There were changes this year at South by Southwest, the massive convergence of music, film, innovation and most other aspects of life that takes over Austin, Texas, for a week in March. An enormous hole stands at the spot where the Austin Convention Center, for years the nerve centre of SXSW, once stood. Economic uncertainty has meant that the big brands are not throwing money at SXSW as they used to — who can forget the Doritos Tower of 2012, a 60ft vending machine with Snoop Dogg in the middle of it?
All this meant a welcome back to basics: unknown bands, showcases in dive bars, chance discoveries. Having said that, I did get carried away and almost bought a plane, before remembering I didn’t have a spare million lying around.
Here are the key moments from this year’s edition of an event that sets the tone for the year to come.
Larry David tackled America…
Larry DavidJulia Beverly/FilmMagic/getty images
Only the creator of Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm could respond to Barack Obama attempting to give him notes on a proposed sketch for their forthcoming comedy show with the retort: “I’m president here.” Hollywood’s favourite social disaster zone was at SXSW to talk about Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness: An Almost History of America, on which the former president is a producer. On marking the Union’s 250th anniversary with the series as the country undergoes the seismic shocks of the Trump era, David accepted: “It’s sort of like throwing a birthday party for your friend that’s in rehab. He’s f***ed up, but I love him.”
…and Gavin Newsom tackled Trump
Gavin NewsomGary Miller/FilmMagic/getty images
Meanwhile, the governor of California all but threw his 2028 presidential bid hat into the ring at a live session for Vivian Tu’s podcast Networth and Chill. “I do not believe we will have a fair and free election as we know it in 2028 if we don’t take back the House of Representatives,” he said of the first step toward normalisation, before spending the next hour demolishing Trump. Running through ICE raids, voter suppression and the twin economic disasters of tariffs and the Iran war, he concluded: “[Trump] doesn’t care if he’s the hero, he doesn’t care if he’s the heel, he cares only that he’s the star.”
Lola Young made her US return
Lola YoungAstrida Valigorsky/Getty Images
When the 25-year-old British singer behind the hit Messy cancelled her US tour after collapsing on stage in September that could have been it for her and America. Instead, her return at Rolling Stone’s Future of Music showcase was welcomed with open arms. For the most part she played it safe, sticking to the ballads before delivering an on-the-nose poem called Art Is Rebellion. Alternative artist or pop star? Young wasn’t sure which one she wanted to be, but that lack of definition — or messiness — remains her unique selling point.
The Bootleg BBQ is back
Karma SheenSAM HUDDLESTON
An old SXSW favourite was the Bootleg BBQ, a honky tonk hoedown with a twist. After 15 years missing in action it returned to SXSW at Sam’s Town Point, a tumbledown juke joint on the edge of the city. Karma Sheen, a British-Indian group who found the missing link between Ravi Shankar and Led Zeppelin, were the unquestionable highlight, while Congratulations, a Brighton four-piece in little sports shorts who performed catchy dance-pop songs as their intimidating singer bullied the crowd into participation, demanded attention. Witnessing all this in the kind of place where men in cowboy hats line the bar and stare into their whiskies was a rich and strange experience indeed.
Critics need love too
Robert ChristgauBen Wu
Of particular personal resonance was The Last Critic, a superb documentary on the self-described “dean of rock critics” Robert Christgau, who from the late 1960s struck fear into the hearts of the mediocre from the pages of The Village Voice. “Maybe I’ll let Bruce Springsteen teach me how to hear John Cougar Mellencamp, but damned if I’m going to let John Cougar Mellencamp teach me how to hear Bryan Adams,” was his stone-cold massacre of the Canadian rock dullard, while thin-skinned Lou Reed dedicated much of a 1978 live album to attacking Christgau and his A+ to E- ratings system. The film follows the 83-year-old in his hoarder-like New York apartment, still doling out the damnations, still in love with his wife, Carola, and it is a portrait of a life dedicated to criticism as high art, taking no prisoners along the way.
SXSW is still the place to hear the best new British acts…
This year the festival was about new discoveries. Mén an Tol have Cornish roots (they are named after a doughnut-shaped standing stone in Penzance) and did a smart take on jangling Eighties indie with British folk in songs that stick in the head. TTSSFU, aka Wigan’s Tasmin Stephens, is yet to flesh out her vision — the low end rumble of her set at the British Music Embassy recalled the atmosphere of the Cure if not the song craft — but she had fantastic stage presence.
…and American ones too
The SophsEric Daniels
Playing nine sets in two days, the Sophs from Los Angeles emerged as the coming band, with an ambition and intensity to match the Strokes and Nirvana. Then there was Victor Jones, an eccentric New Yorker with the grandeur of Harry Nilsson, the bombast of Eminem and the vulnerability of a troubled soul, who performed poetic monologues with a camp flourish. “He was threatening to cut his wrists/ So she took him home and had his kids” was one evocative couplet. And the New York songwriter Nate Amos has been around for a while, but a double header of his bands at venerable Austin venue the Mohawk marked him as the Gen Z Beck: confessional indie rock with This is Lorelei, modish dance punk with Water From Your Eyes.
Jazz has a cool future
A hit of the festival was a showcase at the Flamingo Cantina by Jazz Refreshed, a British body that has been at the forefront of our country’s modern jazz revival — although the star of the night was French. Amy Gadiaga is a Parisian singer and double bassist whose renditions of the standards Bye Bye Blackbird and Someday My Prince Will Come turned into improvisational masterclasses, intimate and exploratory. Later on the guitarist Femi Temowo’s jazz rendering of his native Nigeria’s musical roots set the place on fire.
XR Gets Heartfelt
This year the most powerful entries at the festival’s virtual and augmented realities exhibition went to the heart of being human. Best of all was Lost Love Hotline, an immersive booth that looked like something out of Twin Peaks and invited participants to share their deepest love secrets before AI technology matched similar stories to play back to them. “I was heartbroken so I made it a project,” the founder Niki Hartman says on her technology-led, stylish mausoleum to heartbreak. Elsewhere, Deepa Mann-Kler’s The Baby Factory Is Closed turned the menopause into a VR experience, and Love Bird turned the user into an entrant on a reality dating show. AI may be transforming the human experience, but love, heartbreak and the changing realities of the body are eternal.
The craziest thing to buy at SXSW 2026? A plane
Will Hodgkinson
The festival’s trade show always offers an opportunity to buy into wild innovations. How about the time two earnest young men sought investment for technology to grow their foreskins back? This year the big thing on offer was an actual plane, yours for a little over $1 million and the aeronautical equivalent of the self-driving Waymo taxis floating around Austin. The four-seater Cirrus has a safe return button to direct itself to the nearest airport if things go wrong, and a parachute if things go really wrong. “It’s great for commuting,” an enthusiastic salesman told me. Until the Hodgkinson millions kick in, however, the bicycle will have to do.