frog, a joyful character he was horrified to see co-opted by white nationalists and the alt-right as a mascot during the 2016 election. He’s actively fought to reclaim Pepe ever since, including a high-profile lawsuit to get Infowars to stop profiting from his creation, and it’s working.

Claire L. Evans is one-half of YACHT and most recently the author of Broad Band, her book telling the untold stories of visionary women in technology who helped create the internet as we know it.

Each speaker is challenging social inequality in their own way, some as part of their work and some with the audiences they’ve built online.

We’re going to talk about all of this and how it affects us as people and artists and businesses like we’ve talked about challenging topics in the past.

The Power of Community

For many in the community, the days since the election have been increasingly isolating and difficult to handle. XOXO went away at a time when they most needed to support each other.

Our community continued year-round in Slack, but there’s no replacement for seeing each other in person, making new friends, and bonding over shared experiences.

We need to get through this together, to support each other through dark times and fight for what we believe in.

There’s power in community, coming together to be real and raw and vulnerable and face this all down together.

Supporting Independent Art

No matter how dire things get, we believe in the inherent value of independent art. These creators, many working on their own, need our support to survive, especially in this current climate.

All our festival events will continue to feature the projects and creators our community believes in. We’re sharing the work of these game designers, filmmakers, animators, musicians, cartoonists, podcasters, writers, illustrators, and coders with you because we all want them to succeed, they deserve our support, and we want them to keep making the world weird and good.

We risk losing so much if we don’t also prioritize supporting independent artists. Their work often contains activism and criticism, can be a catharsis, or can spark curiosity or bring joy. Independently-produced art gives voice to those outside traditional publishing structures and gatekeepers, voices who might otherwise be shut out of the cultural conversation.

That’s never been more important.

So, that’s why we’re back and what we’re doing differently, and we hope to bring you along for the ride. See you in September.

Registration for XOXO 2018

We're back! After taking a year off, XOXO returns to Portland, Oregon on September 6–9.

One week from today, we’ll announce our launch lineup and open registration for the sixth year of XOXO.

For those of you returning to XOXO, this will all be very familiar. For those of you who have never attended, here’s how registration works and the timeline for distributing passes. Short version:

Next Tuesday, June 19, we’ll announce the launch lineup for XOXO 2018 and open registration.

You’ll have ten days to fill out the registration survey — ending at noon PT/3pm ET on Friday, June 29.

Like past years, attendees will be randomly selected from approved surveys.

Everyone must fill out their own survey to attend, even partners and significant others.

Timeline and Passes

This Tuesday, June 19 we’ll announce the initial lineup and open up registration for XOXO 2018.

This year, you’ll have ten days to fill out the registration survey, ending on Friday, June 29 at noon PT/3pm ET. There's no need to hurry, and no advantage to getting your survey in early.

Once registration closes, attendees will be chosen from approved surveys by lottery. You’ll have a guaranteed 48 hours to buy your pass, and after that, it will be released to another attendee.

This year, we’re retiring the two-tier system for passes. We’ll have a single $500 pass that gets you full access to everything — the conference, all our evening festival events, meetups, and parties.

For those who can’t afford to attend, we’re significantly expanding the number of subsidized passes this year, offering hundreds of passes for free to those who wouldn’t be able to attend otherwise. You’ll be able to apply for a subsidized pass on your survey.

XOXO passes are non-transferable, but can be refunded in full until Friday, August 17. After that, all sales are final.

How Surveys Work

We ask you to fill out a short survey with three simple questions:

What do you do?

What are you working on right now?

What’s something you’ve made that you’re proud of?

In addition, we ask if you belong to an underrepresented group or whether you need a subsidized pass to attend for free.

This survey isn’t an application — we’re not judging or ranking you based on your answers. We use these responses to answer a simple question: is this someone who makes things, or builds tools to help people make things? Artists and creators of any kind are immediately approved.

Why Surveys?

Initially, we implemented surveys to screen out people who were looking to exploit the attention of XOXO attendees — namely companies who want to be at XOXO to sell you their services instead of participating.

Over time, we found it to be a powerful tool to ensure the group of attendees reflects the creative communities that the festival was designed to celebrate.

Each year, we’ve heard criticism from some people who see our survey system as exclusionary or elitist, arguing that a first-come, first-serve system for ticketing would be far more fair, equitable, and inclusionary.

In our experience, the opposite is true. A first-come, first-serve system favors those with time and money, which ends up benefiting predominantly white men with well-paying jobs and disposable income.

