SXSW sees artists pulling out due to the event’s dodgy military ties

Ella Williams, aka Squirrel Flower, is just one of the many artists pulling out of this year’s festival.

Several artists have announced they are pulling out of performing at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas this weekend due to sponsors of the event having military ties.

Since its humble beginnings in 1987 as an alternative to the New York New Music Seminar, SXSW (or South by South West) has grown to include a mammoth list of artists each year, from the fields of music, film and interactive media.

This year, multiple artists are protesting against the event’s ties to defense contractor RTX Corporation (formerly Raytheon), as well as SXSW’s “super sponsor,” the U.S. Army.

That’s right, the U.S. Army is a major sponsor of an event in which artists often sing against the atrocities of war. Kind of hypocritical, right?

Leading the charge on the performance boycott is Chicago-based musician Ella Williams, aka Squirrel Flower, who posted on her Instagram account about her decision to drop out of the festival.

Also boycotting is Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter Eliza McLamb, Brooklyn artist Shalom, and Atlanta-based indie-psych group Mamalarky.

Local Austin band Big Bill posted an anti-SXSW schedule of their non-festival-affiliated shows and noted with an asterisk: “SXSW invites war profiteers, platforms the CIA, and severely underpays its artists. Do better, SXSW.”

According to The Austin Chronicle, the U.S. Army “hosts several events at the festival, including a presentation on technology innovation featuring Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth and an official ‘This Is Our House’ activation in collaboration with the U.S. Navy and SPIN magazine.”

The festival is not without its violent history. In 2014, a drunk driver drove his car into groups of festival attendees while trying to evade a traffic stop, killing four people.

SXSW is not exactly generous in its remuneration to artists either, currently only paying bands US$350 to perform, and solo artists US$150. International artists only get ‘free’ entry and a wristband to the event. Dodgy.

All this, on top of the fact that a guest music pass to the event costs around US1,000 and you know you’re dealing with some dodgy, corporate-funded shit here.

Antonino Tati

The SXSW event is on from this Friday 8 March.