Austin’s music, film and media festival SXSW is renowned across the world for being the place to discover the next big thing. In previous years, superstars like Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa and Chappell Roan have all given early performances at the Texas event, while the likes of Steven Spielberg, Barack Obama and Malala Yousafzai have appeared at the conference arm of the festival.
So last year's inaugural UK edition was a pretty big deal, with a keynote speech by mayor Sadiq Khan and hundreds of events across 25 venues. Now, SXSW London is back again for the second year running, and will once again take over various spaces in and around Shoreditch in June, and the line-up is just as massive, with talks and panels delving into the most pressing issues across business and tech, keynotes delivered by big names, film screenings, including a whole bunch of international premieres, as well as a music festival.
The music strand features headline gigs from critically acclaimed US rapper Earl Sweatshirt, Afrobeats star Tiwa Savage, moody electronic producer Sega Bodega, indie-rock outfit Circa Waves, post-punk band Shame, indie-pop singer Rachel Chinouriri, veteran radio DJ Pete Tong and Time Out’s 2024 Londoner of the Year DJ AG.
Meanwhile, film festival attendees will be able to catch three global and 13 UK premieres, including culinary documentary Feast or Famine, supernatural horror The Remedy, and crime comedy All Night Wrong, alongside keynote addresses from Russel T Davies, Sharon Horgan and Tom Quinn, founder of indie distributor NEON.