Overview
Everyone knows that SXSW is a haven for music, including unearthing new talent. The festival's screen side, showcasing your new favourite movies and TV shows, is just as famous. So is the fact that all manner of well-known names take to its stages to get chatting — plus the event's all-round focus on tunes, tech, innovation, films, television, games and culture, as Sydney first experienced in 2023.
SXSW's Down Under leg also lets the community get behind the microphone, via a part of its conference programming called Session Select. More than that, it allows you to choose what makes it into this portion of the fest's lineup. All you need to do is vote, which is now open for 2024.
Brendon Thorne/Getty Images for SXSW Sydney
It was in late 2023, after the inaugural SXSW Sydney proved a hit — and featured everyone from Black Mirror's Charlie Brooker and Chance The Rapper to Future Today Institute founder and CEO Amy Webb and Nicole Kidman onstage — that the Australian event confirmed that it'd be back in 2024. If you're wondering who'll be on the bill from Monday, October 14–Sunday, October 20, nothing else has been announced so far. But make your picks among the Session Select candidates and you can help shape the conference portion.
You'll be choosing from proposed sessions from over 1000 organisations and folks, hailing from 35 countries. Whether you're interested in hearing more about and from Concrete Playground, TikTok, Reddit, Aussie airlines Qantas and Virgin Australia, Getty Images, or a bunch of Australian and international universities, you've got options. That's obviously just the start of a list that also spans Google, Meta, Leonardo.ai, Canva, Xero, Tourism Australia, the Australian Human Rights Commission and plenty more.
Paul McMillan
Whatever earns your vote, topics set to feature at the conference cover AI, the future of work, climate and sustainability, food, lifestyle and beauty, and the creator economy, for starters. In total, there's 23 tracks, all picked to reflect what's garnering conversation right now. The chosen sessions will start being announced from this month.
Early-bird tickets to SXSW Sydney 2024 have also gone on sale, including platinum badges, which gets you into all SXSW Sydney events in the conference, and at the games, music and screen festivals; tech and innovation badges; and music, screen and game festival badges. There's also a new Under 25s option for the latter two — tech and innovation, plus music, screen and game — which offers a discount if you fit that age group.
Brendon Thorne/Getty Images for SXSW Sydney
2023's SXSW Sydney notched up 287,014 attendances from 97,462 unique attendees. Those figures came from 34,975 total tickets, with folks from 41 countries heading along to 1178 sessions.
Among its wealth of highlights, last year's SXSW Sydney featured Brooker chatting about his hit series and technology's future; Chance The Rapper talking about 50 years of hip hop; Coachella CEO Paul Tollett discussing his own fest; Kidman exploring her work as a producer on the likes of Big Little Lies, Nine Perfect Strangers, The Undoing and Love & Death; the Australian premiere of Kitty Green's The Royal Hotel; and the world premiere of The Wiggles documentary Hot Potato: The Story of The Wiggles.
The full lineup spanned a 700-plus strong bill of talent, covering over 300 sessions, and featuring more than 300 gigs across 25 venues. From talks and concerts to films, TV shows and games, there was no shortage of things to see. That's all in store again in 2024.
SXSW Sydney 2024 will run from Monday, October 14–Sunday, October 20 at various Sydney venues. Head to the SXSW Sydney website for further details, tickets and to vote for Session Select conference sessions.
If you're be interested in attending Concrete Playground's panels, please visit the voting pages for New Rituals: The State of Socialising and Hospitality and Appetite for Distraction: Youth, Information and the Digital Age in 2024 to show your support. Voting closes on Monday, April 22, 2024.
Images: Brendon Thorne/Getty Images for SXSW Sydney.