Band scout coming to Kaua‘i

The 25th annual South by Southwest Music & Media Festival happens March 16-20 in Austin, Texas but in advance of band submissions starting in early August, the Pacific Rim representative of SxSW — Phil Tripp from Sydney, Australia — is coming to Hawai‘i to scout bands and network with music professionals, a news release states.

Tripp has set up a meeting on Kaua‘i on May 31, 5-7 p.m., at Aloha Beach Resort, 3-5920 Kuhio Hwy., Kapa‘a for those artists interested in submitting for showcases or professionals who want to be delegates at the world’s largest and longest-running music festival, conference and trade fair. There is no charge to attend this meeting and it’s the only time Tripp will be on Kaua‘i to meet up with local music industry folk in 2010.

Over the past two years, a growing presence of contemporary music artists from Hawai‘i have played showcases at SxSW and there has been a stand for labels, managers and entrepreneurs in the SxSW Trade Fair.

As Tripp outlines, “We’ve been excited with the contemporary music artists of Hawai‘i who have applied and succeeded in getting traction in the mainland and overseas markets by playing SxSW. The music styles best suited for this event are rock, indie, singer/songwriter, pop and more modern, louder styles than slack key, traditional or hula which are more suited to world music festivals.”

South by Southwest Music & Media Festival in March 2010 attracted over 13,000 music conference participants from 49 countries which included 2300 music media attendees. Close to 2000 artists from 49 countries played showcase in 89 venues across Austin in the five nights. This is from over 10,500 artists who applied for the coveted showcase slots.  Visit www.sxsw.com/music for more information.

No reservations are necessary and there is no cost to attend the meeting.

Contact Tripp at tripp@sxsw.com or call (512) 669-3321.