Days after the 2025 edition of Austin, TX’s South by Southwest, the festival — commonly known as SXSW — has made plans to shorten the event for 2026, cutting back on music programming.
UPDATE (3/17, 12:48 p.m. ET): A spokesperson has clarified to the Austin American-Statesman [via Vulture] that music events “will take place throughout the entire event” at next year’s iteration of the festival.
As the Austin American-Statesman reports, next year’s SXSW will run from Thursday, March 12 to Wednesday, March 18, thereby cutting the event’s final weekend, which has traditionally been dedicated to music performances and conferences. However, the fest is still selling a Music badge among the options for purchase for 2026, suggesting the music portion of SXSW likely won’t entirely cease to exist.
SXSW was founded in 1987 as a music showcase, something of a companion to New York City’s New Music Seminar. Since then, however, it has expanded into a multidisciplinary festival, amalgamating film, interactive media, tech, comedy and more into the mix.
As per The Hollywood Reporter, participation in the music festival has reportedly been declining since the 2010s, when the average count of participating acts peaked at about 2,000. (Comparatively, this year’s edition apparently showcased 1,012 bands.) In 2024, there was a big reckoning amongst artists about SXSW’s ties to the defence industry, with more than 80 bands dropping out in protest. The festival proceeded to drop the US Army as a sponsor for this year’s edition.
Back in 2023, SXSW increased pay for performing artists but otherwise failed to meet the demands of over 120 musicians who signed an open letter calling for fair pay.
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