Just South by Southwest things

Well, spring festival season is here, and yesterday brought news from South by Southwest that it will be rewriting its artist invitation letters and performance agreements to remove “the option of notifying immigration authorities in situations where a foreign artist might ‘adversely affect the viability of Artist’s official showcase.'” A statement from SXSW about the change reiterated that they had never reported any artist or participant to any immigration agency and that they do not “collude with” immigration agencies to deport anyone. “With the announcement of President Trump’s latest Travel Ban, SXSW would like to reaffirm its public opposition to these executive orders and provide ongoing support to the artists traveling from foreign countries to our event,” it reads. “We would like to again apologize for the language in our agreements. We care deeply about the community we serve, and our event is a welcome and safe space for all people.”

And, in SXSW news that all of Austin can’t wait to complain about: The city has also released the list of street closures for the festival. That map is embedded below, but do know that the Austin Monitor assumes that anyone driving downtown during the festival is doing so in order to complain. Otherwise, we just don’t get it.

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