South by Southwest is a feat of scheduling, spontaneity, and stamina for all. For artists navigating a “disrupted music industry,” to quote an upcoming conference panel, the discovery-centered festival pledges to help them achieve global success through exposure and connections.
They’ve gotta get to Austin first. And take the festival’s offerings seriously, experienced performers say.
Here’s how international and local first-timers are approaching the challenge – and some advice from two Austinite SXSW veterans, “R&B Cool Girl” Grace Sorensen and rapper and tastemaker J Soulja.
International Acts Accept Sacrifices
Before picking out panels and toting equipment, international acts have accommodations to arrange and funds to raise. Prohibitive travel costs and visa restrictions mean most artists are going far with very little.
“It’s quite expensive to bring a 7-piece band from Norway,” Sūn Byrd vocalist Johan Helland writes to the Chronicle. Wanting to ensure everyone in their “North-Northern Soul” group could attend, the band saved up money ahead of time and applied for government grant programs.
Paul Nii Amu Andrew Darko, a Ghanaian hip-hop artist known as Darkovibes, says that for musicians traveling from Africa, tough decisions about who can make the journey have to be made.
“They have to come with a few people or just the artist alone, which is not safe,” he says. Aside from impacting the musical performance, traveling without a manager or another representative also means fewer opportunities to connect with industry professionals. Safety, as the multilingual songwriter notes, is on the minds of many musicians this year especially, as Immigration and Customs Enforcement has made global headlines for indiscriminately detaining visa holders and others, seemingly relying on racial profiling.
“I’m pretty nervous,” admits Mexico City-based pop songwriter Karina Galicia ahead of her first trip to the States. “I don’t want to do anything wrong.” In the same breath, she continues: “I also believe that Austin is a pretty warm city and it’s really open to listen and speak to new people.”
Galicia applied directly through the festival’s public-facing portal, as she had for several years in a row. With her 2025 album, Mudanzas, and a national tour under her belt, she feels confident in her ability to communicate her R&B-blending sound through an economical, flexible setup suited to citywide festival demands.
“I knew that there was a Mexican scene coming, and they helped me to make this happen,” she says, listing Mexican and other Spanish-speaking acts she’s excited to watch and hopefully meet.
Though there are far fewer African bands on the bill this year, Darko also sees the festival as a multicultural melting pot. “We really and truly want to showcase our music to – not just the world, but to the diaspora,” he says.
All three artists expressed a similar sentiment about the trade-offs of traveling to SXSW, but Galicia puts it this way: “It’s really an investment for us to do this – an investment that we do with a lot of love and with a lot of hope.”
The prospect of connecting with U.S.-based audiences and international opportunities remains a powerful draw. Berlin-based quartet Agatha Is Dead!, who also applied for government arts funding, are nervous about traveling with few instruments – what if a string breaks, wonders guitarist Noah O’Donoghue – but they’ve already seen a positive impact from their lineup inclusion.
“Even just having that Official Artist post on Instagram has put us on the radar of so many festivals that otherwise would never have seen us,” says O’Donoghue. “Suddenly it’s a lot easier, definitely, to get booking requests or even responses.”
“It’s really an investment for us to do this – an investment that we do with a lot of love and with a lot of hope.”
Karina Galicia
Local Artists Expand Horizons From Home
Being based in Austin may help you know where to park, but it doesn’t preclude preparation.
“I’ve lived in Austin my whole life, and I’ve never been,” says Kianna Rodriguez, vocalist of the indie rock group MILHD, who are preparing for their first SXSW appearance after releasing debut singles last year. Deciphering showcase rules was the first challenge. Official acts aren’t allowed to play unofficial sets between 7pm and 2am and have to be careful about how those gigs are advertised. The learning curve has hardly dimmed the excited gleam in the fivepiece’s eyes: They’re all taking time off work to dip into panels and mixers.
“These types of things are going to be really, really good for us as a growing band to have some real industry people give us advice,” says guitarist Kevin Cale.
Though the increased traffic and citywide disruptions provoke mixed responses from Austinites, SXSW undeniably has an outsized impact on the local music industry.
“I see it as a big celebration of the venues that have popped up over the years and the artists that have really been pioneers of the industry,” R&B songwriter Sorensen says. In her third year playing the festival, she’s thinking critically about “what are the shows I’m doing and why?”
“Your first couple years, you’re excited about every single offer, because it’s South By,” she says. “Then you have no voice by the end of the week.”
There’s a balance to be found, the introspective artist explains, between embracing opportunities and preserving your physical and mental health. Still, when asked to count how many showcases she’s playing this year, she laughs – seven, one more than she tackled that inaugural year. The pull of the festival is hard to resist.
“Being at shows and getting to meet people on the [SXSW] lineup, all of those things contributed to having things pop up for me,” Sorensen says.
Quick-witted rapper and artist developer J Soulja agrees: “South by Southwest gives a lot of artists that feeling of being a part of something, feeling we’re in this exclusive bunch of people who are here in the city of Austin working to acquire a moment that can ultimately change our lives.”
That feeling is crucial, in his perspective as an artist and talent scout, because music’s digital landscape can leave musicians feeling undervalued and unconnected.
“The industry is in a huge limbo with not really understanding the value of music,” he reminds us. While in the rapper’s eyes the “golden days” of the festival’s traditional connective power are behind us, he sees this year marking a swing back toward influence. Discouraged by excessive demands and inconsequential rewards, the Smoke Out ATX presenter says in-person encounters are the only way for emerging acts to make dedicated fans out of inundated listeners.
“I believe [that] where we’re at right now in the music industry, it’s making artists have to lean back on experiences like South by Southwest to reengage with their cult following.”
This article appears in March 13 • 2026.