Our survey system allows us to factor diversity into admission, which helps to counteract systemic biases and prioritize access to the festival for underrepresented folx and independent artists.

The feedback from attendees each year is clear: it works. So we’re sticking with it.

Get Ready

After running XOXO for five years, we wanted to take some time to reflect on what made it great, what could have been better, and where we wanted it to go. After a year away, we think we’ve come up with something new and special, and we’re excited (and terrified!) to share it with you.

But, like always, it’s an experiment. And we’ll only know if the experiment worked when you all show up in September. More next week!

Childcare at XOXO 2016

For the second time, we’re happy to provide free, on-site childcare at XOXO, courtesy of our friends at Slack, running from day to night.

The professional caregivers from My Loving Nanny return to XOXO this year, providing at least one nanny for each four children. Once again, they’ve worked with us to plan a variety of play stations (arts and crafts, toys and games), as well as group activities throughout the day. For younger children, we have a dedicated nap area in an adjacent room.

We’ll provide a selection of snacks, drinks, and light meals. If they have special dietary needs, or are just picky eaters, feel free to bring food for them. We’ll have a refrigerator on-site to keep food and drinks cold.

Of course, you’re welcome and encouraged to bring anything else to make them comfortable.

New moms are welcome to breastfeed anywhere at XOXO, but in particular, can use the childcare area as a lactation room. A privacy screen and outlets will be available. Milk can be stored in the fridge used by childcare.

XOXO Kids Arcade

Last year, we heard that childcare was a bit too “young” for some kids who think they’re too cool for Duplo and Candyland. Okay, cool kids — that’s something we can fix.

This year, with the help of Intercom and our buddies at Rose City Games, we’re proud to announce the XOXO Kids Arcade, a curated selection of console, PC, and mobile games suitable for all ages.

The main goal will be introducing kids and families to familiar titles they’ve never played, and games they’ve never heard of from the incredibly rich world of independent games. Curated by PIGSquad, the focus is on exploration/co-operation/family-friendly titles perfect for small groups and spectators, with a rotating daily lineup.

Parents are welcome in the Kids Arcade — just don’t hog the games!

Where?

The childcare area is located on the same floor as Revolution Hall, our conference venue — Childcare is in room 206 and the Kids Arcade is located right next door in room 207. There will be signage pointing the way.

When you arrive, you will need to register your child and give emergency contact information, and pickup will require ID.

When?

Childcare starts during our opening party from Thursday 7-10pm, and runs Friday until Sunday from 10am until 10pm.

The Arcade will be open on Thursday during our opening party from 7pm-9pm, and Friday-Sunday from 10am-5pm.

Do I need to register?

No! But it’s helpful to let us know if you plan to use childcare, if you haven’t already, to help us gauge usage. (If you have an urgent question or need, contact us below.)

More Questions?

Feel free to email us any questions or comments to us at [email protected]. You can contact Rebekah Rivisto at My Loving Nanny directly at (206) 356-3890 or by email at [email protected].

Food & Drink at XOXO 2016

Every year, we build the world's greatest food cart pod at XOXO — drawing together our favorites from Portland's legendary food cart scene, along with open bars serving a complimentary menu of craft drinks day and night.

This year, we've nearly doubled the number of carts from last year, 18 carts serving everything from crepes to musubi, from piping hot doughnuts to cereal from a van.

We're pairing it with open bars running continuously during XOXO, serving complimentary coffee, tea, and soda drinks during the day and a rotating selection of local craft beer and wine, with our menus of non-alcoholic house-made sodas.

Let’s do this.

Day Bar

Thanks to our friends at Asana, we’re able to provide free espressos, macchiatos, cappuccinos, and other coffee drinks from Roseline Coffee Roasters, all day Friday through Sunday, including the return of our “Morning Beer,” a hop-infused, non-alcoholic cold brew. New this year, by popular demand, we’ve added tea to the drink menu.

We’ve also teamed with our friends at Slack to bring back our amazing lineup of complimentary non-alcoholic drinks, available throughout the day and evenings at XOXO.

Once again, we worked with Commissary to design an all-new menu of creative, delicious sodas and non-alcoholic cocktails made from their fresh, hand-made syrups.

Last year, people had trouble pronouncing the emoji-named drinks. So, with the help of Slack’s expert wordsmiths, we finally found names that were impossible to screw up.

The Seeg - Pear/Rosemary/Lemon The Hyperbowl - Hibiscus/Lavender/Lemon The Gif - Grapefruit/Lemon/Ginger The Skooten'n'Froody - Cucumber/Jalapeno/Lime The Ah Megadon - Green Tea/Apricot/Lemon The Facey-Smile - Fig/Demerara/Apple Cider

Night Bar

At night, our bars are serving the best of the Pacific Northwest’s world-renowned microbrew scene, completely free of charge.

