Flatstock 4

"Frank Kozik did the first one a few years ago, and about 30 artists showed up," estimates local poster artist Geoff Peveto, who for the second year in a row has organized SXSW's poster equivalent to the semiannual Austin Record Convention. "Then the second and third Flatstocks just grew and grew. Now we're seeing people from all over the world joining the API and showing up for SXSW."

Co-founder of River City art outfit Factor27 (www.factor27.com) and a board member of the American Poster Institute (www.americanposter institute.com), Peveto estimates some 80-90 poster artists from around the country will be attending Flatstock 4, spread out in the Convention Center's ground floor exhibition hall Friday and Saturday, noon-6pm. Where else can music fanatics wander, awestruck and overwhelmed, amid an international representation of artists whose entire raison d'être is to rock your world with a Day-Glo barrage of multihued, lunatic intensity? There are also a couple of special presentations:

Chuck Sperry and Ron Donovan of S.F.'s Firehouse Kustom Rock Art demonstrate silk-screening and how to print metallic ink. (Convention Center, Friday, March 19, 10am-noon)

Mig Kokinda illustrates how to make posters using stencils and spray paint. (Convention Center, Saturday, March 20, 10am-noon)

As for Peveto and Factor27's resounding success – they've recently been conscripted by everyone from Levi's to soulful superstar Erykah Badu – the future's so bright they need to wear welding goggles and gun mufflers to offset the badassness of it all.

"We're swamped," sighs Peveto contentedly. "We've been getting very high profile jobs like that regularly, and it's all attributable to our gig-poster work and Flatstock."

Stop the presses? Hell no. They're just getting started.