BREAKING: South By Southwest Festival Canceled

On Friday, the mayor of Austin, Texas, announced the cancellation of the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in his city, the first time in its 33-year history that it has been canceled.

South by Southwest released this statement:

The City of Austin has cancelled the March dates for SXSW and SXSW EDU. SXSW will faithfully follow the City’s directions. We are devastated to share this news with you. “The show must go on” is in our DNA, and this is the first time in 34 years that the March event will not take place. We are now working through the ramifications of this unprecedented situation.

As recently as Wednesday, Austin Public Health stated that “there’s no evidence that closing SXSW or any other gatherings will make the community safer.” However, this situation evolved rapidly, and we honor and respect the City of Austin’s decision. We are committed to do our part to help protect our staff, attendees, and fellow Austinites.

We are exploring options to reschedule the event and are working to provide a virtual SXSW online experience as soon as possible for 2020 participants, starting with SXSW EDU. For our registrants, clients, and participants we will be in touch as soon as possible and will publish an FAQ.

We understand the gravity of the situation for all the creatives who utilize SXSW to accelerate their careers; for the global businesses; and for Austin and the hundreds of small businesses – venues, theatres, vendors, production companies, service industry staff, and other partners that rely so heavily on the increased business that SXSW attracts.

We will continue to work hard to bring you the unique events you love. Though it’s true that our March 2020 event will no longer take place in the way that we intended, we continue to strive toward our purpose – helping creative people achieve their goals.

On the South by Southwest website, Roland Swenson, CEO of SXSW, described how the event was initiated in the first place in 1986:

A small group of people in Austin, Texas began a series of long discussions about the future of entertainment and media. The meetings were in the offices of The Austin Chronicle, and participants were sworn to secrecy. A fundamental opinion shared by the group was that the local creative and music communities were as talented as anywhere else on the planet, but were severely limited by a lack of exposure outside of Austin. Music was the uniting factor, but the group had a catholic taste for art and ideas. Inclusiveness and reaching for new things were core values.

The event has taken a decidedly leftist bent in recent years; in 2019 three of the featured speakers were Stacey Abrams, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Elizabeth Warren. Austin Chronicle reporter Chase Hoffberger, who has covered SXSW, told CNN in 2017, “(SXSW) is not designed to be a liberal thing, but the messaging is often liberal. Mostly because the industries that are involved are de facto liberal industries.”

In March 2017, the festival organizers released a statement after President Trump announced his travel ban. They wrote: “With the announcement of President Trump’s latest Travel Ban, SXSW would like to reaffirm its public opposition to these executive orders and provide ongoing support to the artists traveling from foreign countries to our event … In this political climate, especially as it relates to immigration, we recognize the heightened importance of standing together against injustice.”