SXSW has long served as an annual barometer for the experiential marketing industry with its roster of brand activations throughout the city of Austin helping to inform spending forecasts and tactical trends. The soon-to-be, 40-year-old tentpole was an early example of festivalized conference experiences, and has served as a breeding and proving ground for earned media strategies, capturing the attention of entertainment brands like HBO and tech giants like Dell who’ve activated supersized, immersive experiences and content-rich lounges for the festival’s curious, forward-thinking audiences.
Amid the event’s biggest evolution yet taking place this March 12-18, 2026, as the Austin Convention Center undergoes a planned demolition, SXSW and its loyal and eager attendee base will together turn the page to a new chapter. “As the Austin Convention Center undergoes redevelopment, SXSW 2026 spills out across the city into mini, badge-specific neighborhoods,” the organizers explain in a sneak preview. “Walking through each area will feel like stepping inside an immersive world designed for those who love film and television, made for people who live and breathe music, and dedicated to the folks who take bright ideas and make them a reality.”
The allure of SXSW is in its “environment of discovery and serendipity,” as Peter Lewis, chief commercial officer at the industry tentpole says. Here, Lewis shares the team’s strategic thinking for 2026 with EM, and what it means for the festival’s legacy of experiential opportunities and uber-casual vibe.
Peter Lewis, Chief Commercial Officer, SXSW
How have attendee expectations changed over the years, and how is that reflected in how you program the festival today?
When people hear SXSW, and when they attend SXSW, they expect magic. There’s a bit of an aura around the name and people’s expectations, which is a reflection of the hard work that has been put in by countless colleagues and predecessors here. Forty years ago, folks would probably be expecting to do a little bit of business and see a few up-and-coming bands. And you can still do that in 2026, but the event has evolved and is broadly a reflection of the world around us: How innovations like AI impact the health and med tech industry or how new technologies bleed into music or filmmaking. And there is quite a bit of responsibility around how we’re taking all those disparate pieces and weaving them together into a unique experience. From an expectation standpoint for our attendees, nobody ever wants to hear that you have to do homework, but I think today there requires some defining of goals before you’re attending and understanding why you want to be here and what you hope to gain from the experience.
Was the convention center project a catalyst for change? And do you view it as a challenge or an opportunity, or both?
It’s a challenge in the sense that we certainly have to put in some work to rethink the event, but there’s massive opportunity wrapped up in that. I’m a big believer in the creativity that can come out of a forcing mechanism, a big change, like the convention center going down. And if you think about it from artistic terms, some amazing art has been built over the years when people were forced into a situation and then were able to generate something transcendental out of that.
So, I think that the opportunity has been to rethink what we’ve been doing. And I think as event organizers, it’s something we should be doing regularly and really taking a calculating eye to the things that we produce or how we structure an event. I think we’ve got a fantastic plan to really focus around communities and creating these industry villages.
How would you describe the opportunities for corporate brand experiences at SXSW 2026?
As you well know, those activations are part of the event and an extension of what’s happening on the stage in a way that is very unique if you look at the event landscape, generally, and compared to what you see at a sporting event where brand activations are a sideline to the main event that’s happening on the field. Whereas with South by, it really is wrapped up in the fabric and identity of the event. If I’m zooming out to 2026 with the change in the map and everything else that we’re doing, it is an exciting opportunity because the footprint has been revamped. We’re remodeling things in a way that’s going to create a very dynamic, a very city-focused landscape that will drive a lot more visibility to our activating brands in terms of how and where the traffic will be flowing with the new layout.
What are you most excited about in this new program?
Shining a light on trends and people that are going shape the next five, 10 or 40 years. I also think this new format will drive new and unique opportunities for folks to showcase their talents. And then how these villages and this new format and new layout is going to stimulate industry connections, commerce and conversations, which at the end of the day is the heart of what we’re here to do for these audiences.
Featured photo: Courtesy of Gorton’s Seafood, SXSW 2025
