SXSW London Music Announcement
In 2020 I started to make plans to go to SXSW2021, when COVID put an end to them. After COVID, I didn’t feel confident enough to risk a significant portion of my savings to return to Austin, only to catch COVID and either not be able to attend or have to spend the festival in a hotel room. In fact I did catch COVID again in March 2023 around the time of SXSW, so the decision was the correct one. Since then, I have resisted the urge. Now with Trump in the White House, I cannot see me risking a trip to the US while he is in office.
With the announcement of SXSW London, it seemed like a no-brainer that I would buy a ticket. I have been to SXSW four times. Each time, I purchased the Platinum badge. First half of the festival, I would drop into interesting Interactive sessions and watch a lot of films. Second half, was almost exclusively music venue hopping. However, SXSW London is shorter, with Music overlapping Film and Interactive. Without knowing the scale of the festival, it didn’t seem like value for money.
Today, SXSW announced the first batch of artists, the venues they are using, a three day festival option and the music wristband prices. I am guessing the addition of the three day pass is an indication that they have failed to sell enough tickets. They only have themselves to blame. The marketing of SXSW London seems to have been intentionally obtuse, as if they were knew the first year of the festival was going to be relative small scale and they had overpriced the tickets.
The last SXSW Platinum badge cost me about £1000 for 10 days. With a dozen film screens, a big conference centre, nearby conference rooms in hotels and over 80 music venues. Throw in that Austin special sauce, where the city breathes SXSW for two weeks and although the badge is expensive, I feel it is money well spent.
A London Platinum badge, even at the discounted rate, is more expensive than the last full-festival Austin pass I purchased. The marketing simply told us ‘it will be in Shoreditch’, which we know doesn’t have that many music venues any more. Hell, there’s not even a conference centre in that bit of London. Honestly, why would I risk spending money on a Platinum badge? Surely, it would have made sense to price the festival cheaply and grow it? I suspect many others thought the same.
Sadly, today’s announcement seems to confirm that SXSW London is a pale imitation of Austin. SXSW released a music schedule and there’s only 22 venues listed, many of these are shared with conference sessions.
One positive is that all the venues are centred around Shoreditch and the festival footprint is relatively compact. It is only a 15 minute walk between the furthest venues. The list features all the expected venues like the Village Underground, The Old Blue Last, Rich Mix, XOYO, Colours, Shoreditch Town Hall, Truman Brewery and the Strongroom Bar. I had expected to see them use Dalston venues to bump up the numbers. I was also expecting them to encourage local pubs to become venues for the week. But I guess the small footprint is probably a good thing, as it would stretch out the festival and make it really annoying if a venue has queues and I’m sure there will pubs offering their own ‘off festival’ music lineups.
SXSW London also announced the first batch of 100 artists. The lineup is diverse. Everything from classical to rap. It is also a bit underwhelming, as indie artists, the cornerstone of the UK live music scene, seem underrepresented and there doesn’t appear to be much representation from European music scenes. Sadly, representation from the UK regions also seems smaller than at SXSW Austin. I suspect regional bodies have decided to continue to spend money sending artists to Austin. With only two months to go, I had hoped to see a fuller lineup announcement by now. Only announcing 100 artists, with only a handful I know is disappointing and reinforces the feeling that this festival will be smaller than I had hoped.
Given the apparent size of the festival, the cost of a platinum ticket is looking far too expensive. It is no surprise that today they announced a special three day festival pass, along with music-only wristbands. £120 for a six day music wristband and £80 for a three day pass. In fairness, these look reasonably priced and even with the current uninspiring music lineup, they have finally peaked my interest. I don’t jumping around venues trying to discover new artists and the schedules have music venues starting at around 4pm and finished by 11pm. I can easily travel into London each day on a discounted travel card, so no need for hotels. A whole week’s travel will work out cheaper than the cost of a Brighton Premier Inn on the Saturday of the Great Escape. I have to admit, at £20 a day, even with the limited venues and artists, SXSW London has suddenly become tempting.
