SXSW set up camp in London’s East End last year with its first-ever edition in the UK. Deadline has been covering the announcements and news for this year’s lineup. We also managed to pull the Director of Programming, Katy Arnander, away from the rigors of getting this year’s festival in shape for a deeper dive on what to expect and how the team plans to put SXSW London on the map.
DEADLINE: You’re headed into your second year, what did you learn the first time out that has informed this year’s edition?
KATY ARNANDER: A chunk is the programming and audience learnings, and then there are the operational learnings, which have been great. You just don’t know how things are going to work until people are there and you can see how they interact across the music, screen and conference elements.
We got great feedback and great data because we had over 25,000 people last year. It gave us a chance to understand the types of audiences who come and get the most of a festival like this, which is all about what’s new, what’s next and what the future brings, but is also about checking in with established and well-known creatives, artists, business leaders, and visionaries within their respective fields.
DEADLINE: What hit the spot last time?
ARNANDER: Big-hitter names who have useful and important things to contribute resonated, like Björn Ulvaeus from ABBA, who came and spoke about the role of AI and music. And there were so many others… there were political speakers, there was Tony Blair in conversation with [then UK Technology Minister] Peter Kyle talking about how AI will transform government. The King also visited, which was amazing.
Unexpected conversations with high-profile names are always bullseye moments. We had Ben Lamm in conversation with Sophie Turner, talking about his company Colossal Bioscience and discovering the DNA of extinct woolly mammoths. We call them unexpected pairings and non-obvious conversations.
DEADLINE: How has the conversation around AI moved on since last time?
ARNANDER: It has definitely become more nuanced. A year ago, everybody was talking about, what is it, what’s it going to do? Twelve months later, it’s incredible how AI is just here. Now, it’s what are the applications of it? How can you use AI to help R&D? Let’s have a look at AI and misinformation in the world of news and media. Let’s look at AI in terms of making music.
DEADLINE: How much do you seek to keep the DNA of SXSW in Austin?
ARNANDER: We want to bring the DNA from Austin, which is bringing people together from tech and business and the creative industries. London has all those things, but particularly East London. What Austin is to Texas, Shoreditch is to London, a slightly alternative melting pot of creativity.
The bit that we added to it, which they don’t have so much in Austin, is the visual arts strand. We’ve had the YBA movement moving through Shoreditch and there’s the whole visual arts and street art side to it.
Many of the best, well-known festivals have been going for many years. They’ve built their brand and their base over many years, which is precisely what we intend to do, because we have a 10-year license, at the very least, here in London.
DEADLINE: London is hugely diverse and international, how does the your event reflect that?
ARNANDER: It’s a festival of the future and about what’s new, what’s next, and discovery. What’s really nice is that we have American companies wanting to talk about what they do in Europe. Six hours from London means not just continental Europe, but also North Africa and the Middle East. That’s our radius, so we’ve got a very large spread of different countries and nationalities and industries and businesses. We can cover that part of the world, and [SXSW in Austin] can cover America, Central America and South America.
DEADLINE: Whether we’re talking about music, film & TV, tech or the arts there are so many events. Where does SXSW London fit into a jam-packed calendar?
ARNANDER: It’s unique, which is the whole point. We’re not an industry-specific event. Our main focus is let’s put some heads together, let’s throw ideas around, let’s look to the future, and let’s actually not silo ourselves.
I think SXSW reflects the reality of the way that we all work today. Essentially, we are becoming multi-hyphenates and our festival represents that world and the way we live, work and play.
There is also this sense, more than ever, that people need to be together. If you have a group of people in a room who might be from the film industry or might be from a startup, someone might be a geneticist or from a tech company, and you get them talking together, then ideas spark. You can’t generate that outside of a real-life setting.
Those serendipitous moments are what SXSW is famous for. We’ve really invested a lot of time, effort and thought into how we improve networking opportunities. We also now have a very strong mentoring program with over 200 mentors coming to the festival. We’re convening roundtables where you might have 10 people together with a moderator, and then we have organized networking parties and meetups.
DEADLINE: Drilling down into the screen program and lineup, what are some highlights?
ARNANDER: We’re really excited about the partnership we have with AGBO. The Russo brothers are coming to speak with [AGBO CCO] Don Mustard, who is formerly of Epic Games, which is very cool. We have Russell T Davies and Sharon Horgan is also coming and I’m a great fan of hers. We’ve already announced a couple of our headliners at the Barbican, and Savage House is one of them.
DEADLINE: You mentioned you had 25,000 people last time; can you top that this year?
ARNANDER: In terms of how many we can fit into our spaces, there is a finite capacity, but this year, we’re doing more public activations and events. So, we’re doing some events in front of the Truman Brewery in Ely’s Yard, which is a public space. We’re doing some events potentially down in Montacute Yards. There are many more public activations this year, so we will get more footfall. And we’ve got a big activation with Waymo, the automated cars that are coming to London.
DEADLINE: Maybe the stars can arrive at their premieres in driverless cars?
They don’t have their license yet, so they’re in the testing phase, but next year they could turn up to the festival in a Waymo car.
