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SXSW Says Its Music Fest Will Continue in 2026, and Even Have One More Night of Showcases Than Before, Despite Second Weekend Being Dropped
South by Southwest clarified that its music-festival component will continue in 2026, despite SXSW's traditional music-only second weekend being nixed.
A statement provided Monday to Variety from Lillian Park, VP of communications for Penske Media, which has a controlling interest in the festival, laid out the thinking for SXSW going into 2026, a couple of days after the ’25 edition wrapped up. It also allows us to continue the work the Music Festival programmers have done over the last decade in paring down the numbers of showcasing artists while spreading the shows out over a greater part of the event. Confusion began to spread Sunday after SXSW released its dates for 2026 and the traditional all-music second weekend of the festival was notably missing.
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