The first round of showcasing artists for next year’s South By Southwest (SXSW) festival have been announced, with a number of Australian acts gracing the list.
The first 191 artists were revealed for the Austin, Texas event – which takes place from March 13-18 next year – yesterday (October 21). The line-up includes Brisbane’s Jaguar Jonze, Sydney’s Flowerkid, Perth outfit Great Gable and Gold Coast rapper Jesswar, as well as Melbourne’s RVG.
Geelong six-piece Bones And Jones will also appear, as will Sydney singer Hayley Warner and two Adelaide exports: sister trio Germein and singer Mane.
“This first small reveal is just a taste of what you can expect at SXSW 2023,” SXSW’s Head of Music, James Minor, said in a statement. “We couldn’t be more excited to show these amazing artists to the world, and to experience them with you in March.”
Sharing their excitement on Instagram, Jesswar wrote: “So excited to announce that I’ll be showcasing at @sxsw next year in Austin, Texas. arhhhhhh so hype to rep fiji and Oz lessssgoooo.”
Jonze also expressed her gratitude at being included on the bill, having initially been slated to play the 2020 event before the coronavirus pandemic saw it cancelled, and she herself experienced a horrific bout of the virus.
“Throwback to 2020 when we were meant to play #SXSW but ended up stuck in New York as the world locked down in a pandemic and our tour quickly turned into a dystopian novel. Can’t wait to finally turn that story around and play music!!!!” she wrote.
This year’s SXSW saw the festival return to a live format after its 2020 cancellation and 2021 virtual events, both due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The virtual edition featured a number of Australian acts, including Alice Skye, Shannen James, Didirri and Kee’ahn, while the 2022 iteration saw Little Quirks, Grace Cummings, Alex the Astronaut and more head to Texas for the event.
Back in June, festival organisers announced that Australia would be getting its own iteration of SXSW, set to take place in October next year. It’ll be the first edition of the main festival held outside the US, and will be spearheaded by APRA AMCOS with more than 1,000 events on offer.
“Having SXSW hosted in Sydney is an incredible vote of confidence in local music creators,” APRA AMCOS CEO Dean Ormston said in a statement.
“If Australia is going to realise its goal to be one of the world’s great music markets, we must invest in a new generation of entrepreneurial and culturally and digitally literate creative music producers and artists.”