Not a fan of hoppy beers? We hear you. We’ll have a wide variety of styles beyond IPAs — Czech pilsners and saisons, kolsch and hefeweizen, stouts and porters, and a selection of Portland-made ciders and wines, a changing selection of our favorites rotating throughout each night.

And if you don’t drink alcohol, or are looking for an alternative, our full menu of non-alcoholic cocktails and sodas will be available all night, thanks to Slack.

Surprise Treats

At our opening party on Thursday night, we’ve teamed with WordPress.com for an Ice Cream Social — complimentary frozen desserts from three of our favorite carts:

Wailua Shave Ice. The first and only location outside of Kauai, Wailua opened in Portland as a popup this summer to rave reviews, with their emphasis on house-made syrups, creative flavor combinations, and ice like freshly-fallen snow.

Zed’s Fruit Ice Cream. Inspired by the fresh fruit ice creams of Australia and New Zealand, Zed’s blends fresh fruit and Tillamook Ice Cream on the spot into a unique frozen treat with the help an Australian-made machine.

Fifty Licks. Chad Drazin moved to Portland to make beer, but ended up applying his food science background to ice cream, focusing on his two part manifesto—"purity of flavor" and "texture above everything else." Returning to XOXO, Fifty Licks will also be serving Friday at lunch.

And, on Friday morning, before our opening comments, we’re thrilled to announce that Asana is treating everyone to free, piping-hot doughnuts from Pip’s Original Doughnuts. If you end up addicted like we are, Pip’s will be returning to sell their adorably delicious donuts on Saturday and Sunday, made on the spot.

XOXO Cart Pod

Here’s the rest of this year’s food cart ridiculous lineup. We hope you find some new favorites.

Ash Wood-Fired Pizza (Opening Party, Friday-Sunday Lunch) Ash is pretty serious about the quality of their ingredients, never using commercial yeast for their sourdough starter, instead cultivating wild yeast from local grapes. Combined with seasonal ingredients from local farmer’s markets, their menu changes weekly, including vegan and vegetarian options.

Le Pantry (Opening Party, Friday-Sunday All Day) Opened in May, Le Pantry is a French-inspired “open eatery” focused on strictly local, organic, and seasonal fare sourced solely from sustainable farms and producers. Last month, Willamette Week named them one of their favorite new carts of the summer.

Cereal from A Van (Opening Party, Friday/Saturday Late Night) Is there a better way to cap off a night than your choice of 50+ cereals served from two delightful, pajama-clad weirdos out of a 1968 Dodge van? No, there isn’t.

Chicken and Guns (Opening Party, Friday-Sunday Lunch, Friday Dinner) Opening last summer in the Cartopia pod, Chicken & Guns made a name for themselves with their incredible Latin American-style chicken slow roasted over white oak, from chickens locally-raised chickens from Scratch Farms in Canby, Oregon. Try the crispy potatoes doused in Peruvian aji sauce.

Aybla Grill (Opening Party, Friday Lunch/Dinner) Syrian-born chef Saied Samaiel was trained on the Greek island of Crete for ten years before coming to Portland, growing his cart business to five locations across the city with a selection of Mediterranean, vegetarian-friendly offerings made with local and organic ingredients.

Fried Egg I'm In Love (Friday-Sunday Breakfast) The best breakfast sandwiches, and arguably the best-named food cart, in Portland. With dishes like Yolko Ono and Huevo Mutilation, Fried Egg I’m In Love’s roots are in music, started by two bandmates from Fort Union. They’re serving breakfast every day at XOXO, so come out early.

Perierra Crêperie (Friday-Sunday Breakfast/Lunch) A fixture at Hawthorne’s Cartopia carts, Perierra serves made-to-order sweet and savory French crepes from their cart, with vegan and vegetarian options. We can smell the Nutella from here.

Kim Jong Grillin' (Friday-Sunday Lunch/Dinner) Kim Jong Grillin’ is the stuff food cart legends are made of. Han Hwang’s wonderful Korean BBQ food cart won the Eat Mobile Competition in 2011, and burned to the ground while he was picking up his award. In 2014, his cart reopened to acclaim and sell-out crowds after an appearance on the Food Network’s Chopped, expanding to two more locations later this year.

