SXSW Gets Its Own Apple Store

It’s getting to the point where the streets of San Francisco may be as noticeably empty over the next few days as over Labor Day during Burning Man. Just about everyone in the world of Web technology will soon descend on Austin for SXSW Interactive and our annual allotment of barbeque and margaritas. Many of us were already preparing to make the five-mile trek out of downtown Austin to the nearest Apple Store for the iPad 2 release at 5 p.m. on Friday, just as the conference is beginning.

But the trek won’t be necessary anymore, it seems. Local outlets are reporting that Apple is preparing to open a pop-up shop for the next two weeks at 6th and Congress in downtown Austin. That’s a mere stroll from the SXSW epicenter.

Plans for the store apparently came together in just the last couple days, with an Apple rep scouting the location on Monday and workers sprucing it up and carting in signage on Wednesday. The grand opening is set for Friday.

A swarm of early-adopting iPad 2 buyers is a sure bet; really, the only question is who will be mayor of the pop-up store on Foursquare.

(Here’s Walt Mossberg’s iPad 2 review.)

Meanwhile, AT&T is again boosting Austin coverage for the conference, after failing miserably to withstand the iPhone swarm two years ago and recovering admirably with temporary cell sites in 2010. No word on whether new iPhone and iPad carrier Verizon is doing the same.

As for our plans at AllThingsD, Kara Swisher, Katie Boehret and I will be in Austin this weekend. Kara’s putting Flipboard on the hot seat on Saturday, and I’m doing a panel on personalized recommendations with StumbleUpon, YouTube and Pandora on Sunday.

If y’all happen to take a second to look up from your iPhone apps between checking in, filtering snapshots and mapping parties, perhaps we’ll see you in person.

Streetview capture of the Apple Store pop-up location via Austinist.