New York post-punks cumgirl8, and former Exclaim! Staff Picks They Are Gutting a Body of Water and Horse Jumper of Love are among the latest acts to announce their withdrawal from their official SXSW showcases in light of Squirrel Flower drawing attention to the festival’s ties to the US Army and defence industry last week.
UPDATE (3/12, 2:38 p.m. ET): English songwriter Rachel Chinouriri has also pulled out of her scheduled SXSW appearances. "I am 100% anti-war and do not want any association with war in any capacity," she wrote on Instagram.
Irish bands NewDad, Cardinals, Enola Gay, Sprints and Gurriers also issued a joint statement announcing their withdrawal. “To be clear, we, as ‘Music From Ireland’ bands will not be partaking in any official SXSW shows," they wrote. "We stand in complete solidarity with Palestine and others who have spoke out against, and boycotted SXSW."
"We lose money either way," cumgirl8 wrote on Instagram yesterday (March 10), sharing a meme about trying to choose between not going to SXSW to make a statement and going to the event and protesting as a statement, indicating their struggle with even performing at unofficial showcases — which many of the acts pulling out have said they will still play. "We will DEFINITELY drop out of our official shows," the band continued in the comments, adding that they would lose $1,150 USD for doing so.
Going on about the unofficial shows, the quartet wrote, "It’s very hard to decide, we don’t want to participate in any machine that is affiliated with this horror. Just trying to decide if it’s stronger to go to the SOURCE and really fuck it all up... or flip them off by not attending."
On March 4, songwriter Ella Williams, who performs as Squirrel Flower, announced that she was pulling out of her scheduled appearances at the annual Texas festival "in support of the Palestinian people."
She wrote on social media, "There are many ways SXSW is harmful to working musicians, but I am pulling out specifically because of the fact that SXSW is platforming defence contractors including Raytheon subsidiaries as well as the US Army, a main sponsor of the festival."
North Carolina-born singer-songwriter Eliza McLamb was among the first acts to follow suit, with Toronto art punks Luge announcing their withdrawal on Friday (March 8). Since then, even more bands have pulled out of SXSW, including Gel, Kneecap, This Is Lorelei, Omni, Tomato Flower, Lambrini Girls, Lip Critic and more, shown in a list Williams shared to her Instagram Story [as captured by Stereogum].
