Immigration tensions seep into SXSW Fest

Russia enters Eurovision

AUSTIN, Texas, March 13, (Agencies): The trendsetting South by Southwest music festival is all about the next big thing, but the heated politics of the moment is stealing the show.

Tensions over immigration have put a heavy air over the typically breezy weeklong music bash that begins Monday and includes headliners The Avett Brothers, Weezer and the Wu-Tang Clang dropping into Austin, along with roughly 2,000 other acts from around the world.

It’s more than just promises of bands using SXSW as a stage for politically-charged performances in the wake of President Donald Trump’s executive orders on immigration: The festival has come under fire itself for warning international artists that bad behavior could result in it making a call to US immigration agents.

Unrelated, but still stoking concerns, was the Italian band Soviet Soviet posting on Facebook on Friday that it was denied entry into the US Soviet Soviet claimed US customs officials in Seattle said the band members needed work visas, but the band says it didn’t believe work visas were required for a promotional and unpaid tour.

Trump’s revised travel ban blocks new visas for people from six predominantly Muslim countries including Somalia, Iran, Syria, Sudan, Libya and Yemen. It also temporarily shuts down the US refugee program. Unlike the original order, the new one says current visa holders won’t be affected, and it removes language that would give priority to religious minorities.

Matthew Covey, a New York-based immigration attorney who helps international performers obtain visas to enter the US, said the travel ban has unsettled artists who are not even from the impacted countries.

“Everybody is worried now,” Covey said “We’re getting calls from Danish jazz musicians saying, ‘Am I going to be OK?’ Yeah, probably. You’re a Danish jazz musician. But everybody is on edge.”

Covey is helping put on a SXSW showcase of artists exclusively from the list of banned countries in response to Trump’s order, although none of the performers currently live in those nations.

SXSW organizers had quickly come out against Trump’s travel ban, but later found themselves on the defensive over a contract provision warning that “SXSW will notify the appropriate US immigration authorities” if an performer acts in ways that “adversely affect the viability of their official SXSW showcase.”

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Russia has announced its entry in the upcoming Eurovision song contest, seemingly putting an end to speculation that Russia might boycott the politically charged competition in Kiev.

Several Russian lawmakers and entertainment stars have called to boycott the competition to be held in the Ukrainian capital in May as once friendly relations between the two-countries turned into open animosity following Russia’s annexation of Crimea and support for separatist rebels.

Russian broadcaster Channel One announced on Sunday that 27-year-old Yulia Samoylova would represent Russia at the contest with the song “Flame is Burning.” Samoylova, who has used a wheelchair since childhood, was a finalist in Russia’s X Factor in 2013 and sang at the opening of the 2014 Paralympic Games in Sochi.

The Eurovision contest was often used as the stage for settling political scores. A year after a brief war between Russia and Georgia in 2008, Georgia was told by the organizers to change its entry for the contest which referred to Russian President Vladimir Putin.