\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p><\/div> \t\t\t\t\tBrian Hobbs, Vice President of Music at SXSW<\/span><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTico Mendoza<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n \n\tLet\u2019s talk about the reduced number of acts performing, compared to pre-pandemic highs, when the lineup was more overwhelming to ponder. How many artists are playing this year?<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tHobbs:<\/strong> We\u2019ll land at about a thousand total. Our absolute peak was 2015, which was my third year; we finished at about 2100 bands that year. There were some nights where we had 110 venues running at the same time. The Saturday night of the 2015 festival, I was personally responsible for 26 shows in one night, and that\u2019s not possible for one human being to have their eyes on 26 shows at one time. I think we all kind of realized after that year that this is not something we should or can keep up. We toyed with cutting it down a little bit, and then it became a lot easier post-pandemic, because in 2022, when we did our first in-person festival after the 2020 cancellation, there were still a lot of people that weren\u2019t willing to travel, and a lot of companies who weren\u2019t willing to invest in experiential, in-person events. So out of necessity almost, we played with, \u201cHey, what if we landed around a thousand artists this year?\u201d I think we ended up somewhere around 1200 in 2022, and the last three years we\u2019ve landed around a thousand. It feels right. We\u2019re doing 50 to 55 venues a night. If I\u2019m an artist, I would rather be one of a thousand than one of 2100. It\u2019s just way too much to cut through. Especially with the international artists who are traveling from all over the world to get here, we\u2019re able to give them multiple plays so they\u2019re feeling the value out of coming here.<\/p>\n \n\tAnd the showcases are cutting off at midnight, instead of in the wee hours, right?<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tHobbs:<\/strong> It\u2019s been increasingly difficult every year to keep people out until 2 a.m. for a lot of showcases. We\u2019ve been seeing headliners go on stage at 1 a.m. and half of the crowd is gone. But 10 years ago, that wasn\u2019t the case. Every headliner was like, \u201cI play at 1 a.m.! I\u2019m the headliner and there\u2019s no wiggle room on it.\u201d Now we\u2019re being told the opposite by a lot of people. It\u2019s like, \u201cI don\u2019t want<\/em> to be the band that goes on at 1 a.m.\u201d So we talked with artists, labels, agencies, our venues, and everybody felt like, \u201cHey, why force it till 2 a.m. if we don\u2019t have to?\u201d So we changed some timing on some shows to just be more conducive to how crowds are acting in 2025, 2026.<\/p>\n \n\tSherlock:<\/strong> To echo what Brian said, the pandemic really allowed us to rethink and reset a bit, and we really listened to the industry. They came back and said, \u201cThis year was the most easily navigable year. I met with everyone I wanted to meet with. I saw the artists I wanted to see.\u201d The artists came back and said that they got the people in the room they wanted to get in the room. That really helped us settle on that sweet spot of about a thousand, listening to the industry and seeing what they wanted. We did face criticism of, \u201cOh, it\u2019s shrinking.\u201d But who wasn\u2019t upset was the industry, and that\u2019s really our core client; that\u2019s who we need to serve. This year as well with, with all the other changes that happened both internally and externally, it was a bit of a rip-it-up-and-start-again moment that allowed us to really rethink all the old rules and all the old approaches. We\u2019ll see how it comes off.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tDev Sherlock, Director of Music Festival Programming for SXSW<\/span><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTico Mendoza<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n \n\tCan you explain the backline changes in showcases?<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tHobbs:<\/strong> We\u2019ve been hearing for years, and experiencing it when we\u2019re advancing the showcases, that shows don\u2019t have backline provided for the artists. It was a slog to get those shows advanced, and on-site, if someone\u2019s bass amp broke and now they\u2019ve gotta try to borrow one from another band that\u2019s on the show, it caused a lot of unnecessary chaos. So we were looking at some budget lines. And we\u2019ve been providing drink tickets, for as long as I can remember \u2014 two drink tickets per band member for each show \u2014 and then the venues come back and invoice us for those drinks afterwards and we pay the venues back. We were looking at the amount of money that we\u2019re spending on these drink tickets and thinking, how could this be used better? Especially if you just look at the facts, people are drinking so much less in 2026 than they were 10, 15 years ago. A lot of these tickets aren\u2019t even being used at this point. So we said, let\u2019s take this budget line and turn it into backline rental for all of the artists, so they don\u2019t have to lug around amps and all kinds of other equipment to every show. They just need to show up with their instruments and hop up on stage and do their thing. They don\u2019t have to worry about rental, pickup, drop off, all the logistics and the money that goes into renting that gear. So we\u2019re gonna try to provide that for as many showcases as possible this year. The response to it from the artist side has been overwhelmingly positive. Because that was something that they dreaded every year: How am I gonna move around from show to show with all this gear?<\/p>\n \n\tSherlock:<\/strong> To be fair, there are only a few that didn\u2019t have backline. But for us to foolproof that was a big move. And I think another thing that \u00a0is just gonna help everything run more smooth. But we might have to start handing out CBD drink tickets instead, because that\u2019s where all the kids are headed.