Inaugural ATX Television Festival coming soon to an Austin near you

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom
The inaugural ATX Television Festival is ramping up for June 1-3 in Austin.

For starters, co-founders Caitlin McFarland and Emily Gipson have assembled a nice list of guests and screenings in hopes of "creating an opportunity to take the water cooler conversation public."

Information on how to buy a badge is here. And you can go here on the official ATX site for a look at the confirmed participants.

Any self-respecting Austin TV festival of course has to have a contingent of Friday Night Lights stars and producers. So this will be the big Saturday night event, with outdoor screenings of the NBC series' first and last episodes plus scheduled appearances by executive producers Jason Katims and David Hudgins, music supervisor Liza Richardson and cast members Jesse Plemons, Matt Lauria, Alicia Witt, Scott Porter, Gaius Charles, Dora Madison Burge, Brad Leland, Louanne Stephens and Michael B. Jordan.

Other TV shows with panels and screenings attached include FX's Archer, NBC's Grimm and Parenthood, HBO's True Blood, The CW's The Vampire Diaries, MTV's Teen Wolf and USA's Royal Pains and Suits.

Again, check out the festival's website to see if this might be worth your time and money. Every festival has to start somewhere, and we can't vouch for how well this one will be run. But it does sound like a good idea, and I hope it works out well for everyone.