News and Updates

Next Wave of 27 Australian and New Zealand Bands Set to Invade Top US Festival

28th October, 2008

As the submission deadline closed last week for playing showcases at South by Southwest Music Festival, March 18-22 in Austin Texas, the gate opened for the first group of artists who have been invited to play the world's largest and most prestigious music event with 22 Australian and five New Zealand artists among the opening list of over 300 international artists.

At least another 30 OZ & NZ artists will be invited over the next month, however we can't name any artists invited for privacy reasons until they accept and give permission for their name to be released or let it be known themselves. However, the ones that have been chosen are an excellent cross section of contemporary bands, some of them ARIA winners, some top touring and charting recording artists and many up-and-coming buzz bands as well as eclectic choices.

Since August 1 when applications opened for the 1900 performance slots in 80 clubs over five nights, more than 6000 artists have applied but there will still be another 3000 applications to process since the overseas artist cutoff date precedes the US deadline by two weeks. Last year, 60 OZ & NZ bands were invited out of the 300+ that applied, of which close to 40 actually played the event with excellent outcomes. Other invitees had schedule conflicts, visa issues or budgetary restraints which prevented their acceptance.

This year, over 240 Australian and 35 New Zealand artists applied before the October 25 deadline with the breakdown as follows:

Australian Artists
NSW 69
VIC 58
QLD 34
WA 22
SA 6
TAS 5
NT 3
ACT 0

NZ Artists
Auckland 23
Wellington 5
Christchurch 4
Other 3

Despite the tough economic times and expensive travel, this year's group of artists have the best opportunities to participate due to Federal and State government initiatives to spur music exports. AUSTRADE, which has supported SxSW for over six years has export grants available as well as a large SxSW trade fair stand, promotion in the US and extra performances during SxSW. The Australia Council has specific grants this year for SxSW covering both artists and managers. The WA government, which has led other states in contemporary music funding and travel grants is joined by Arts Victoria's Vic Rocks program, NSW's funding through MusicNSW and new assistance being made available by the Queensland government.

As longtime SxSW rep Phil Tripp explains, "Since 2002, SxSW has had over 200 artists from our side of the world showcase, many of whom have had spectacular international success as a result and others who have kickstarted their export careers early. Based on who has been invited, the focus on Australia which will be peaking as the Baz Luhrman movie paves the way, and continuing government export strategies for music, SxSW looks to be the best for us ever in 2009. We expect over 250 delegates to attend of which 100 are already registered, and with a likely additional 200 artists, crew and management from a projected 40 bands that will be able to play, the Australian Invasion version 6.0 (in years) and 450 in bodies may take our music industry over the top in 2009."

The SXSW MUSIC AND MEDIA CONFERENCE features a legendary festival showcasing more than 1,800 musical acts of all genres from around the globe on over eighty stages in downtown Austin. By day, the Austin Convention Center comes alive with conference registrants doing business in the Trade Show and partaking of a full agenda of informative, provocative panel discussions featuring hundreds of speakers of international stature. In its 23rd year, SXSW remains an essential event on the music industry calendar.