While I can’t speak for anyone else’s experience at SXSW Sydney, I personally had a great time discovering new bands and professionally appreciated the chance that Amplify the Noise received to explore the festival as an accredited media outlet.
Amplify the Noise was built on the passion of music and while we have and will continue to explore all entertainment genres – movies, televisions, books, etc – music will remain for me my forte. Having said that, I set out to explore all things SXSW Sydney had to offer, but failed on exploring the Screening Festival. For the screening side of the festival, I was unfortunately ill the first two days and missed the events I wanted to attend.
Mixing screen and music, one of the events I wasn’t able to attend was the premiere of the documentary ONEFOUR: Against All Odds, premiering on Netflix on October 26.
Having a full time job also cut into the daytime events, expo, and talks I wanted to attend as well (but that’s all on me), but with the Music Festival kicking off, I was determined to make it ill or not.
Wednesday, I saw Ben Swissa, Walker Lukens, Battlesnake, Go-Jo, and Besties. All happened to me on the opposite sides of Sydney.
Thursday, I planned a little better, clustering as many shows into an area as possible, seeing Trophie, Telenova, Boy Soda, Bract & Bayang (tha Bushranger), and Go-Jo.
Friday had sets by TJ Worthington, Enola, Andrew Gurruwiwi Band, Al Matcott, Blue Honey, There’s a Tuesday, Alter Boy, and Dartz.
Saturday included sets by Inakabee, The Stumps, and Who Shot Scott plus hitting the Gaming Festival where I played a round of Ghoul Battledeck and realised that I could learn how to like tabletop role playing games.
The two best things for me about SXSW Sydney was exploring venues and discovering bands. It made me realise that Sydney has a lot more music venues than I knew of and after talking to friends and co-workers even more than those born here knew of as well.
Music wise, Australia and New Zealand are rich in music, but no one is talking about it and unless you listen to Triple J, no one is hearing it because no one is talking about it. So I really thank SXSW Sydney for exposing me to many bands I would never know the name of but now have on a list to check out. All the bands I saw will be written about over the next few days and weeks, and the ones I wasn’t able to see, I’ll be writing about them too.
Speaking to a few natives of Sydney (I am an American expat and a relative new Australian citizen), they criticised:
- why it wasn’t covered more by more media or why they just discovered it on the day
- the cost of the event
- that platinum badges didn’t get free drinks, food, etc
- how they were sure most of the badges were given away for free to everyone they knew or knew through a friend
- why was Sydney the first choice for an event outside of Austin
- why weren’t any of the artists, speakers, movies, etc well known or A-list celebrities
Native Sydneysiders do have a tendency to criticise everything that’s in their backyard, front yard, neighbours yard, and if Melbourne had been the first location, they would have been in a tizzy even more. So the general complaints I just ignored, but on the latter, I guessed those that I spoke to weren’t familiar with the spirit of Austin’s SXSW and that the whole point was to discover something new and unknown.
On stage, artists were appreciative of being part of the inaugural SXSW Sydney and of all the artists I was able to catch, only one complained about the set times they had been given and how they were paid in badges. It’s no secret that artists don’t receive a big payday for playing SXSW in Austin and I can only assume it was similar in Australia.
For the artist that complained, my only thought was this – they made a choice to play at SXSW Sydney knowing full well the results of signing the contract. If getting paid was an issue, then maybe they shouldn’t have signed the contract to play at the event.
Do I have a complaint about SXSW Sydney?
While they had Google Maps in the app and website, I would have appreciated an event area map on the app and website that would have given me a visual of the coverage area of the whole event. Those were only available around the areas with the ‘you are here’ dots. Those kind of maps allowed me to see the event as a whole and where a venue was compared to where I was.
I would have also loved to have a side by side schedule of venues versus how they had it broken down by times on the website and app. It would have allowed me to see conflicts immediately. In the end, I created a spreadsheet so I could spot the conflicts and plan accordingly.
While those two are more user experiences than complaints, my one complaint is that the staff working in venues like the Powerhouse Museum or ICC seemed to have very little knowledge about where to find what. On Wednesday, I spent twenty minutes trying to exit the Powerhouse Museum with no help from their paid working staff and the same could be said on Saturday at the ICC. Their paid staff could have cared less about my question and were more concerned with watching whatever was on his iPad. Unless those staff members were paid by SXSW, those complaints are more for the venues themselves.
The volunteer staff of SXSW Sydney were great. They would straight up say they had no idea or find someone who knew the answer. They did more than any paid working venue staff member.
Would I do SXSW Sydney in 2024?
Absolutely.
Having experienced the inaugural year, I am already excited to see what 2024 brings. Even if native Sydneysiders I know who didn’t attend or only ventured out for one night assure themselves it was a failure.
For me, 2023 was a win and I hope it was a win for the arts and tech world of Sydney.
If it weren’t for SXSW Sydney I would not have discovered standout artists of this year’s events like Bow and Arrow, Go-Jo, Battlesnake, Andrew Gurruwiwi Band, Who Shot Scott? and personal new obsession Alter Boy.
