Organisers of local artist bucket-list item, South By Southwest in Austin, are looking into how President Donald Trump’s executive travel ban order could affect attendees at this year’s event.
Crucially, the order – since dubbed the ‘Muslim ban’ – affects all travellers who have nationality or dual nationality of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. The order bans their travel for 90 days and suspends all refugees from entering for 120 days.
In an official statement, SXSW organisers out of Austin, Texas said:
“SXSW is alarmed by the Trump administration’s decision to ban citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the U.S. We stand against discriminatory laws and unequivocally support civil rights for all persons everywhere. Participation by speakers, artists, and filmmakers from around the world is crucial to the creative mix of ideas that makes our event meaningful.
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“We are working to understand how the ban will impact our participants and how we can use our voice to support those directly affected by this executive order.”
45 Australian artists are locked in to perform at this year’s SXSW in March. They include Vera Blue, Running Touch, Julia Jacklin and Middle Kids.
Millie Millgate, Executive Producer at Australia’s export music market development initiative SOUNDS AUSTRALIA, spoke to Tone Deaf this morning:
“It’s all so unknown and deeply concerning, especially to think this is only the beginning!” she said. “We have already been notified by both industry professionals and artists, that are being pulled up in advance of travel and needing to go in for vetting interviews.”
Millgate has this crucial advice for all delegates, participants and attendees headed to SXSW:
“Anybody travelling for SXSW or for any reason for that matter needs to be ultra-aware as it seems like they are really making it up as they go along. What’s also troubling is that even with official court rulings the individual Processing Officers have always played by their own rules, so any artists travelling at this time just need to be smart, aware and keep their wits about them.
“I’d also suggest allowing for significantly longer wait times in and out of airports and if you have the luxury of arriving in to destinations earlier, then take that day ‘just in case’.
“We’d also encourage anybody being denied or questioned to let us know so that we can feed it through to US Lawyers at the frontline of discussions.”
Phil Tripp, the Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii representative for SXSW, said the travel ban isn’t officially affecting the 45 local acts heading to Austin.
“O and P visas are unaffected and so are ESTAs for our delegates,” he told Tone Deaf. “As of today, Turnbull announced a deal with Trump that excludes Australian dual national from the ban and our registrations are unaffected. Matter of fact, we had 14 today alone and the massive Austrade Interactive presence will mean a higher profile for all Australian attendees.”
See below for the full list of Aussie acts headed to SXSW in March:
Oscar Key Sung
The Heart Collectors
Peking Duk
Alex Cameron
Vera Blue
C.W. Stoneking
Wafia
Throttle
Running Touch
The Rumjacks
Thigh Master
PINES
Julia Jacklin
Japanese Wallpaper
Castlecomer
Middle Kids
The Elliotts
Alex Lahey
Kučka
Josh Cashman
Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever
Koi Child
WILSN
Joel Sarakula
ELSZ
Food Court
Beth Brown
All Our Exes Live In Texas
The Coconut Kids
Sui Zhen
Boo Seeka
Tim Wheatley
Starley
Hockey Dad
Gabriella Cohen
Slow Dancer
Slum Sociable
Tkay Maidza
Totally Mild
Mansionair
Woodes
Black Rheno
Hamish Anderson
Phantastic Ferniture
Cameron Avery
