SXSW is a huge opportunity for up and coming European acts – the industry, the camaraderie and the experience has become almost a right of passage. It’s a shame then, that more regularly than ever we’re hearing stories of acts being turned away at the border, having their visa revoked or ESTA’s being rejected.

To better understand the issues and what you can do to try and deal with them, how you can be prepared and what it might be useful to know, Charlotte Final has written this blog post on getting her act Dan Bettridge to Texas (or not).

“This time last year we were gearing up for one of the biggest opportunities in our client Dan Bettridge‘s career: South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas. An exciting time for Dan, who had pricked the ears of international publishers and record labels and was set to showcase at the festival in March 2017.

His debut album was in the process of being mixed, meetings were booked in, interviews and live sessions scheduled, and we had just secured a PRS Foundation’s International Showcase Fund grant to cover the majority of the costs of the trip. Little did we know, the visit was to come to a devastating halt. Just a few days before he was due to fly Dan received an e-mail from US Customs and Border Control stating that his ESTA* had been revoked, with no explanation, and that he would need to apply for a visa to be permitted entry into the US to showcase at the festival in under a week’s time.” Keep reading here.