South by Southwest (SXSW) is bringing its celebration of film, music, business and technology to Shoreditch, East London, in June.
What does the UK media industry think about the arrival of the festival-cum-conference? We hadn’t heard many people talking about it, so we decided to be proactive and ask our network.
James Kirkham — co-founder at ICONIC
Bloody hell, has there ever been a better time for SXSW to land in London? Just when we’re being written off as a post-Brexit backwater, here comes the world’s greatest collision of creativity and tech to remind everyone what we do best: turn limitations into innovations. This is rocket fuel for our bubbling creative tech scene. While Silicon Valley obsesses over Musk, London has an opportunity to show what happens when you mix British creativity with global tech ambition. We’re the nation that turned punk into fashion, pirate radio into BBC Radio 1, and Banksy street art into a global movement. Now imagine that same disruptive energy which can spring up, and applied now Brexit reduced everything else to rubble. SXSW London should be our statement. While everyone else is trying to be the next questionable Silicon Valley big tech billionaire, we’re building something more married to a history and the fabric of culture. And this could only come from somewhere that gave the world Stormzy or Tracey Emin, or Defected Records or grime, or marketed the Sex Pistols… come on.
Nicola Dyball — head of strategy at Carat UK, a dentsu company
SXSW has come a long way since its early days as a local music festival in Austin — the London festival is the second international outing after the Sydney offshoot launched in 2023. For media types, the Interactive arm of the festival — launched more than 30 years ago, and branded as the Conference in London — is the biggest draw. However, although the festival played a key role in popularising platforms such as Twitter and Pinterest during its mid-2000s heyday, I am not expecting us to witness the launch of a major new media space. Rather, the conference provides an opportunity to think about how we — and our media audiences — will interact with each other and with our environment in the future.
Jade Tomlin — executive creative director at Huge Inc
SXSW London will no doubt be an attractive event for the UK market, blending the powers of storytelling with cutting-edge creative innovation. As an intersection point for diverse creative industries, the festival consistently delivers rich collaboration across sectors. By placing storytelling at its core, SXSW London not only celebrates narrative craftsmanship, but also underscores its pivotal role in modern society. Expectations are high for the festival to inspire new approaches in a globally connected, yet traditionally reserved region. With a reputation for fostering disruptive ideas and trends, SXSW is set to shake up London in a positively rebellious way, influencing how UK brands leverage creativity and technology to navigate the evolving landscape. It’s the perfect moment to embrace digital storytelling, where creativity and tech come together and effortlessly set the stage for what’s next.
Pumie Msengana — managing partner at Modern Citizens
Creatives, marketers, and media experts won’t just be frantically planning their annual pilgrimage to the Cannes Lions festival this year. In June, our calendars will be even busier with the debut of the first European edition of South by Southwest in London. At a time when the arts and tech sectors feel uncertain — highlighted by US President Donald Trump disbanding the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH), and ongoing misogynistic rhetoric in Silicon Valley — I found myself questioning whether travelling to Austin would ever be the same. London, meanwhile, has always been a vibrant tapestry of cultures and diversity, brimming with creativity around every corner. The arrival of SXSW in the UK could be the spark we need — a chance for the marketing and media industry to celebrate this ‘beautiful collision’ of ideas and find renewed inspiration. As we experience a new wave in communication and technology, now is the time to embrace these changes, not just to advance our craft, but to make a positive impact on the world at large.
Andy Crysell — author, founder at Crowd DNA, and advisor at the Museum of Youth Culture
While it maybe says something about the city’s shortcomings that it can’t create a South by Southwest of its own (and then sell it to the US), locking the conference into London for the next ten years is undoubtedly a plus. What remains to be seen is how far it will go beyond a polished, packaged and carefully curated version of the city and make room for its messier reality — its many communities, each with their own challenges but also their own creative energy. At a time when London often feels divided between the haves and have-nots, I hope there’s room for all of that alongside the big networks and corporations. It’s where the best stories are.
