SXSW Lacks Korean Representation in 2023 Lineup

A sweeping wave of the most powerful cultural movement of the 21st century has struck Austin and has taken the city into its swell, K-pop. For the past decade, SXSW has consistently featured K-pop artists on their roster, but the tide seems to be pulling back as this year’s schedule has not included any live sets by Korean artists, instead only featuring one Korean VR exhibition. 

SXSW was the first American music festival to platform K-pop artists in 2013 when they invited the Korean girl group f(x) to perform at the launch of K-Pop Night Out — renamed Korea Spotlight in 2018 — organized in collaboration with Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA), a South Korean government agency. KOCCA aims to promote Korean media globally and has honed in on K-pop which has quickly become the nation’s greatest soft power, with album exports raking in $233.113 million in 2022, according to import and export trade statistics of the Korea Customs Service.

Korea Spotlight was an event at SXSW that usually featured seven popular Korean acts and was held at the Austin City Limits Live at the Moody Theater, packing in 27,500 attendees. However, in 2019 KOCCA abruptly stopped organizing the annual event.

“Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the event had to be canceled in the past,” said Gavin Kwon, associate manager of marketing at KOCCA. “However, we are hopeful that it will resume in the near future, either later this year or in the following year.”

According to Hokyoung Lee, project manager at KOCCA, after the initial cancellation of Korea Spotlight in 2019, SXSW started booking Korean artists on their regular schedule leading to the end of their collaboration with the festival.

“It is one of the reasons why KOCCA isn’t involved in SXSW anymore, and due to other internal reasons, we are currently not participating in SXSW,” said Lee. 

This year’s SXSW schedule features no Korean artists in their live showcases, starkly contrasting the six Korean artists featured on the 2022 showcase schedule. Instead, attendees will only have the option to attend a VR exhibition presented by the Korean girl group Aespa on March 14.

“K-pop is an experience,” said Hairuo Yi, a local K-pop fan. “Since the only show (at this year’s SXSW) isn’t even live, less people have been talking about it and it’s definitely less exciting.”

Despite the lack of K-pop shows at SXSW, fans in the local community are stepping up. K-pop Nite TX is a party coordination group that organizes free album trading, clubbing and live performance events monthly at the Sterling Events Center, according to founder John Wilkinson. 

“I don’t foresee (SXSW) having as much of an effect on us,” said Wilkinson. “We usually try to plan our events around it, for the week before or the week after.”

According to Wilkinson, K-pop Nite TX is still organizing free nighttime events during the weeks of SXSW to provide for the community. They have not yet released their March event calendar.

“I honestly couldn’t have asked for a better place to start getting into K-pop than the Austin community,” Yi said. “It’s rare to see this in any metropolitan area because people usually don’t step up to organize (events).”

This article was submitted as an assignment for the Music Journalism course at the University of Texas at Austin taught by professor Raul Hernandez.