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Several international artists traveling to Austin for SXSW have been denied entry into the United States over the course of the past week, as controversy continues to swirl about immigration issues both at the festival and in the country at large. Members of the Italian band Soviet Soviet, the London jazz group United Vibrations, and Canadian/Egyptian hardcore band Massive Scar Era, as well as the Danish producer ELOQ, have all announced that their travels to the festival have been thwarted, with confusion abounding about the specifics of what kind of visa you need to be able to legally play SXSW.
Billboard reports that yesterday, Customs and Border Protection issued an advisory clarifying the kind of visa that international musicians must have to perform at SXSW or similar events. But the advisory comes too late for artists performing at this year's festival, which takes place this week.
Bands having their U.S. tour plans scuttled by immigration problems is nothing new. In 2011, the Guardian ran a report about "the red tape that stops UK bands playing SXSW." Brooklyn Vegan alone has six pages of news posts tagged "visa issues," dating back 9 years. Even Adele had to cancel a 2009 SXSW appearance for these reasons.
But in the current political climate, more media attention is focused on these issues. It's difficult to determine how many smaller artists in years past have faced similar situations to Soviet Soviet, United Vibrations, Massive Scar Era, and ELOQ. It's possible that this is business as usual. But it's also possible that even though the White House's latest travel ban doesn't go into effect until this Thursday, March 16, the President's immigration philosophy is already having a trickle-down effect, as some of these bands believe.
Soviet Soviet wrote on Facebook on Friday that they arrived in the U.S. with a letter from their American label, an invitation from SXSW, and authorization to travel in America via the Visa Waiver Program. The band said that officers interrogated them for hours before denying them entry to the country, handcuffing them, and putting them in jail for the night. They were put on a plane back to Italy. “We were relieved to fly back home and distance ourselves from that violent, stressful and humiliating situation,” they wrote.
The problem seems to have been that Soviet Soviet were unaware that they had the wrong of paperwork necessary for the kinds of performances they were scheduled to play in the U.S, which included shows other than SXSW. NPR Music has a good explanation of the situation here.
United Vibrations is a London-based quartet consisting of brothers Kareem, Yussef, and Ahmad Dayes, as well as Wayne Francis. In a statement, their management said that the band's SXSW trip was "cancelled due to last minute amendments to the artist’s visa waivers." The statement continued, "As the band themselves, who are all UK citizens, and have no criminal records, the only conclusion is that the U.S. Government is actively discriminating against ordinary and decent individuals based on their heritage and/or identity. This behavior is a disgrace and an infringement of civil liberties."
The band themselves posted the following on Facebook:
ELOQ tweeted that he was denied entry into the country “even though I was informed by SXSW I had the right visa.” He also wrote that he was handcuffed and kept in a jail cell for 23 hours. “Any outside of US artists playing @SXSW be very careful,” he wrote, “This is NOT fun!”
craziest 24 hrs ever. Not going to SXSW, but back to Denmark. I been denied entry. 😐 even though i was informed by sxsw i had the right visa
— DIAMONDS OUT NOW (@yo_ELOQ) March 13, 2017
@yo_ELOQ ive been handcuffed and detained in a small very bright room plus a very unpleasant jail cell for 23 hours.. thats a first!
— DIAMONDS OUT NOW (@yo_ELOQ) March 13, 2017
@yo_ELOQ any outside of US artists playing @sxsw be very careful! This is NOT fun! Good story to tell tho
— DIAMONDS OUT NOW (@yo_ELOQ) March 13, 2017
The post-hardcore band Massive Scar Era—whose members are based both in Vancouver, British Columbia and Cairo, Egypt—shared a video on Facebook saying they were denied entry into the United States, as well, NPR notes. Like Soviet Soviet, Massive Scar Era seem to have been told that they were carrying the wrong visas needed for their tour, though they claim to have used the same visa to play SXSW previously. And like United Vibrations, Massive Scar Era also questioned if they were denied entry because of their ethnicity.
Writing on Facebook, guitarist/vocalist Cherine Amr said, "My passport (Egyptian) could've been the issue. Our bassist is first nation! He is allowed to get in and work in the USA whenever he wants to, the officer told him that his official first nation card (released by the Canadian government) doesn't prove he is first nation and he needs to get DNA test (lol) he told him that he did this already to get the card in the first place! RIP USA SXSW."
SXSW generated controversy earlier this month when a clause in artist contracts concerning the deportation of international artists came to light. After a group of artists signed an open letter to the festival asking for officials to drop the clause, SXSW promised they’d “change the language in our artist invitation letter and performance agreement for 2018 and beyond.” They also promised, “There are no ‘deportation clauses’ in our current performance agreements. There will be no ‘deportation clauses’ in our future participant agreements.”
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