A controversy has erupted this morning after a band playing at SXSW revealed organisers are threatening deportation to any international acts playing unofficial shows.
Told Slant posted the relevant section of the paperwork sent out to bands, pointing out the threat as it pertains to those playing “any public or non-sanctioned SXSW Music Festival DAY OR NIGHT shows”.
The band added elaborated, writing “I’m not interested in aligning myself with an institution that interacts with immigration authorities as a means of controlling where art is shared and performed, and who makes money off of it. this festival uses an imperialist model and prioritizes centralizing and packaging culture over communities & people’s safety”.
And it goes on like that.
The festival’s MD Roland Swenson has dismissed these allegations, telling the Austin Chronicle, that the paperwork acts as a legal warning, and not a threat.
“We’ve had these restrictions in the agreement for about five years and never had to enforce them. It’s intended for someone who does something really egregious like disobeying our rules for pyrotechnics, starts a brawl in a club, or kills somebody. You have to really fuck up for us to do this stuff.
“What people don’t understand is that we’re already talking to immigration about all these bands. Most of these bands are here because we sort of sponsored them. So if somebody did something bad enough that we had to enforce this part of the contract, we would probably be obliged to notify immigration that ‘Hey these guys are trouble,’ but we’ve never had to do that.
“Some of this about playing shows other than their showcase, which, if they come in on the kind of visa that most of them get — they’re not supposed to do that. All this stuff in there about getting deported and immigration — that’s just us telling them this could happen if you’re doing this other stuff. It’s not us saying we’re going to try and have you deported, it’s us warning them that if they violated the terms of the visa that got them here, that’s what could happen.”
So, long story short: don’t set off fireworks, start a brawl, or kill anyone – and you should be fine.
