Controversy surrounding the annual South by Southwest festival, familiarly called SXSW, has spiked after more than 100 acts, the majority of them European, dropped out over the U.S. Army’s and defense contractors’ sponsorship of the music and cultural event in Austin, Texas.
As of Wednesday, five music labels and 105 bands and individual musicians, including more than 60 acts from the United Kingdom and all 12 Irish bands originally slated to perform, chose to forego the nine-day festival in protest of the Pentagon’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza.
More than 10 acts have decided to stay in for financial reasons but are going to make statements on stage or use their time slot to focus on Palestine, as tracked by Austin For Palestine Coalition (AFPC), the organization leading the boycott.
Among the acts that have pulled out are Chicago-based songwriter Ella Williams, known as Squirrel Flower, Los Angeles-based indie band Mamalarky, and hip-hop trio Kneecap from Belfast, Northern Ireland.
The avalanche of boycotts stems from an AFPC pressure campaign, launched Feb. 21, asking artists to apply pressure on SXSW over the participation of defense entities, Zainab Haider, the lead for the initiative at AFPC told The Hill.