Why are so many musicians dropping out of SXSW?
Musicians have dropped out of the Texas festival in support of Palestine.
Photo: Ömer Yıldız on Unsplash
Unless you live your life offline, you may have noticed a large number of bands taking their name off the SXSW line-up in the past few days. Musicians like Lambrini Girls, Do Nothing and most recently Rachel Chinouriri have all announced their decision to not travel to Texas amid their growing concerns for the festival’s “super sponsor”.
Coming to light in recent days, the festival is funded by the Army and events at the festival include ‘army inspired yoga’ and ‘army functional fitness’, instead of being wholly focussed on music. Bands dropped out in defence of Palestine, in protest of the festival’s inclusion of defence industry contractors and the U.S. Army sponsorship that they referred to as their “super sponsor”. The festival is giving a platform to RTX (formerly Raytheon), Collins Aersospace and BAE Systems: the companies that are selling the weapons that have murdered 31,000 Palestinians — over 21,000 of those being women and children.
Unfortunately, for a lot of artists — including those that are known for being politically outspoken — they simply cannot afford to pull out, with some artists being granted up to £2000 to travel and perform. To pay it all back would be impossible, meaning they have no choice but to go — we could see on-stage protests but, at that point, it might seem performative.
In a statement posted on March 12th, Irish act NewDad announced that the bands who make up the ‘Music From Ireland’ segment of the festival would not be performing but rather making joint statements at the showcase at Velveeta Room and what would have been the ‘Full Irish Breakfast’ showcase on the Friday (15th) at Flamingo Cantina. The band will be joined by fellow rising Irish acts Cardinals, Enola Gay, Gurriers and Sprints. At the current time of publication, all Irish bands have dropped out in a true show of solidarity.
Joining the musicians that have made statements regarding their boycotting of the festival are Chalk, releasing a short but to-the-point statement on social media on Monday (11th) that reads: “We are not playing SXSW. SXSW’s decision to align themselves with weapon manufacturers that facilitate the brutal killings of innocent civilians in Palestine is something that we as a band, and as people, just cannot accept. We stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine.”
Singapore shoegaze band Subsonic Eye are instead playing unofficial shows and started their mini tour around Texas on Monday, refusing to perform for a festival with ties to the U.S. Army. The band will finish up in Fort Worth on the 17th.
Other acts boycotting the festival include KNEECAP, Soda Blonde, Good Looks, GEL, Scowl, Gavin James, Okay Shalom, Squirrel Flower and mamalarky.
If you can afford it, please donate to help Palestinian’s get through this. You can donate here.
