XOXO
Running from 2012 to 2024, XOXO was an experimental festival celebrating independent artists and creators working on the internet.
Each year, XOXO brought together writers, designers, filmmakers, musicians, game developers, coders, cartoonists, and more to share their stories and struggles of living and working online.
The Andys
Photo by Scott Beale, taken at XOXO 2016
Andy McMillan
Founder/Organizer
Andy McMillan is a designer and independent event producer with a weird internet career. In addition to producing events for internet companies like Duolingo, Adobe, Slack, and BackerKit through his studio, Regular, he’s also the co-founder of Heck, a non-alcoholic craft brewery based in Portland, Oregon.
Andy’s WebsiteAndy Baio
Founder/Organizer
Andy Baio is a writer and coder who loves making things on the internet. He helped build Kickstarter, produced Kind of Bloop, and made Skittish, Playfic, and Upcoming.org, among other projects. He’s written about internet culture, community, and creative technology on his site, Waxy.org, since 2002.
Andy’s WebsitePress
XOXO proved to me that parts of the internet are still really, really fucking good.”
The festival contributed so many good ideas to the world of internet culture — online and off — that its disappearance, however temporary, stings… It was pretty much the best thing I ever went to. I’ll miss it terribly.”
By the time I left on Monday morning, my heart felt like it had grown 10 times. I feel like I’ve made new friends. I feel inspired to make and do new things. More importantly, I feel like I’ve discovered a new community where I belong.”
XOXO’s popularity is partly down to its gentleness, its emotive undertone and thoughtful curation, but also its commitment to supporting individual artists over businesses and corporates.”
