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. And now, following the festival’s expansion into Sydney, the week-long, multi-venue event is coming to London for the first time.
The inaugural SXSW London will take over various venues around Shoreditch – including Shoreditch Town Hall, XOYO and the Village Underground – over a week in June, and the line-up is absolutely massive.
Conference attendees can take their pick from 420 talks and panels delving into the most pressing issues across business and tech, with keynotes delivered by everyone from actor Idris Elba, comedian Katherine Ryan and footballing legend Cesc Fàbregas to the CEOs of massive companies like OnlyFans, Monzo and Twitch.
The film festival will feature 250 film screenings, including a whole bunch of international premieres, cutting edge ‘Expanded Reality’ work and debut screenings of some huge new TV shows.
And then there’s the music festival, featuring headline sets from Tems, Mabel, Sasha Keable Alice Glass and Nao, alongside more than 500 gigs. These featuring a whole bunch of emerging talents across just about every genre of music you can imagine, and tipped for success by musical partners including The BRIT School, BBC Introducing, Sony Music and Abbey Road.
Festival passes are on sale now, starting at £65 for a 3-day Music Pass ranging all the way up to £1300 for the super-deluxe Platinum Pass, which gets you access to every single event, plus a whole bunch of exclusive areas, parties, networking meet-ups, mentoring sessions and a peck on the cheek from Gillian Anderson herself (OK, that last one is a lie, but she is speaking at the festival so you never know!)
Find out more and secure your passes here.