Grind Musubi (Friday-Sunday Dinner) New to XOXO for the first time, the seasoned and wrapped rice ball known as musubi, or onigiri in Japan, is a staple of Hawaiian comfort food — a quick, healthy, and delicious meal while running between events. In an ongoing effort, Musubi donates 10 cents from each musubi sale to help end hunger.

Salt & Straw (Saturday-Sunday Lunch) It wouldn’t be XOXO without Salt & Straw, and we’re thrilled they’re returning to XOXO for lunch on Saturday and Sunday to help you beat the heat. In the last five years, the handmade “farm-to-cone” ice cream by cousins Kim and Tyler Malek has taken over Portland, expanding from a single tiny cart to three stores, a soft serve shop in Pine Street Market, and three locations in L.A.

Bunk Sandwiches (Saturday Lunch/Dinner) The mobile arm of chef Tommy Habetz and Nick Wood’s sandwich empire of Bunk Sandwiches. Avoid gimmicky carts like Big Ass Sandwiches, and stick with the real thing: simple, high-quality ingredients on damn-good bread.

Nong's Khao Mon Gai (Saturday-Sunday Lunch) Taken from the street food of her native Bangkok, Nong Poonsukwattana only makes one dish: poached chicken & rice, wrapped in butcher paper and served with a spicy sauce. But it’s so insanely good, the lunch lines at her 10th & Alder location often stretch down the block, leading to two new locations to satiate the addicts. Got a minute? Go watch her tell her story.

Koi Fusion (Closing Party) Bo Kwon was 12 years old when he started fusing his South Korean parents’ food with other cuisines, adding kimchi to his grilled cheese sandwiches. 20 years later, he’s doing it for his customers with a food cart empire—three trucks and five stationary locations mixing Korean BBQ and Mexican flavors in tacos, burritos, and Seoul sliders.

The Whole Bowl (Closing Party) The Whole Bowl is a Portland mainstay, serving their beloved vegetarian bean and rice bowls, with savory toppings and sauce, expanding to six locations since they first opened in the Pearl in 2001.

See you tomorrow!

Our Neighborhood

A week from today, just over 1,200 of you will join us in Portland to participate in this year’s festival.

Each year, Andy and I try to be considerate of the impact that bringing so many visitors into the city can have on our neighborhood. As Portland residents, we want XOXO to be a force for good. With you as visitors, we want to ensure that the generosity and kindness we see in this community is shared with our neighbors too.

Tonight—as Portland city officials consider extending our housing emergency into its second year—almost 2,000 of our neighbors will sleep outside or in their cars.

This year, XOXO is partnering with JOIN to be a part of the solution. JOIN is a local organization that works to address this overwhelming tragedy, helping between 10 and 15 people each week leave the streets for a home. Since 1997, JOIN has been successful in relocating over 9,000 individuals off the streets and into permanent housing.

Our goal is to raise at least $5,000 by the end of this year’s festival, enough for JOIN to assist one homeless family in moving off the streets and into permanent housing. $5,000 will allow JOIN to cover first and last month’s rent, deposit, move-in costs, and short-term rent / utility assistance while this family gets back on their feet.

If every one of our attendees donates just $5, we’ll raise enough to help a family move off the streets permanently. Every additional $3,000 is enough to help another individual, and every $5,000, another family.

You can donate now through our Tilt campaign.

In addition, XOXO is joining the long list of local organizations endorsing the Yes For Affordable Homes campaign. Measure 26-179 will raise $258.4 million over the next 20 years, financing new affordable housing for an estimated 2,900 people. We’ve made a $2,500 contribution in support of the bond measure, we’ll be voting in support, and we encourage the Portlanders in our community to also vote Yes this November.

As you arrive in Portland next week, we encourage you to be mindful visitors. Eat, drink, and patronize local businesses. Use our phenomenal public transit system. If you’re able, walk and bike the length and breadth of this wonderful city.

And be kind to our neighbors, especially those experiencing homelessness.

Thank you again for your generosity. See you next week!

Announcing XOXO Tabletop

XOXO is totally sold out, refunds are closed, and the festival starts in a little two and a half weeks. If you’re coming, see who else is coming in the Attendee Directory!

Last week, we announced the lineups for our Film & Animation, Story, and Arcade evening events.

Today, we’re thrilled to announce the lineup for XOXO Tabletop, held at Yale Union on Saturday, September 10, from 7pm-1am. Join us for a night of some of the best and most interesting independent board, card, and role-playing games, with their designers showing them off.

Reminder: These evening events are open to every passholder.

(Thanks to Jonathan Liu, Laura E. Hall, and Matthew Baldwin for their suggestions.)

