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.

South by Southwest Music Festival likely suffered from a schedule that did not align with the spring breaks of the University of Texas or Austin Independent School District. Public RSVPs helped fill shows by '90s R&B titan Ginuwine and Seattle rockers Band of Horses in the early part of the festival,