<\/p>\n \n\tSo nobody\u2019s that concerned about missing their beers?<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tSherlock:<\/strong> We\u2019ll see. I don\u2019t know. Don\u2019t make that the headline: \u201cNo beers for artists at South By, anymore\u201d!<\/p>\n \n\tLet\u2019s talk about, genre-wise, what sort of shifts you guys see happening, from even more global music to a heightened return for country. Where do you see the shifts happening?<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tSherlock:<\/strong> I think the most obvious one is Latin music. Our programmer Evelyn (Gomez Rivera), who deserves a name check, has really smashed it in terms of reaching out to the Latin community. We\u2019re all, especially this year, perhaps a little bit reluctant about travel, but all the Latin major labels \u2014 Warner, Universal, Interscope \u2014 have come on board. A lot of larger Latin platforms have come on board, and we\u2019ve got some of the largest Latin names in the world this year with Fuerza Regida and Junior H.<\/p>\n \n\tHobbs:<\/strong> Those are two right there that we\u2019ve been trying to get for years. And I think them seeing other artists at the top of the Latin music genre, especially the regional Mexican side, which has just exploded so much\u2026 when they see Peso Pluma played South By, and Grupo Frontera played South By, I think it really legitimizes it for that genre. And so now instead of having one of the top artists in the genre this year, we\u2019ve got two of the absolute chart toppers of Latin music coming this year.<\/p>\n \n\tSherlock:<\/strong> And what is interesting about that too is it\u2019s not like back in the day when we had Lady Gaga and Snoop Dogg playing that everyone knew. These are the biggest artists in their genre, but they\u2019re not that massive yet to the rest of the world. And we have a global industry coming here; we have festival bookers in Australia and Hong Kong and Denmark coming, looking for what\u2019s next. So this is still about discovery for them, even though for us they\u2019re the largest Latin artists in the world or the largest regional Mexican artists. So I still think we are staying true to the core mission on that part.<\/p>\n \n\tIn terms of other stuff, you mentioned country\u2019s coming back around and I think that\u2019s very much a product of consumption. You know, country radio always controlled country music, and I think that was the last consumer to still be really beholden to radio that has shifted their discovery to other platforms now. So we\u2019re excited about the direction country\u2019s going in. And then, obviously K-pop and J-pop are still huge and South Asian music now too\u2026 It\u2019s already crossed over in the U.K. in a big way and we\u2019re seeing it in various areas of diaspora even here; like, Toronto has its own really massive South Asian music scene, and there are pockets around America that\u2019s embraced South Asian music. And the last thing about all of this that I find personally really interesting is the language aspect. Language is no longer a barrier. In fact, it\u2019s almost embraced. when kids are out there trying to learn Gaelic and Irish so that they can understand Kneecap\u2019s lyrics, and obviously Latin and English mixing into songs.<\/p>\n \n\tIs there still a place at the festival for American roots music? It\u2019s not like the \u201890s when the festival would kick off with the Austin Music Awards and it was assumed that a big part of the programming would be country-rock or blues or what hadn\u2019t yet come to be known as Americana.<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tHobbs:<\/strong> Oh, for sure. Just like Dev mentioned Evelyn from our team, we have another team member, Berkeley, who has really kind reinvigorated our Americana booking and has just been absolutely crushing it the past few years. We\u2019ve got these historic venues like Continental Club and Saxon Pub and Antone\u2019s \u2026 I think if you ask Steve at Continental Club how the last two years have been compared to the previous 15 or 20 at Continental Club during South by Southwest, he would say the attendance is up and the average age of the attendee is down. Apart from Berkeley, I think Americana music in itself is doing that. It\u2019s just had a wild resurgence with a younger audience. And I think a lot of that goes to the curiosity of music fans that has been cool to see. I feel like, at one point, about a decade ago, it f felt like it was just same thing, different year with a lot of the Americana booking. And it does not feel like that anymore. It feels like it\u2019s one of the most exciting things we got going on over here.<\/p>\n \n\tSherlock:<\/strong> And it isn\u2019t just about of getting a bunch of younger country acts. You know, Berkeley is an old soul in a young woman\u2019s body. So she\u2019s not only sort of brought up all this young stuff, but she stayed true to the old-school aspect of it. She has a real appreciation for the real roots of the stuff. We\u2019ve got younger bands and the older bands, everyone just doing cool stuff. Did anyone bring up this band, the Animeros? They\u2019re a local band that, in the last six months, all of a sudden everyone\u2019s really interested. An agent at High Road Touring just picked them up and literally every other presenter is asking to put them on their showcase this year. So I think that could be one to watch.<\/p>\n \n\tAny panels on the agenda you\u2019d especially want to point out?<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tHobbs:<\/strong> Our department, the music festival department, is working more hands-on with the music conference than ever before this year. That\u2019s another big change. One panel that I\u2019m really excited about is, the producer platform BeatStars is doing a panel about ethical versus unethical AI in music creation. I\u2019m real stuck in my ways sometimes when it comes to music creation, and I haven\u2019t necessarily opened up my heart to AI music creation yet. So I want to personally try to make it to that to see what they present as ethical versus unethical. From talking with the BeatStars founder, he has a lot of the same feelings that I do, but it\u2019s a necessity at this point for him to think about for his platform, and he\u2019s like, \u201cIf we\u2019re using AI on my platform, I want it to be used in the right way.