Geoff Chang — creative lead at eight&four
For someone who grew up in Hackney, reading in NME about Bloc Party’s gig at SXSW, the festival’s debut UK edition is another coup for East London. As someone who now works on Old Street (and still calls Hackney home), this summer’s block(chain) party shows how the area has become the heartland of London’s creative and tech community. I’m biased. But one wonders could it happen anywhere else? No longer with transatlantic flight bills to foot, more of Europe’s top talent can now converge on this alt-Shoreditch-centric offshoot. It should be less, well, American than Texas. And more inclusive than Cannes. (I imagine many Europeans are grateful to break away from the current US mess.) It promises to add gloss to our industry, but has big boots to fill. Can’t say I’ve been to Texas, but the SXSW brand has its reputation for a reason. One just hopes the Overground is prepared. I can already picture the swarms of Lime bikes. Rather that, than Cybertrucks, I guess.
Mara Dettmann — independent strategy consultant
Almost 3,000 people applied to speak at SXSW London — and community organised counter-event SXSB (South By South Bank) was also quickly overwhelmed with prospective participants. It’s clear why UK creatives are so hungry for these opportunities: they’re a rare chance to help shape the conversation around the industry. But speaking at events like these isn’t just about sharing ideas and starting a dialogue — it’s about staying visible and relevant. With the established platforms and spaces only offering very few seats at the table, it’s encouraging that creatives feel empowered to create their own platforms and spaces. But when everyone is talking, how do we know who’s worth paying attention to? And who’s actually listening?
Justin Pearse — editor at NewDigitalAge
SXSW is a flagship event in our industry, and for many in the UK’s marketing and media world, the annual trip to Austin has become routine. However, its success in the UK is by no means assured. In the US, SXSW’s advertising arm grew organically from its roots as a music and film festival, but squeezing all these parts into a single UK event means its DNA and raison d’etre is far less clear. Launching into an already packed summer of established media events — including MAD//Fest, Cannes Lions, Adwanted’s events, and Advertising Week Europe — SXSW London faces stiff competition. For almost everyone I speak to across the industry, there’s a palpable wait-and-see attitude. I hope it is as successful as its US event, but it’s got a tough job ahead of it.
Pollyanna Ward — brand strategy director at FlightStory
SXSW London’s impact won’t make it past the Watford Gap. This event has an enviable line-up, making it one of the hottest festivals in Europe for creativity and innovation. Undoubtedly, it will bring attention to our nation’s innovative outputs, but I fear it risks staying concentrated in the London bubble, rather than acting as a catalyst for growth across the UK. London is already on the global stage for creativity, and benefits from investment and opportunities for growth. It’s obvious to choose the city as the place to hold such a festival; because you’re going to attract audiences who are already interested in driving change. But what about the rest of the UK? Where’s Manchester, Liverpool, and Bristol? If we want to be at the forefront of innovation globally, doesn’t that start with bringing diverse ideas together nationwide? I do wonder if we’re creating a self-fulfilling echo chamber. A creative event attended by the same crowds, discussing the same topics, solving the same challenges. Hopefully in the future we’ll see an event that aims to really decentralise investment, with regional creatives, innovators and technology enthusiasts benefitting, as opposed to just watching.
Kim Townend — cultural and social strategist
Anything that brings the creative and tech industries closer together will only bring a positive impact. These two areas have traditionally been siloed, but when they can work together, things improve for everyone, especially the (don’t call it) content being created. People seem to have accepted that marketing runs alongside culture, and we know from Kantar that being culturally relevant helps brands grow faster (why playing a greater role in culture is key to growth). So a festival that exposes marketers to culture, creatives to tech, and tech to everything else; is long overdue. I’m hoping it will shake things up, expose the right people to new ideas, and ultimately, make marketing more innovative.
Jonathan Emmins — founder and global CEO at Amplify
Adland has always had a tendency to be inward looking, benchmarking creativity purely against other brands’ work. Whereas in reality, brands are only one source of inspiration in a world where myriad forms of entertainment compete for audience attention. And yet it makes much better sense, both on a personal and business level, to seek inspiration from wider culture, identifying those places to play where brands can, at a bare minimum, be additive and, at best, create culture. By bringing various worlds such as creativity, tech and storytelling together, and more importantly, by looking at the exciting points of convergence, SXSW London is a rallying cry to the marketing and media industry to look beyond what’s just in front of us.
