Fontaines D.C. performs at SXSW 2019. Credit: Wikimedia Commons / Paul Hudson

Austin multimedia festival SXSW’s plans to restructure for next year are causing Texas musicians to sound the alarm about the fate of the massive event.

On Sunday, the day after SXSW 2025’s conclusion, organizers revealed plans to shrink the gathering from nine days to seven. Going forward, music will run concurrently with the tech and film symposiums rather than it being emphasized during a second weekend, as in years past.

The announcement — which many said was sudden but not surprising — has led to a flurry of post-mortems on social media including one by Andy Langer, senior director of live music and entertainment at the University of Texas at Austin.

“All week, I’ve been telling everyone that asked that I thought we were witnessing a festival in its death throes — a Snack Size SXSW with feather-light crowds, low hotel occupancy, surprisingly few sponsors and a dearth of legitimate buzz bands,” Langer said.

Viral videos show a deserted downtown that would normally be lively and packed during SXSW’s pre-pandemic heyday. On Sunday, the Austin-American Statesman reported that the music festival would be scaled back in 2026. This is due in part to considerably lower participation — from more than 2,000 bands in 2019 to 1,012 this year. Many of this year’s performers were international acts sponsored by their governments’ ministries, the Statesman reports.

With the Austin Convention Center scheduled to close for renovation next year — and remain closed for three years — the festival also is unmoored from a familiar home base. And with badges going for more than $1,000, many argue the festival is cost-prohibitive for attendees, which has shrunk attendance. Instead, the music festival has been cannibalized by unofficial showcases.

Artists have also long complained that they have to pay for travel and hotels and perform official SXSW showcases for little pay, if any. This arrangement was based on the understanding that this was a good chance at exposure for them at a festival full of industry insiders. However, that payoff doesn’t always materialize.

“It had ceased to feel like a good use of my time and energy in recent years,” Jeff Smith, frontman of legacy Austin-San Antonio cowpunk band Hickoids, wrote on Facebook. Smith, who also owns the Saustex Records label is a SXSW veteran, having played its inaugural year and many since.

SXSW started as a music showcase in 1987, which is part of why the restructuring news is the talk of the music industry on Monday. According to the official history on the gathering’s website, it was born when a group of Austin music insiders began meeting secretly almost 30 years ago, united in the belief that “the local creative and music communities were as talented as anywhere else on the planet, but were severely limited by a lack of exposure outside of Austin.”

While SXSW started with the purpose of elevating the local music scene, it’s increasingly faced criticism of corporatization. Last year, while many protested the genocide in Gaza, the festival drew anger and boycotts for giving a platform to defense contractor Raytheon along with the U.S. Army. In response to the criticism, fest officials said they had revised its sponsorship model, excluding such sponsors.

This year’s fest is once again ending on a negative note with many music fans and artists.

SXSW’s Sunday announcement led to erroneous reports claiming the festival canceled the music portion entirely. That prompted SXSW Communications VP Lillian Park to release a statement Monday clarifying that music will continue, even if running concurrently with other aspects of the festival, music blog Brooklyn Vegan reports.

“With the Austin Convention Center closing down for three years, we believe it’s a great opportunity to put new ideas into action,” Park said in the statement.

SXSW 2026 will run March 12 through 18, with badges going for half this year’s price.

Credit: Courtesy Photo / SXSW

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This article appears in Mar 5-18, 2025.

Stephanie Koithan is the Digital Content Editor of the San Antonio Current. In her role, she writes about politics, music, art, culture and food. Send her a tip at skoithan@sacurrent.com.