Though Enthusiast Live: Official vs Unofficial at SXSW 2023
💭 Thoughts from artists reckoning with participating in a large-scale festival or existing in its outer orbits.
Hello, Thought Enthusiast subscriber! Team AdHoc has just returned from a wild week in Austin, TX – with so many thoughts to share. We have a special newsletter for you today, bringing you a video from our live, on-stage Thought Enthusiast Panels that happened throughout this past week at Cheer Up Charlies. 🤠
Below is a clip from our Thought Enthusiast panel “Official or Unofficial” featuring thoughts from Ric Leichtung of AdHoc, Livvy Bennett of the band Mamalarky, Erik Garlington of the band Proper., and the artist Shalom. In the panel, artists reckon with participating in the large-scale festival SXSW or existing in its outer orbits amidst political turmoil.
If it's directly supporting and shining a light on people who are actively participating in the genocide of Palestinian people... I'm just not gonna do it.
Erik Garlington (Proper.):
I think I saw Squirrel Flower’s post first […] and I was like, what is this? What's happening? And I think I texted my bandmates 20 minutes later and then we were all just like, no, that's not, that's not for us.
Livvy Bennett (Mamalarky):
That's a no brainer for us. Thank you so much for this platform, and to the artists who are dropping. Thank you Shalom for making us aware in the first place that this was happening. I don't know how any of us can watch what's happening in Palestine and support people who are taking money from people killing people. It just is disgusting and upsetting and it was a very easy decision for us.
I've heard so much dialogue about whether is this even effective? And I think it's absolutely effective. I think next year venues are not going to want to risk working with SXSW official because they know that they'll lose money. People are gonna drop and it's either going to be that or they're going to have to cut ties and divest from these defense contractors in the US army. All their bands have dropped today basically.
Never in my life will I look back and be like, “oh, I did the wrong thing on purpose”, just knowing that I have the autonomy to decide whether I'm in that situation or not. I know enough about what's going on, and I have enough information to make that informed decision. And that feels pretty good to me.
