SXSW calls time on Sydney event
SXSW says goodbye to Sydney on its homepage
South by Southwest (SXSW) has cancelled its Sydney event — which has been held just three times — citing a “changing global environment that is impacting major events, festivals and cultural programs worldwide”.
In a statement emailed to previous attendees, organisers said that despite attracting more than 345,000 visitors last year, the conference would not return to Sydney in 2026.
The cancellation sees SXSW exit Australia despite the NSW Government, through Destination NSW, having a contractual investment with SXSW Sydney from 2023 to 2027, reportedly worth $12 million.
It’s a shame but the event was worlds away from the promise of sxsw Austin
Too big, not inspiring enough, too hard to navigate, too expensive
Pockets of brilliance and a vast wilderness of uninspiring and mostly empty conference centre rooms
If they hard started smaller and let it grow more organically and earn and grow its momentum it would have had more success, or hosted it in somewhere outside of the city to make it a destination event people travelled to – barely anyone even knew sxsw stood for ‘south by southwest’ or even knew about the Austin event in the first place
The music festival was really starting to get good in small venues
A shame but not surprising
Original city is Austin Texas.
A third off shoot in London launched last year.
It failed financially ..and without tax payers money was doomed ..it was also way too niche demographic to get the necessary attendance numbers ..SXSNewtown was doomed
Expensive tickets, very poor speaker line-up and music acts that wouldn’t have made the second round of the Voice also added to its demise. Sydney was a very confusing – and poor – imitation of Texas.
As tax payers let’s see the accounts and the balance sheets. People paying hundreds of dollars to listen to Nicole Kidman who must have been paid a Queen’s ransom ( $150K min ?) for an hours chat .. hideous nonsense funded by every NSW tax payer.