JackBox Party Pack

You may remember Arnie Niekamp and Evan Jacover from Hello from the Magic Tavern, their podcast featured at last year’s XOXO, but did you know they make enormously popular party games too? All night, they’ll be hosting rounds of their new drawing game, Drawful 2, games from the upcoming Jackbox Party Pack 3 including Quiplash 2 and, if you’re good, several more top secret unannounced games they can’t talk about just yet.

Spaceteam

Spaceteam is arguably the best cooperative mobile game ever made, forcing friends to frantically scream at each other to avoid their spaceship from blowing up. Last year, it was adapted into a chaotic, cooperative card game by an all-star team, and previewed in prototype form at last year’s XOXO. Henry Smith, creator of the videogame that inspired it, joins us from Montréal.

The Romance Trilogy

The Romance Trilogy is a compendium of romance-themed role-playing games — Breaking the Ice, Shooting the Moon and Under my Skin — three quick games about the human heart, now collected in a single volume by designer and conservationist, Emily Care Boss, who joins us from Western Massachusetts to share them with us.

Beasts of Balance

Beasts of Balance is an innovative blend of physical and digital, where players take on the role of gods and goddesses, adding magical animals to a balancing tower, then help them evolve in the connected companion app. London-based designer Alex Fleetwood shows off the upcoming game.

Fall of Magic

Fall of Magic is a collaborative storytelling game played on a five-foot-long canvas scroll that unrolls as players travel, revealing perilous roads, strange hosts, and fantastic locales, gorgeously illustrated by award-winning artists Doug Keith and Taylor Dow. Musician and game designer Ross Cowman joins us from Olympia to share his work.

The Order of the Oven Mitt

Jenn Sandercock makes edible games — freshly-baked tabletop games where eating is a core game mechanic. In The Order of the Oven Mitt, players must pass a grueling initiation trial by following the Sacred Rituals to eat the Sacred Squares — and become a Knight of the Oven Mitt!

Two Rooms and a Boom

For the last two years, we’ve invited game designers Alan Gerding and Sean McCoy to run Two Rooms and a Boom at XOXO, and it’s always a massive hit. A fast-paced party game of social deduction, it’s like Werewolf with a ticking time bomb. Groups of up to 30 people split into two teams, get assigned roles, and try to find the bomber and save the President in three tense, timed rounds.

Burgle Bros / Fugitive

In Burgle Bros, players assemble a crew and make a plan to pull off the ultimate tabletop heist. Its companion, Fugitive, is the getaway chase: a tense two-player deduction card game full of close calls and great escapes, all packed into 10 minutes. Each game raised more than $200k on Kickstarter, with designer Tim Fowers joining us from Ogden, Utah to show them off.

Detective Bullshit

Detective Bullshit is a competitive storytelling game centered around a fictional criminal case, where players spin tales of outrageous crimes from a deck of ridiculous characters and dubious evidence. Creators Rae Votta and Corey Lubowich call it “a game you win by making shit up,” so get ready to bullshit your way to the top.

Larklamp

Larklamp is a magic lantern game system for playing ethereal tabletop games made of light. Game boards are cast as shadow patterns from shapes cut into the lantern’s four removable side-panels, changeable like cartridges in a videogame console. Designer P.D. Warne joins us from Montreal to show it off.

Tiffin

Every day in Mumbai, hot lunches are hand-delivered by bicycle and train across the city, packed in tins called tiffins. In Tiffin, players navigate the city, working routes to earn rupees before a competitor gets there first. Designers Rael Dornfest and Jonathan Hager show their newly-published board game at XOXO.

Tarotno

Tarotno is a divination card game for up to four players by the Outpost’s own Mo Cohen, Hagen Deloss, and Laura E. Hall. By manipulating the four essential elements (Meat, Bone, Void, Fluid), players may divine a glimpse of their own fates.

Werewolf

I’m a villager. I’ve always been a villager. The fact that you’d suggest otherwise is exactly the kind of thing a werewolf would say.

Announcing XOXO Arcade

Reminder: Tomorrow, August 19, is the last day for refunds. After that, all sales are final. Can’t make it to XOXO? You can sign in to cancel your registration and get a refund.

All this week, we’re announcing the lineups for our evening festival events. So far, we’ve announced our Film & Animation and Story lineups.

Next up: XOXO Arcade, held on Friday, September 9, from 7pm-1am at Yale Union.

