Australia and New Zealand dominate the first round of SXSW invites
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Australia and New Zealand dominate the first round of SXSW invites

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The return of revered Austin-based festival South By Southwest (SXSW) is creeping up and while you may not be able to afford a quick trip to the Texan capital to witness the glory firsthand, you can rest assured that Australia and our neighbours in New Zealand will be well and truly accounted for with a record number of acts from both countries announced in the first slab of invites. 

The 33rd instalment of SXSW features the biggest number of Australasian acts to be invited to perform at the festival, with 18 Australian artists and 8 from New Zealand, receiving the official green light to join next year’s lineup. Not only are the numbers a huge contrast to the mere five Australasian bands who performed at SXSW in 2002, they are especially impressive when considering the ratio of the number of bands invited to populations of their home countries. While the bands still have to confirm their attendance pending their touring schedules and what have you, this gives pretty good insight as to how our music scene is faring internationally. 

“”The Australasian countries have both created strong brands as kick-ass performers since 2002 when only five bands total between them played one show each. It’s due to our ‘take no prisoners at the crash barrier’ live performance history and also the promotion given by Sounds Australia over the past decade with the AUSSIE BBQ and the New Zealand Music Commission for their annual shows in Brush Park,” says Phil Tripp, the Australian, NZ and Hawaiian representative for SXSW. 

This is just the first announcement featuring bands who got their applications to perform at the festival in early, so you can expect additional announcements across the coming months where the Australasian representation has great potential to increase. Hats off to our Aussie and NZ musos. 

See the full list of Australasian SXSW invitees below: 

Australian Artists

Acharné (Sydney, Australia)

Amaru Tribe (Melbourne, Australia)

Amyl & The Sniffers (Melbourne, Australia)

Black Rheno (Sydney, Australia)

Bloods (Sydney, Australia)

Body Type (Sydney, Australia)

Castlecomer (Sydney, Australia)

Catherine Britt (Newcastle, Australia)

Death Bells (Sydney, Australia)

Feels (Perth, Australia)

Georgi Kay (Perth, Australia)

The Gooch Palms (Newcastle, Australia)

Goo Munday (Sydney, Australia)

NOIRE (Brisbane, Australia)

Skegss (Byron Bay, Australia)

Tia Gostelow (Mackay, Australia)

WAAX (Brisbane, Australia)

WAFIA (Brisbane, Australia)

New Zealand Artists

The Beths (Auckland, New Zealand)

The Chills (Dunedin, New Zealand) (Who have also entered their film in SXSW Film Festival)

Emily C. Browning (Christchurch, New Zealand)

Emily Fairlight (Wellington, New Zealand)

French for Rabbits (Wellington, New Zealand)

Hans. (Auckland, New Zealand)

Jackie Bristow (Gore, New Zealand)

Swallow the Rat (Auckland, New Zealand)