\u201d So I am personally very excited to see what that right way is, because I don\u2019t want to be the guy who refuses to change, but also if I don\u2019t feel like it\u2019s right, I\u2019m not going to to change. I really want to see what they put together with this platform or with this panel.<\/p>\n \n\tSherlock:<\/strong> We\u2019ve got the Spotify for Artists workshops, the Apple Music for Artists workshops, all that sort of thing. I think the artists are a bit smarter these days than they used to be. And it used to be you could just come and get drunk and play your music and that was enough to be an artist. But I think these days you need to be a bit more professional, and you can certainly take advantage of a lot of learning opportunities while you\u2019re here \u2014 and then<\/em> go out and start drinking.<\/p>\n \n\tThere are documentary film premieres with Noah Kahan, Lainey Wilson, Los Lobos. Charley Crockett and Jack Johnson, and most of those acts are performing too.<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tHobbs:<\/strong> I can\u2019t remember working this closely with the film department on music films ever, and all the artists and their teams have been incredible about saying, \u201cHey, we\u2019re already in town for our film, let\u2019s do a music show too,\u201d and that\u2019s exactly what we want to see.<\/p>\n \n\tThere probably won\u2019t be a lot of energy expended on \u201cWhat can we do to celebrate the 40th anniversary?\u201d You\u2019ve got a big festival to put on, so maybe it\u2019s business as usual more than it is engaging in retrospection. But what do you think it means personally that this thing is still going 40 years later?<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tSherlock:<\/strong> The very first job I had out of college, I was a research editor at Musician Magazine, and my boss at the time would come down here and speak on a panel, and then we\u2019d have a booth in the expo and he would need someone to stand behind that freaking booth all day. This would\u2019ve been in the \u201890s. And it was just mind-blowing, because even though I was stuck in the expo all day, at night you\u2019d go out and meet everyone in the industry who you\u2019d only ever spoken with on the phone, because this was pre-email. You\u2019d see Wayne Coyne in a parking garage doing some weird experiment. You\u2019d have Jimmy Webb getting behind the piano one night at the Driscoll just randomly and doing \u201cWichita Lineman\u201d and all that sort of stuff. And I was just like, holy shit. How do I like keep coming to this year after year? So I did come for many, many years, as a journalist and in other roles, and then there\u2019s a long period where I didn\u2019t come and then I started coming back again. To now be working here and actually have some input in shaping what the next generation of South By is gonna be at 40 years is really full circle and exciting.<\/p>\n \n\tHobbs:<\/strong> I wasn\u2019t coming for work, but I was coming as a fan starting in 2004, and then I just knew I had to figure out a way to get involved in the music industry, and by 2009, I had a music blog that I had created, so I started coming as a aspiring member of the music industry. This was when hip-hop started taking over at South by Southwest. So you\u2019d go stand on 6th Street and you\u2019d see Wiz Khalifa and Currency and all of the guys who were leading kind of the blog era of hip-hop, just hanging out together. J Cole and Kendrick Lamar were just standing in front of a venue on 6th Street talking to each other, and now those two guys couldn\u2019t stand in public without a mob of thousands swarming \u2019em. It felt so accessible, that no matter where you were in your music career at that time, this was the one time of the year you\u2019re in the room with these people and not feel like you\u2019re watching it from the outside looking in. I think that\u2019s a lot of the magic of South by Southwest. To be involved in shaping the future of the music festival at South By is an incredible feeling, especially to look back on the feeling that I remember having standing there on 6th Street, watching all of these artists that I was such a fan of interacting with each other.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source variety.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s not your grandfather\u2019s South by Southwest Music Festival. But with any luck, granddad would still find something to latch onto in this, the fest\u2019s 40th anniversary year, even as the music component of the hydra-headed film\/tech\/tunes gathering adapts to meet new times and new needs, as it always has. Attendees who haven\u2019t been in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2325651,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[316628,26738],"class_list":["post-2325650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-south-by-southwest","tag-sxsw"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Festival-Heads-Tell-Whats-Different-in-2026.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2325650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2325650"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2325650\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2325652,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2325650\/revisions\/2325652"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2325651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2325650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2325650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2325650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/themes\/pmc-variety-2020\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
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