It's Almost Time To Start Applying For SXSW 2016

Submissions for musicians and filmmakers wanting to take part in next year's SXSW will open on Monday 29 June.

The annual Texan conference of all things musical, filmic and interactive will once again go ahead in March — 11-16 for film, 15-20 for music.  

Celebrating its 30th anniversary next year, organisers are inviting Australian acts to apply for official/much-sought-after showcase slots online via SonicBids.

Why should Australian talent care? Here's some fun stats: 

• This year, 2,266 acts performed across 107 festival stages
• Over 8,000 acts applied
• There were 30,000 registrants in attendance from 78 countries
• 2,993 of those in attendance were music media
• 250 Aus acts applied, 70 were invited, 47 attended
• 1,050 Aus delegates attended (SXSW claim that's the largest amount of Aussies in one US city at the same time since the 1996 Olympics)

The film arm of SXSW will be in its 22nd year and there are a variety of deadlines for film submissions as well as separate categories for short films, features and music videos. Details can be found at the SXSW site.

In 2015, the SXSW Film Festival featured 102 world premieres with 76,655 people in attendance.

Also on June 29, SXSW open their 'Panel Picker' component. It allows members of the community to enter proposals for panels, topics and discussions. It also allows for people to see the ideas put forward and comment on them.

Start prepping now.