RECAP: SXSW 24 AUSTIN, TX

? Mandi McIntyre and Tom Larkin headed to SXSW Austin to represent BIGSOUND_AU at SXSW for the Music Festival 11-16 March 2024 and hosted the BIGSOUND BRUNCH in partnership with Sounds Australia at Australia House.

Headed to my first SXSW Austin this year, I was forewarned to be armed with plenty of FOMO resilience – there’s no way to do it all, see it all, experience it all and meet everyone you want to. Once SXSW opens its doors for 9 days of the largest consumer-culture event in the world, you and the 300,000 other anticipated visitors are swept into a river of conference sessions, brand activations, meetings and showcases. Representing BIGSOUND to the world was my mission this year and I couldn’t wait to throw my badge around my neck and head and dive in. FOMO be damned.

It was mighty helpful to have a veteran SXSW navigator with me. ?BIGSOUND’s Conference Programmer, Tom Larkin* attended his fourth SXSW this year. ?Tom’s preparation to make the most of our time on-ground in Austin was as serious as Texans feel about their family BBQ recipe. Every morning at breakfast, we dived into Tom’s purpose-built interactive excel spreadsheet to navigate the day. We scheduled how to make the most of every session, event or meeting we could get ourselves to. We also ate powdered eggs, waffles and drank terrible coffee - the perfect endurance recipe to set us up for the next 16 or so hours of listening, networking, learning and talking BIGSOUND to every damn human we met. (Many, many humans).

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I’ve previously been guilty of what I’m told is quite an Aussie industry perspective- we tend not to grasp (until we are outside of our continent) ?just how far BIGSOUND’s reputation as an outstanding international event carries. Our annual music industry event is the biggest in the Southern Hemisphere and sits on the calendars of the international music industry as September equals BIGSOUND. Almost every industry professional we spoke to told a story of their own or their colleague’s fantastic experiences attending BIGSOUND previously. Most described how well the event shaped their interaction and dealings with the Australian and NZ Music industry. We met with professionals from all corners of music working with Australian’s industry- music publishers, agents, PR specialists, managers, distributors and label representatives. They are incredibly valuable relationships with measurable economic impacts for our Australian industry.

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Is it cheeky to say it made our job… Easy? Such an incredibly warm and consistent response deserves high kudos to every former BIGSOUND programmer, CEO, team member and volunteer who has previously worked to deliver our (decently sized) 3 day event and laid the ground for its ongoing reputation/reputation going forward. Our current team at QMusic who work together to produce BIGSOUND are no different – all exceptionally high achievers, driven to make an event worthy of its international standing.

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High praise and thanks also belong to our longstanding partnership with our friends at Sounds Australia , Australia’s export music agency. Working year-round on an international scale on behalf of the Australian music industry, the team at Sounds Australia have been tireless in championing BIGSOUND as the place for the world to do business with us Aussies. Sounds Australia also invited us to partner and present the BIGSOUND BRUNCH – a networking event at the buzzy Australia House, presented by the American Australian Association . Take over a backyard in the heart of Austin, present incredible sets by BIGSOUND alumni artists, and invite everyone around for Aussie coffee, healthy brunch and a beer to wash it down? YES PLEASE.

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It was both the shortest and longest day of our week talking BIGSOUND with the hundreds of international industry reps coming to watch incredible sets by Alexander Biggs, Bones & Jones, Asher Jefferies, Y.B and Carla Geneve. The joys kept coming with performances by Miss Kaninna, Flewnt & Inkabee and Alice Ivy who invited up Queensland’s Sycco to perform their song, Weakness, to a buzzing crowd.

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The incredibly successful BIGSOUND BRUNCH made it clear to me that BIGSOUND holds an important place in both the Australian music industry’s calendar, as well as the international industry’s. Sometimes it takes going to the other side of the world to see our event the way everyone else us- significant in terms of the important conversations held within our conference, valuable in terms of the relationships which are forged both within AUS / NZ and impactful in terms of the outcomes for artists in their careers. All of this demonstrates that making the continued investment in BIGSOUND by our government and private partners is truly worthwhile.

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Important learnings and outcomes from this year’s SXSW tour will be present throughout the BIGSOUND 2024 program. With incredible hardship being experienced right now in our industry, made visible through sweeping redundancies, festival cancelations and venue closures, it’s never been more important to come together to find solutions for our industry’s challenges. The BIGSOUND team have been listening closely to our peers in industry, with our QMusic CEO, Kris Stewart ensuring support and investment in Music is at the forefront of minds of those in leadership in government and key industry roles. We’ll keep working to build BIGSOUND 2024 to be the event worthy of its international reputation and will look forward to welcoming old and new friends to Fortitude Valley this September.

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BIGSOUND is Australia’s largest music industry event held in Brisbane, Australia and is produced by QMusic . Dates for this year’s event are 3-6 September. Tickets are on sale soon. For more information, visit www.bigsound.org.au

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*Sidenote – sometimes I forget that Tom is considered one of the members of Aotearoa’s unofficial rock royalty. As drummer of the beloved NZ band Shihad, we are either stopped on the street because folks want to talk BIGSOUND or, Tom is tapped by a fan who just wants a sneaky pic with their epic drumming hero. Either way, a pic costs them a long chat about BIGSOUND – so good to work with you, Tom!

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