Down app helps people at SXSW hook up with each other

It’s a new year, and a whole new SXSW, but some things don’t change. Thanks to an endless stream of parties with open bars, the warm nights, and a large population of web-curious visitors descending on Austin, the tradition of the SXSW hookup lives on. And Down wants to help keep that tradition alive. Twelve months ago, Down was just a little web app called “Bang With Friends” which sought to help users find out which of their friends also wanted to bang them.

Last year at South by Southwest, Down (the app formerly known as Bang With Friends) got itself in a little hot water with festival organizers when it launched the event-specific BangWithSXSW, which—surprise!—found you other people at the show who wanted to get it on. With you, just to be clear. SXSW sent the team a cease and desist letter in part because the domain sxsw.bangwithfriends.com was an unapproved use of “SXSW.” Bang With Friends ended up amending the URL to austin13.bangwithfriends.com. I say “in part,” though, because organizers also weren’t thrilled with the Bang With Friends posters, which were an illustrated guide in various sex acts and positions. They were, according to the South By powers that be, too suggestive.