Former London Mayor Ken Livingstone has called on London to curate a large scale music festival inspired by the annual South By Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas.
Protecting London’s Live Music, part of Livingstone’s Ken 4London campaign as he looks for re-election, outlines plans to increase the promotion of un-signed acts in the London area. “What we don’t have is a music industry-based expo in the style of Austin Texas’s highly successful South by Southwest festival,” he said. “My plan is to bring a little bit of Texas to the capital with a London Music Festival. As well as playing host to signed and unsigned acts representing the multitude of music genres heard around the city, the London Music Festival will be a tool for musicians and the people they work with to develop their careers, and bring together people from a wide area to meet and share ideas.
Taking place across hundreds of venues, large and small, with big name acts and a host of new names, this project will inject energy into an industry we should all cherish and for one week of the year unite the whole of the city into a celebration of music.”
Livingstone’s document also pledges to protect London’s live music scene with various initiatives including protection through new planning laws and increasing communication between local authorities.