TV Camp for Grown-Ups: ATX Co-Founders on Creating a Festival With a ‘Be Cool’ Policy

Caitlin McFarland and Emily Gipson were Hollywood assistants who decided, around 2010, that they wanted to work for a TV festival based in their home state of Texas. The only problem: They couldn’t find one. So they started the ATX Television Festival, an Austin event now celebrating its 14th year.

This year's edition, which kicks off in Austin today and continues through Sunday, continues ATX's tradition of serving as a meeting place where TV creators and fans can rub shoulders and talk about their favorite shows in a laid-back setting, free of attitude. It strives to avoid the kind of pressure and jockeying that can make big film festivals feel like work. 

“We just loved movies and TV, and we loved adventure, and we had a really bad habit of quitting our jobs and traveling and then needing to start over again, meaning we never got past assistant,” laughs McFarland. 

“We did always want to come back to Texas, and I basically had a moment where I was leaving New York, and I could go back to L.A. and start over again, or I could come to Texas and see what was up.”

McFarland and Gipson realized that more and more, they were talking about TV. When they decided to start a TV-focused festival, they started by attending events to learn what worked.

“We went to everything — I mean, South by Southwest, Comic-Con, the Austin Film Festival — anywhere we could to do our research,” recalls Gipson. 

Also Read: The Best Places to Live and Work as a MovieMaker in 2025, Including Austin

She also attended lots of music festivals, and wanted to capture their harmonious atmosphere. They also turned to Kickstarter to raise money.

“We got feedback from people who wanted to, you know — watch Friday Night Lights in a parking lot together. And creators didn’t have that audience experience. The people who made TV and watched TV never got to watch it together,” says McFarland. 

ATX started simply: About 700 people attended the first edition. HBO was among the companies that understood the vision early. 

“The very first year when we pitched this, they gave us like $2,000 and a rerun of True Blood. But it came with the message of, ‘We want to be here when you turn 10. We want to be a part of this. We want to help you grow it.’”

ATX has surpassed that milestone, and this year’s edition — dubbed Season 14 — is packed with stars like Seth Meyers, Christine Baranski, Jon Hamm, Steve Zahn, and Brett Goldstein, as well as Scrubs and Bad Monkey creator Bill Lawrence. A Leftovers retrospective will include co-creator Damon Lindelof and star Carrie Coon. Andor creator/executive producer Tony Gilroy and writer Beau Willimon will talk about constructing the world of the critically-acclaimed Disney+ Star Wars series. And Mike Judge and Greg Daniels will reminisce about King of the Hill and preview the new Hulu revival.

The festival makes sure everyone is there for the love of TV.

“We like to make sure everybody has a margarita and a taco and feels very taken care of,” says McFarland. “But it is not a red velvet ropes, red carpet, per diem, we-paid-you-to-be-on-this stage kind of space. 

“You want to be a part of this community. You want to market your show. You want to find your audience. You want to network with your peers. But you’re here for the experience, not the payday. We don’t pay appearance fees,” she explains.

Everyone, celebrities and fans included, are asked to abide by a simple motto: Be cool. That means no big attitudes, and no harassing or crowding stars, for example.

“The heartbeat of the festival, both on the panelist side and the attendee side, is that from the beginning they’ve established this energy, this vibe at the festival,” says Gipson. 

“And so people that come in through the doors, they pick up on it, and they follow along, and the other attendees will be the first ones to tell someone, like, ‘You need to calm down.’”

ATX Brings Fans and Industry Together

The goes-both-ways approach also applies to the numbers: The thousands of people at the festival are split almost exactly between fans and industry professionals. And the festival allows a rare opportunity for professionals to be fans. 

“People who make TV love TV, and they don’t get to celebrate it that often,” says McFarland. “So one of our greatest joys was watching showrunners run to an Aaron Sorkin panel or the ‘Presidents on TV’ panel, and they want to sit in the audience and listen to their peers. 

“It’s really beautiful to have them not just do their panel and leave town. They’re able to stick around and network in the best way, and learn from each other.”

There are some opportunities for career enhancement, including a pitch competition overseen by Gipson, in which finalists run their ideas past showrunners and executives. They develop both a four-minute elevator pitch and 12-to-15-minute pitch for studio and network representatives, including visuals. 

But most of the focus is on fun, not acquisitions or money. And ATX places a premium on keeping things familiar.

“Our goal is not to be SXSW or Austin City Limits. We want to be smaller and intimate and accessible, because we believe that’s what TV has that other mediums don’t: You often watch it in your living room, alone or with a small group of people, or your family,” says McFarland. “We are bringing the community together, and we want them to be able to see each other. We’ve done 2,000- or 3,000-seat venues for very big things, but a lot of our stuff is 50 to 500 people in a room, and we’re really trying to be as intimate as possible.”

She summarizes: “This is TV camp for grown-ups.”

In the early years of ATX, broadcast networks still ruled and Netflix was launching one of the first original streaming hits, House of Cards. Gipson and McFarland have seen TV trends come and go, heard numerous declarations of a new golden age, and been repeatedly informed that things will never be so good again. 

So they’ve learned to expect pendulum swings. They’ve also had to find a modern definition for the word “TV.” 

“Our current definition is that it’s episodic,” says McFarland. “Feature-length films are not things we do. But whether scripted or unscripted: Is the story told in some version of chapters? 

“Where you watch it, how you watch it, and who’s making it, have all changed in 14 years. But we hold on to that episodic piece.” 

One trend they see changing is the practice of a streamer dropping an entire season at once. They think the traditional broadcast practice of releasing a new episode a week — a longstanding practice of HBO/Max, and the approach of new hits like Apple TV+’s Severance — is regaining popularity.

“If it’s coming out week to week, then people are really deep-diving into it, week to week, and they’re really immersing themselves in it. And it is now a 10-week conversation, as opposed to a weekend conversation,” says Gipson. 

“People that make TV really love and value that — because they don’t want this thing that they worked on for years to just be consumed in a weekend and then forgotten about.”

Main image: ATX founders Emily Gipson, left, and Caitlin McFarland. Photo by Jack Plunket, courtesy of ATX.