Brian Hobbs, SXSW’s director of music festival programming, has since said the changes will expand the musical offerings, not scale them back. But it’s hard not to see this as the latest setback for an event that began in 1987 as a raucous music talent show.

Reports of SXSW ’s demise have been greatly exaggerated. Despite headlines circulating online on Monday suggesting that the music component of the annual festival in Austin, Texas, is all but dead for 2026, organizers tell Rolling Stone that live music will be well-represented next year.