On my flight home from Austin, my seatmate struck up a conversation with me, which led to an interesting moment when I mentioned that I was on my way home from SXSW: “Oh, that sounds like fun! What speakers did you see there?”
I guess in his mind, he’d probably seen clips of interesting talks that had happened there in the past and so to him, that’s what SXSW was all about. Probably some others might have asked if I’d seen any good films while there and I guess that fair enough. Even before I’d started going to SXSW, it was so much more than just a music festival. Still, it’s been a bit weird in recent years to see that more and more often, people’s first thought when they hear the words “South By Southwest” isn’t necessarily that it’s a cool, longstanding music festival, but maybe more so about the film or interactive components. It is what it is, I guess.
But let’s talk about the music. While the days are gone when the SXSW lineup would be full of plenty of big name acts, I did still manage to catch sets from the likes of John Fogerty, Band of Horses and St. Vincent this year. Aside from those bigger names, SXSW 2025 was largely about discovery and we managed to discover lots of new acts, from the eclectic and eccentric sounds of Germany’s TEll A ViSiON (pictured above) to the theremin-heavy cumbia/psych of Mexico’s Sonido Gallo Negro to Rome’s Weird Bloom, who look like a bunch of Italian hippies and ply a potent blend of ’70s style glam/hard rock/power-pop that gave off big T-Rex vibes.
And while my focus was squarely on the music, I did in fact manage to see some cool speakers there this year, from Metallica’s Lars Ulrich to a fascinating panel entitled “Love Machines: The Science of AI Companionship, ” which examined the larger social and cultural ramifications of how people use AI companions, including what can happen when people form relationships with these companions.
The most memorable speaker I saw though was Bryan Johnson delivering his Don’t Die keynote address, an intriguing but truly odd talk that saw the 47 year old entrepreneur speaking to a room full of SXSW attendees about the merits of not drinking alcohol, eating fast food or staying up late (basically the holy trinity of SouthBy life), bragging about having organs that are the equivalent of a much younger person’s and talking way too much about boners. A very strange man indeed. Perhaps not too surprisingly, Johnson has since been accused of inappropriate behaviour, so … I’m guessing maybe he’s not getting invited back for next year.
And speaking of next year, it’s not certain what SXSW 2026 will bring, but with the news of them scaling the festival back by a few days and the impending closure of the Austin Convention Center, things are sure to be a bit different, to say the least. Still, unlesss US-Canada relations deteriorate even further by then, I’m likely up for giving it another go. We shall see.
