Europe’s inaugural South By SouthWest festival of events took place this month.
Rory Cashin
20,000 lanyards flap in the rain and wind around the borough of Shoreditch, ironically in the north by northeast of the UK capital, for the first ever SXSW London. Normally situated in Austin, Texas every March, this is the first European-based spin-off for the massively popular conglomeration of conferences and festivals.
Running from 2-7 June, SXSW London presented a truly staggering number of events available to attend, running the gamut from technology and innovation, to culture and creativity, to society and governance. Some of the names in attendance were incredibly impressive, depending on your personal interests.
Jim McKelvey, the billionaire co-founder of Block (formerly Square), and Jimmy Wales, the co-founder of Wikipedia, proved to be some of the most magnetic speakers of the entire week, giving some incredible insights into how businesses might survive today’s turbulent climate, and the CCO of Formula 1 and the CPMO of The LEGO Group showed off their massive collaboration that brought Miami to a standstill earlier this year.
If music is more your thing, BRIT-award-winning Mabel curated the line-up, including a fantastic performance of her own new music on the opening night of the festival. Björn Ulvaeus (one of the Bs in ABBA) spoke to a packed-out room about how the 50+-year-old band is still one of the most forward-thinking musical acts in the world today. Idris Elba spoke about his career during a “fireside chat” during the day and then hit the decks for a DJ set in an 800-capacity club that night.
There was a lot to be said about modern living, with the founder of MakeLoveNotPorn revealing how the internet has impacted intimacy, while both the founder of MUBI and the heads of Letterboxd discussed how film-lovers are dictating the future of entertainment consumption, and Jonathan Dickins really enjoyed discussing breaking world records for outdoor gigs with his signed artist… Adele!
Speaking of film, the festival featured many world premieres, including Eminem documentary Stans, action comedy Deep Cover (with stars Orlando Bloom and Bryce Dallas Howard in attendance), and a keynote speech from the current master of horror, Mike Flanagan.
Simply listing off who was there could fill up several thousand words – and that is without talking about the surprise and controversial appearances of Tony Blair and David Cameron on previously unannounced panels or King Charles popping by to check out Damian Roach’s immersive art installation “Grounding” – but by far the most popular attendee of the entire week was A.I.
If there were any talks at which the idea of artificial intelligence wasn’t mentioned, they were in the vast, VAST minority. The CEO of TIME discussed how A.I. being used to simply aggregate news was actually pushing more readers to legacy news sites, the CEO of OnlyFans told the room how A.I. is definitely on everyone’s minds when it comes to the future of adult content, and even Björn from ABBA revealed he is writing new music with A.I. assistance.
A.I. was a major component in the majority of the art installations found around the Shoreditch festival campus, it was being used by Ray-Ban in their pop-up container to showcase their new Meta Glasses, and there was the robot dog from Boston Dynamics being used by Percil to turn street football into wearable art (describing how exactly it was doing that would take another 1,000 words to explain properly).
On more than one occasion, the arrival of A.I. was compared to the initial advent of the Internet, being greeted with fear and apprehension but also curiosity and excitement, and in much the same way as was given all those years ago, the general consensus is that while it absolutely needs to be used in the right way, those companies that decide to not engage with it at all will be left in the dust.
In total, there were over 500 sessions, over 600 musical performances, and over 110 movie and TV screenings spread across the six days of the festival, which averages out to around 200 things to do or see or hear every day. The amount of coordination and planning that must have been involved to get it all done is truly mind-boggling and must be applauded, but it also led to some… let’s call them teething problems.
On the third day of the festival, the SXSW app suddenly alerted everyone that the entire queueing system had been drastically changed, which meant that everyone’s perfectly planned days from that point onwards had to be completely scrapped. Walks between sessions and screening sites could be up to 30 minutes, and once you arrive at your new destination, the waiting times for entry could be up to an hour. This ended up creating a constant state of FOMO, wondering if what you’re walking to and waiting in line for is going to be better or worse than the dozens of other things you could be attending instead.
With the majority of talks topping out at 30 minutes long, it did sometimes feel like we were just beginning to get beneath the surface with some conversations and interviews before being kicked out of the room to make way for the next audience. If the folks behind SXSW 2026 happen to be looking for some feedback, here’s my top suggestion: fewer talks with longer times in bigger rooms.
Overall, as with the OG SXSW, there was a real sense of something very cool and forward-thinking happening everywhere you went, a feeling of potential that could be realised if you sparked the right conversation with the right person at the right afterparty. As it was put by Lea Karam, behavioural scientist and founder of Mindscope, the most important person you find at the festival might not be on the stage, but sat in the chair next to you in the audience.
Or, more likely, next to you in the queue waiting to get in.
