Tony Blair makes appearance at SXSW London: “You should have AI nurses, AI doctors”

3 June, 2025

Tony Blair has made an appearance at SXSW London – despite being hidden from the public line-up alongside David Cameron.

The festival and conference made its debut appearance in London this year, and will run from June 2 to 7 in Shoreditch. Tems and Mabel are headlining, with Alice Glass, Heartworms, L’objectif and more scheduled to appear. Jane Goodall, Wyclef Jean and more will also give talks at the conference.

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair spoke at the conference’s opening day in a conversation about AI and Government (via The Times) following a recent Government trial showing that AI could save civil servants nearly two weeks worth of work a year. He said that the UK should embrace AI technology, saying that we “could have AI tutors” along with “AI nurses, AI doctors”.

However, his appearance was not announced to the public nor artists artists. In a leaked document, Blair and former PM David Cameron can be seen on the SXSW London schedule, with Cameron’s discussion on ‘Healthcare Revolution’ reportedly planned for 2:20pm today (June 3). Despite neither Cameron or Blair being found on the online SXSW speaker lineup, sources have apparently said organisers were “keen” for their talks to go ahead.

A wave of artists have responded to Blair’s appearance, with jasmine.4.t, Sam Akpro and LVRA cancelling their planned performances at the festival. The latter accused the festival of “artwashing”, saying that “whilst the music team were pulling together a diverse, ‘cool’ lineup, the conference team were booking speakers from multiple organisations deeply complicit in the current genocide of Palestinian people.”

“I impore artists to engage, rather than ignore, those things that affect us and strive to protext the most marginalised voices in the world,” LVRA added. “I urge us as a community to think bigger, and better, than the scraps offered to us today.”

NME have approached SXSW London for comment. Take a look at other reactions to Blair’s appearance below:

The festival saw a huge wave of boycotts for its Texas edition last year, due to sponsorship from the US Army. Defence contractors including Raytheon subsidiaries also participated in the festival.

All Irish bands eventually dropped out of the festival, with Kneecap, Rachel Chinouriri, Lambrini Girls, Scowl and Gel as some of the most notable names to boycott SXSW.

Kneecap also cited the platforming of collins Aerospace and BAE Systems as a reason for their boycott, adding that collectively with RTX (formerly Raytheon), the companies were selling the weapons that have “murdered 31,000 Palestinians, over 21,000 of them women and children”.

In response, Texas governor Greg Abbott took to X (formerly Twitter) to write: “Bands pull out of SXSW over U.S. Army Sponsorship. Bye. Don’t come back. Austin remains the HQ for the Army Futures Command. San Antonio is Military City USA. We are proud of the U.S. military in Texas. If you don’t like it, don’t come here.”

However, SXSW eventually released a statement saying that they “do not agree” with Abbott, adding that “we are an organisation that welcomes diverse viewpoints.”

“Music is the soul of SXSW, and it has long been our legacy. We fully respect the decision these artists made to exercise their right to free speech.”

They went on to cut ties with the US Army and RTX, announcing the army would “not be sponsors” of the 2025 edition.

Onsite at SXSW 2024, NME’s Sophie Williams wrote: “There is power to be found in how this past week has felt like a key moment for emerging artists to come together and collectively use their power for good. Dotted around downtown Austin’s many basement venues, there were displays of activism and quiet ambition to be found if you looked beyond the big, corporate, branded events; a small glimmer of hope amongst all the noise.”

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