Multiple artists have pulled out of this week’s South by Southwest (SXSW) London line-up in protest of appearances from Tony Blair and David Cameron.
The festival’s debut European edition is taking place this week across Shoreditch, running from June 2 – 7. The inaugural event promises “six days of conference talks, music performances, industry meet-ups” and more.
Ahead of the event, following pressure from artists and Palestine activist groups, SXSW London dropped its partnership with streaming platform HÖR Berlin over concerns that it “censors artists” who have previously displayed solidarity with Palestine.
The festival also cancelled a planned event that featured a senior representative of Palantir, a “military software and spyware US company supplying technology for Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza”, per Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
This week, the festival received further backlash as publicly unannounced panelists Tony Blair and David Cameron made surprise appearances at the festival.
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Former Prime Minister Tony Blair took to the stage on the festival’s opening day (June 2), where he reportedly spoke about the “transformative impact” of artificial intelligence and its potential influence on healthcare, The Times reports.
Artists including Sam Akpro, Sarra Wild, Tara Lily, LVRA, Saliah, and jasmine.4.t have all pulled out of the line-up in response to appearances from Blair and Cameron, while Leeds-based collective Rat Pack cancelled their entire event, scheduled to go ahead today (June 3), featuring Daskaran, NSFW, Jone Of Arx, and Iyesha.
“We’ve been made aware of new leaked information that indicates the festival will be going forward with panel talks involving the likes of Tony Blair (a known war criminal) and David Cameron,” Rat Pack said in a statement posted yesterday (June 2).
“Not only is this highly deceptive, but indicative of the kinds of people/organisations SXSW are willing to platform. As a collective, we can no longer in good conscience participate in this act of art washing marginalised and PoC artists, and will be boycotting,” they wrote.
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Sarra Wild has since called on artists who are scheduled to perform at SXSW London to “drop out and fundraise the money or put on an event elsewhere,” saying: “Don’t be lending your name to that shit if you can afford to.”
In a statement posted yesterday, Sam Akpro noted that he was pulling out of the festival bill due to appearances from Blair and Cameron, as well as Kate O’Brien, who works for NATO, writing: “The UK, US & France are all members of NATO and are all complicit in helping to support Israel’s genocide of Palestinian people.”
He added: “The CIA will also be returning to the festival. I decided to take this gig in the faith that SXSW had cut ties with the US army and the defence contractor RTX which they have, but to no surprise they continue to deceive.”
In February, SXSW London unveiled its first wave of speakers, and revealed prices for tickets to its inaugural European event, ranging from an eye-watering £650 to £1,300 (+ VAT).
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Gemma Ross is Mixmag’s Associate Digital Editor, follow her on Twitter