Every year, with the help of Venus Patrol's Brandon Boyer, we bring some of the most interesting indie games in the world to XOXO and project them on huge screens at Yale Union, with their designers and developers on hand to talk about their work. Here's this year's lineup, we hope you like them.

All evening events are open to every passholder.

Manifold Garden

Manifold Garden is an exploration puzzle game that imagines a universe with a different set of physical laws, set in a mind-boggling Escher-esque world filled with secrets and mysteries, presented by Chicago-based designer and developer William Chyr.

Luna

Luna is a tactile, narrative puzzle game set in a vibrant and sculptural storybook world, where players follow Bird, whose adventure begins when the Owl convinces Bird to swallow the last piece of the waning Moon. Funomena founders Robin Hunicke and Martin Middleton join us from San Francisco to show their latest progress.

Memory of a Broken Dimension

At first, Memory of a Broken Dimension appears to be noise, a glitched-out landscape of digital artifacts, but you soon learn to see and piece together the geometry of a deteriorating world in this two-time IndieCade Award winner. Creator XRA joins us at XOXO to show off his latest progress.

Beglitched

Beglitched is a game about insecurity, in our computers and ourselves, a pastel world of networks where nobody truly knows what they’re doing, hacking is a magical art and the notorious Glitch Witch is the most premium archmagi of the net. Designer Jenny Jiao Hsia joins us from Brooklyn.

Multibowl

Bennett Foddy is an XOXO staple from his past work on QWOP, Super Pole Riders, and Speed Chess. In an XOXO exclusive, Bennett joins us from NYC to debut his collaboration with Beglitched co-creator AP Thompson, a collage of hundreds of vintage emulated games into a fast-paced two-player battle that's like Wario Ware meets MAME.

TumbleSeed

TumbleSeed is a "rolly roguelike" where players balance and roll a seed to the top of a procedurally-generated mountain filled with holes and corrupted creatures, presented by designers Greg Wohlwend and Benedict Fritz.

Thimbleweed Park

Set in a surreal town with a bizarre cast of characters, Thimbleweed Park is the spiritual successor from the designers of Maniac Mansion, the 1987 classic that spawned the point-and-click adventure genre, raising $626k from over 15,000 backers on Kickstarter. Legendary designer Ron Gilbert (Secret of Monkey Island, The Cave) joins us at XOXO to show off his latest adventure.

Tetrageddon Games

Nathalie Lawhead defragments Internet ephemera, GIF culture, and retro gaming into Tetrageddon Games, a playable pop art satire of our online lives. We're thrilled to welcome Nathalie to XOXO from her home in beautiful Irvine, California.

Secret Legend

Designer and developer Andrew Shouldice quit his job to work on Secret Legend, an adorable Zelda-inspired isometric adventure with a modern retro style, winning Best in Show at Fantastic Arcade. Andrew joins us from Halifax to share his latest progress.

Rain World

Rain World is the highly-anticipated upcoming game from Videocult, a Kickstarter-funded survival platformer set in an abandoned industrial landscape following a nomadic slugcat as it hunts to survive. Presented by James and Lydia of Bright Primate.

Itch.io Showcase

Itch.io founder Leaf Corcoran is speaking at XOXO's conference, and we've asked him to show off a rotating selection of some of his favorites from his vibrant indie game community at XOXO Arcade.

PIGSquad Showcase

The Portland Indie Game Squad is a nonprofit dedicated to supporting the local indie game community with events and resources. They've curated an incredible showcase of some of the best games the Pacific Northwest has to offer, and the designers of each will be on site to talk about their work.

Announcing XOXO Story

Reminder: This Friday, August 19, is the last day for refunds. After that, all sales are final. Can’t make it to XOXO? You can sign in to cancel your registration and get a refund.

All this week, we’re announcing the lineups for our evening festival events. Yesterday, we revealed our Film & Animation lineup for 2016.

Next up: XOXO Story, held on Friday, September 9, from 7pm-1am at Revolution Hall, a night of live podcasts, interviews, and intimate storytelling.

The Heart

The Heart is an audio art project and podcast about intimacy and humanity, a radio show about the triumphs and the terrors of human intimacy, the bliss and banality of being in love and the wild diversity of the human heart. Host and creative director Kaitlin Prest joins us at XOXO for an intimate new performance.

The Foo Show

During last year’s XOXO, Will Smith announced he was leaving Tested, the enormously popular tech network he founded with Norm Chan and Mythbusters Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, to start something brand new — Foo VR and The Foo Show, an experimental virtual reality talk show. The result is unlike anything we’ve ever seen, and has to be seen to be believed. Will is bringing the first live Foo Show to XOXO with some very special guests.