Cat Botibol — business development director at Secret Cinema
Collective experience at live events has been proven to have a positive impact on the way that we see the world — moving our mindset from being centred around the self, to one that is more expansive and connected. This shifted mindset makes us more open to new possibilities and ideas. So, the fact that SXSW is providing the stage(s) to bring such a richly talented collective of creatives, technologists, investors, and business people together to share ideas, stories and experiences is excellent news, for generating more innovation and connections that can bolster the continued growth of the UK’s marketing and media industry.
Charlotte Armstrong — communications manager at Valuable 500
At a time when disabled talent remains significantly under-represented in our creative industries, SXSW London offers a pivotal moment for change. My hope is that the event will spotlight questions that our creative and technology sectors urgently need to address: How can we ensure innovation truly serves everyone? What happens when we put accessibility and inclusion at the heart of creative and technological development, rather than treating it as an afterthought? How can we amplify diverse voices to create more authentic and representative storytelling? The coming together of the creative and tech industries creates an unprecedented opportunity to showcase how disability-led innovation can transform both business outcomes and creative expression. True innovation comes from diverse perspectives — and by embracing authentic disability inclusion, we can not only reach untapped markets, but fundamentally reshape how we create, innovate, and tell stories.
Karen Forbes — client partner at Coolr
Every March SXSW pops up in my feed — a festival I’ve never been to in one of my favourite cities. It always felt like an exclusive club, full of interesting speakers and artists you wouldn’t usually see in the same place. So SXSW coming to my home town of London is exciting. It’s not like we need it to put us on the creative map, but I’m curious to see what this decades-old institution will bring to the way our industry thinks, works, and creates. Some people will be lucky enough to get access to official venues and conference halls. But what will also be interesting is what happens on the fringes — how London makes it its own, how local businesses jump on the moment, how emerging musicians find their own stage, and how those of us who don’t have a wristband end up engaging with the festival. What makes SXSW special isn’t just a handful of headline names; it’s the mix of it all… award-winning artists alongside new talent, industry leaders sharing space with startups, and established filmmakers discussing ideas with rising stars. It’s that mix of perspectives that makes SXSW unique. I’m looking forward to seeing how it inspires creatives, and, most of all, how it feels to have this event down the road for the first time.
Charlotte Bunyun — head of strategy and innovation at We Are Collider
For decades Cannes Lions has been the gold standard for advertising and media, but let’s be honest — it’s a nostalgia machine. A celebration of what has worked, rather than a provocation of what could be. SXSW London, however, is engineered for the future. It’s a collision point for the creative industries and cutting-edge technology. Where storytelling isn’t just an art, it’s an evolving system, shaped by AI, immersive media, and decentralised platforms. For UK marketers and media leaders, this isn’t just another festival, it’s an inflection point. The acceleration of emerging tech is redefining audience behaviour, content creation, and brand experiences at breakneck speed. Those still chasing traditional formats will find themselves playing catch up. The industry needs a playground for radical ideas, a testbed for the next frontier, and a forum that doesn’t just admire innovation from afar, but actively builds it. SXSW London is exactly that. Cannes? That’s yesterday’s party.
Hollie Parks — senior partnerships director at DRUM
As the years evolve the London festival has the potential to become the primary melting pot for creative, innovative, and technology-infused campaigns, while encouraging collaboration across our marketing and media industries in the UK and beyond. With a network of over 20,000 thought leaders due to attend, there will be opportunities to learn from best-in-class exchange ideas, which could boost the UK’s position in global creative excellence. SXSW is known for its focus on purposeful innovation. It’s likely brands will ramp up how they can integrate more meaningful narratives into their communications, with discussions planned around the future of media consumption. Marketers should continue to evaluate how they reach their audiences in a digital-first world, and leveraging new formats will become smarter. As technology and AI-driven insights increase, the boundaries of what’s possible in storytelling will be pushed harder. Expect to see more personalised and immersive campaigns off the back of this.
