To get the most out of the SXSW music program, you have to make peace with some dissonance. En route to a conference session about the damaging impact of music streaming fraud on indie artists, you might pass an “immersive experience” reimagining email, or an electric vehicle “cityscape track” overlooking Darling Harbour. Later you’ll snack on free Tim Tams while absorbing the infinite, world-altering possibilities of AI in a room that screams corporate off-site. That night, in a pub usually frequented by uni students, an artist will pour out their anti-establishment truths in front of a banner emblazoned with sponsor logos.
Such were the strange yet frequently enjoyable contradictions inherent in the second year of SXSW Sydney, whose not-that-profound slogan “The Future Belongs to the Curious” was inescapable across the city last week. Like the oversized original event in Austin, Texas – which has been licensed to run in Sydney for at least five years, in its first international iteration – this year’s program spanned music, technology, gaming and screen, with all streams crammed into one anxiety-tweaking app.
