We're Launching Our Music Festival With 37 Co-Curators From Around The World

There are music festivals that burrow deeply into a hyper-specific sound. Others, like ours, capture an idea. SXSW London is where music industry, fans and artists Shape The Future. It’s a festival that could only work here in the UK, with our rich musical lineage and history.

From Geordie’s raving to makina through UK drill, grime, bashment, a rapid-fire Yorkshire bassline scene, hyper-pop electronica and south London drone core. then back around to the historical acts that cover off everything from Arctic Monkeys, Radiohead, Kate Bush, Adele, Amy, Florence and further back to those lads from Liverpool, the UK is home to world-leading music from a range of genres and backgrounds. Just head to London where you can basically travel through the entire spectrum of Spotify by heading to bars on the tube map.

This is why we're launching SXSW London in 2026 with 37 co-curators. Together, we're programming a line-up of more than 200 artists at SXSW London in June.

To better get an understanding of why SXSW London is booked this way, we spoke to Adem Holness, Head of Music at SXSW London. Adem has previously worked with and for organisations like the Southbank Centre, The Roundhouse, Arts Council England, BBC.

He’s booked big acts under the Meltdown festival at Southbank; and he’s particularly proud of bringing them Simmer Down, a free reggae event that still exists to this day. “It’s once a month, and it's free, and there's like, a few hundred older Caribbean people who just have a great dance. I think that idea of bringing people together feels really personal,” he says.

We'll be announcing the full line-up alongside a run of very special guests soon.

SXSW London: Hello. Please tell me: why work with co-curators rather than booking acts yourself?

Adem: I don't think an event like ours makes sense if I was sat in a cupboard coming up with a program and then presenting it to the industry. It has to be shaped with and by our industry, not just for it. Otherwise they won't care, and it won't make sense. To make a programme so wide-ranging that covers so many different contexts, genres, and parts of the world, no one person could do that on their own. Maybe Beyoncé could, but I need some help.

Yes.

Also, I'm a Londoner, born and raised. What I think is amazing about London is that it's already somewhere you can experience music and culture from all around the world. You can step out of any tube station and find yourself in a really distinct community. I wanted to recreate that feeling, and I wanted it to be really genuine. Not my idea of what the underground music scene in Seoul, Korea is like, for instance – I need those people to tell us who the most exciting acts are.

How does the co-curator collaboration actually work in practice?

So we have our Apply to Play process, where any artist can apply to play the festival. They can be from anywhere in the world, any genre, as long as they're over 18 and making new music. And we have a jury of about 100 music professionals from all around the world who help score those submissions and shortlist them. I then take the relevant chunks of that shortlist to the right stages. So if we've got an R&B co-curator for instance, they'll see the R&B acts from that list. But they also might have artists they're working with, platforming, or excited about that they'll bring to me, and then we’ll chat about the line-ups together and create something that represents what we collectively think the future of music is.

Looking at the philosophy behind the curation of the festival. Are you trying to predict what will be big, surface what should be big, or something else?

It’s all three.

Right.

I really want this to be a useful platform for the artists and the co-curators. To show that it can be vehicle that helps them realize their ambitions. So, for some people that’s about breaking into mainstream success. But for others they’re making exceptionally beautiful music, and we have a huge screen programme here, and they’re a vehicle to get into sync. It’s about finding the next wave of the wider music ecology. Some of that are the Sasha Keables', other people you might experience them all the time, but not know their names.

It’s amazing seeing all of the different co-curators. I’m talking to Pitch Scotland later. You’ve got the South Korea stuff. BRIT School. Abbey Road. There’s a whole spread.

Part of my job is... when assembling the co-curators I take a step back and think ‘Does this feel like London internationalism?’ Does this feel like it reflects music scenes from around the world through the lens of London. Then going ‘Oh shit, where are the gaps?’ What do we need to add in to make it feel authentic for SXSW in London?

We have around 40 co-curators. Is there a particular one you feel excited about?

I feel like a parent getting asked who their favourite child is.

Sorry, I get that.

I could probably talk about some of the new co-curators we’re working with for the first time. We've got some new music scenes we haven't highlighted before. We've got an Afrofolk showcase that I'm really excited about. They came through our Apply to Curate process. They're making  some really beautiful music. It feels like this year, there's a current that I've discovered through the program, of quite a lot of Black music. Or Black artists who are making all kinds of music. That's really exciting to me. Particularly as a Black programmer and curator, particularly earlier in my career, I was quite nervous about being put in this box of only being able to do a particular kind of music. I’m really excited to see all these Black artists making stuff that’s nothing like each other, but is the most exceptional music. That feels really exciting and different from last year.

Amazing. What should first-timers to SXSW London absolutely not miss?

I think the gigs in Shoreditch Town Hall give a real bite-sized introduction into what the program is like. It's probably the most accessible stuff. It’s got some of our special guests in there. They should definitely get there early if they want to get in, because last time we had queues around the block. For the more weird and wonderful, the basement of Shoreditch Town Hall has amazing, more experimental conversations and other ways into music – some sound art stuff. Or if they want something that feels more cultural, Strongrooms' program has lots of Caribbean music and other things like that.

Nice.

Or if they just want to have a great night out, popping into XOYO for some great electronic music is also a good way to go.

Find out more about this year's SXSW London music festival here.