Just Between Us

Two years ago, co-dependent besties Allison Raskin and Gaby Dunn started Just Between Us, a dating advice show on YouTube, answering viewer mail and exposing their deepest neuroses for laughs. Today, they’re close to 700k subscribers with over 73M views, a dedicated fanbase loving every minute. Gaby and Allison join us from Los Angeles to bring JBU to the XOXO stage.

Reasonably Sound

Reasonably Sound is a podcast about the science and culture of audio from Mike Rugnetta, writer/host of PBS Idea Channel and XOXO alumnus. An accomplished and prolific composer of experimental music, Mike joins us at XOXO for his first live podcast, celebrating the launch of his Patreon-funded second season.

Flash Forward

Flash Forward is a podcast about the future, each episode taking on a different possible (or not so possible) future scenario. Join host Rose Eveleth for an interactive experience exploring one of those futures — where the audience will decide their fate in a world where every person can find their expiration date.

Fray Cafe

While working at HotWired in 1996, Derek Powazek launched Fray, a pioneering online community devoted to personal stories. Raw and emotional, the website soon expanded to live storytelling events and then to a series of independently-published books. For its 20th anniversary, we’re thrilled to invite Fray back to XOXO for a night of your true personal stories. Want to tell a story? Join #fraycafe in Slack. (Not in our Slack? Sign in to request an invite.)

Announcing XOXO Film & Animation

XOXO is completely sold out, and soon, six 20-somethings will embark on a crazy adventure culminating in one magic night at the biggest EDM festival in America—oh, sorry, wrong XOXO.

In a little over three weeks, over 1,000 of you will descend into Portland for what is quite possibly the last XOXO ever for four days of our favorite people and projects in the world.

Want to see who’s coming? If you’re attending, you can sign in now to see every XOXO 2016 attendee.

Want to meet your fellow attendees, coordinate on unofficial events, and hear about what everyone’s doing leading up to the festival? Get into the XOXO Slack, where over 1,700 of you have self-organized into over 180 channels around every possible interest. No #bad-attitude required. (Need an invite? You can request one at the bottom of the registration form.)

Reminder: This week is the last week for refunds! After this Friday, you’re out of luck! Can’t make it to XOXO? You can now sign in to cancel your registration and get a refund now.

Every year, we only announce a small percentage of the lineup before the festival sells out. Why? Because we like surprises, and we plan this thing right up until the last possible minute, stuffing it full of projects we love.

That changes right now as we kick off a week of announcements for our evening festival programming. These events are open to every passholder.

First up: XOXO Film & Animation, held on Saturday, September 10, from 7pm-1am at our main venue, Revolution Hall.

We’re thrilled to bring these incredible filmmakers, animators, and video creators to XOXO to screen their work on the big screen, followed by Q&As. Grab some popcorn and settle in for this year’s lineup.

Feminist Frequency’s Ordinary Women

The followup to Feminist Frequency’s pioneering video series on the representation of women in videogames, Ordinary Women: Daring to Defy History is a new series about women through history who defied stereotypes to change the world. Raising over $200,000 from 3,774 supporters on Seed & Spark, each episode features original animation with a different visual style inspired by the woman at its center. We’re thrilled that director and host Anita Sarkeesian, producer Elisabeth Aultman, and writer Laura Hudson are premiering the series at XOXO for the first time.

Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared

Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared’s darkly surreal puppet world is like a children’s television show infused with your deepest fears and insecurities. Produced with the help of over 3,500 Kickstarter backers, its six episodes were viewed over 115 million times, spawning cosplay, live-action recreations, and elaborate conspiracy theories. London-based directors Becky Sloan and Joseph Pelling join us at XOXO to screen the complete series and answer your questions.

Homestar Runner

15 years ago this August, Strong Bad pulled out his Tandy 400 and answered his first email in the world of Homestar Runner, the influential animated series started in 2000 by brothers Matt and Mike Chapman. Five years before YouTube launched, The Brothers Chaps pushed the limits of Flash to bring us Marzipan, Strong Sad, The Cheat, Trogdor the Burninator, the blistering sounds of Limozeen, and so much more. They join us from Atlanta for a very rare appearance to share some of their favorite moments, the history of the series, and what they’re working on now.

Auralnauts

The mysterious Auralnauts are audio engineers gone rogue, remixing the soundtracks and dialogue from blockbuster hits into hilarious new videos, revealing another side to villains like Bane and Kylo Ren, and reinventing the Death Star as a planet-sized laser tag emporium. In the process, they’ve racked up a dedicated fan base and over 37 million views. The pseudonymous Zak Koonce and Craven Moorhaus join us for their first public appearance ever!

