A few years ago, it was photos like this that first put South by Southwest on the map as one of the biggest promotional freebie hotspots in the world.

In 2012, the legendary SXSW swag bags continue to be a staple of this wildly popular festival – though their have been some noticeable changes made!

While bags in previous years have been jampacked with magazines, custom koozies, guitar picks, CDs, books, and more, this year’s bag seems to be surprisingly light when it comes to actual freebies. Take a look:

2012 image courtesy of The Statesman

…Where’s all the cool stuff?! There’s a festival guide, a few pages from an old Austin Chronicle issue, a map, a pocket guide, and some information about SXSW Screenburn.

Yawn!

Of course festival-goers can collect free swag at the countless booths and exhibits at SXSW, but whatever happened to throwing a few event giveaways into the bag to begin with? Seems to me like SXSW is passing up a good opportunity to create a healthy stream of sponsor revenue.

The custom tote bag itself, designed by Yiying Lu, is the nicest thing about this collection. And indeed, it seems like people were eager to hang on to their free bags as they left to return home: