South By Southwest launched in the 1980s as a music showcase, a Southern companion to New York City's New Music Seminar. But over the decades, the event has ballooned into a multi-disciplinary conference involving tech, film, comedy, and more, to the point that music started to feel like an afterthought. Now the music portion of SXSW might be significantly scaling back, if not going away entirely.
Just days after the end of SXSW 2025, the Austin American-Statesman reports that the event is shortening its schedule for 2026. Next year's SXSW will run from Thursday, March 12 to Wednesday, March 18, thereby cutting out the final weekend, which traditionally is focused on music. However, SXSW is still selling a Music badge among its 2026 purchase options, casting doubt on reports that SXSW Music will cease to exist entirely.
UPDATE: It looks like SXSW Music will now run concurrently with the other SXSW festivities. In response to reports that SXSW Music is over, a representative for SXSW writes on X, "We’re actually programming music across all the SXSW dates next year so it’s gonna be even bigger." In a statement to the American-Statesman, SXSW VP of Communications Lillian Park says, "SXSW 2026 will feature one more night of music as showcases will take place throughout the entire event, with seven nights of shows instead of six."
Fake news and extremely irresponsible “reporting”
We’re actually programming music across all the SXSW dates next year so it’s gonna be even bigger. No idea who would green light this but yall should be embarrassed https://t.co/heuCCsY96t
— B. Hobbs (@BdotHobbs) March 17, 2025
The change in the SXSW schedule follows a precipitous drop in artist participation in SXSW Music, a decline from about 2,000 acts per year during SXSW's 2010s peak down to just over 1,000 this year. A record 35% of this year's participating artists were international, many of them sponsored by their home countries' cultural ministries. Notably, several bands dropped out of SXSW 2024 after complaints over the US Army's sponsorship of SXSW, leading SXSW to drop the army as a sponsor last summer.
Attendance for music events has also reportedly lagged, a notion underlined by social media footage of 6th Street — formerly a bustling center of activity during the fest — looking like a ghost town last weekend. The American-Statesman notes that some music venues were largely empty during this year's event. Artists from Benson Boone to Band Of Horses reportedly needed free public RSVPs to fill up their venues, while even that tactic did not lead to full houses at the concert hall ACL Live for artists such as Megan Moroney and Ivan Cornejo.
Meanwhile, interest in the Film and Television Festival has been surging during SXSW's post-pandemic return. There were huge crowds for appearances from Michelle Obama and her brother Craig Robinson, film and TV premieres with stars like Nicole Kidman and Seth Rogen, and a visit from the Criterion Closet.