Every Frame A Painting

Each episode of Every Frame A Painting feels like a perfectly-crafted jewel—every video essay analyzing the film form, while using those same techniques to tell an entertaining and compelling story. In its past two years, it’s built a dedicated fan base of over 3,700 patrons donating nearly $6,700 for each video on subjects as varied as how to do visual comedy to texting and the Internet in film. Creators Tony Zhou and Taylor Ramos return to XOXO from Vancouver, BC to debut a brand new episode.

Baman Piderman

Last year, a last-minute illness prevented animators Lindsay and Alex Small-Butera from flying to XOXO to showcase Baman Piderman, their adorable Kickstarter-funded animated series about two not-quite-right superhero friends and the surreal world they live in. But we managed to conference them in, where they charmed a packed house over Skype. We’re thrilled to bring them back, in the flesh, to premiere new work exclusively at XOXO.

2016 Registration

Here, finally, are the details for XOXO 2016 registration, coming up this September 8-11. The short version, same as the last two years:

Next Tuesday, July 12, we’ll announce the launch lineup for XOXO 2016 and open registration.

You’ll have a week to fill out the registration survey — ending at noon PT/3pm EDT on Monday, July 18.

Like past years, attendees will be randomly selected from approved surveys.

Want more? Read on.

An Announcement

First, some big news: XOXO will not be returning in 2017.

We haven’t yet decided if this is the last one for now, or the last one ever, but we can say with 100% certainty that there will not be a festival next year. Certainly if XOXO does return, it’s likely that it will look very different to the event we’ve been running for the last five years.

We deeply love this community and everything it’s become — everything you’ve made it — and we’ll continue to work for this community through projects like the Outpost. But, for now, we need to take a break.

So if you were thinking of sitting this one out and going next year instead, you might want to reconsider.

Timeline and Passes

This Tuesday, July 12 we’ll announce the initial lineup and open up registrations for XOXO 2016.

Like last year, you’ll have a week to fill out the registration survey, ending on Monday, July 18 at noon PT/3pm ET.

Attendees will be randomly selected from approved surveys starting shortly after registration closes on July 18. You’ll have 48 hours to buy your pass, and then it’ll be given to another randomly selected attendee.

We have two tiers of passes:

$500 for the conference talks, plus all festival events

$200 for festival events only

XOXO passes are non-transferable, but can be refunded in full until Friday, August 19. After that, all sales are final.

Surveys

For those of you new to XOXO, we ask you to fill out a short survey. We’ll ask you to sign in with Twitter and answer three simple questions:

What do you do?

What are you working on right now?

What’s something you’ve made that you’re proud of?

This isn’t an application — we’re not judging you based on the quality of your work, how many Twitter followers you have, or anything else like that. We use these responses to answer a simple question: is this someone who makes things, or building tools to help people make things? Artists, writers, designers, founders, and hackers of any kind are immediately approved.

For the last three years, we’ve used this survey solely to screen out those people who were looking to exploit the attention of XOXO attendees — companies who want to be at XOXO to sell you their services, instead of participating. The feedback from attendees is clear: it works, so we’re sticking with it.

Accessibility & Diversity

We know that accessibility and diversity factor into whether many of you can attend an event, so we’re happy to confirm that we’re continuing to offer the following like last year:

Free, on-site childcare will be provided — the schedule and arrangements will be similar to last year. Children under 12 are welcome to attend the festival for free with parental supervision, but conference seating is limited to badgeholders only. You can read more details on our Families and Significant Others policy from last year.

All talks will be live captioned, and seating will be reserved for the hearing impaired. All venues are ADA compliant.

And we’re again offering 50 subsidized passes to those who would be unable to attend XOXO any other way, but we’re reducing the price from $50 to free.

We’ll have more details on each of these next week.

Get Ready

This all started with an idea — that there should be a space for the growing community of artists, hackers, and other creators working online independently on their own, and the unique set of challenges they deal with every day: impostor syndrome, anxiety, harassment, financial burdens, and the ever-present feeling that you have no idea what you’re doing.

After four years, that gathering evolved from a four-day event held once a year into a year-round online community with our 1,200-person Slack team. And then, in February, XOXO found a real-life local incarnation in the Outpost, now with over 70 independent artists and creators and year-round events.

This community keeps growing and changing, as you all share each other’s stories, make new friendships, and support one another. We don’t know where it’s going, but we’re pretty excited to find out.

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