Hillary Clinton to Speak at SXSW

By Ramin Setoodeh

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Hillary Clinton will make her first visit to South by Southwest, the annual festival in Austin, Texas, devoted to the latest buzzy movies, musical artists and big tech companies.

Clinton will appear at SXSW as part of two days of political talks, from March 14 to 15, co-hosted by the Texas Tribune. The former secretary of state will sit down with MNSBC’s Joy Reid.

Clinton is the headliner in a lineup of politicians this year that will include U.S. Representative Adam Schiff; former presidential candidates Beto O’Rourke and Andrew Yang; and former Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel.

Gretchen Carlson, the Fox News anchor who was at the forefront of the #MeToo movement when she sued her boss Roger Ailes for sexual harassment, will also be will speaking this year. And so will Anita Hill, who has spent decades advocating for sexual harassment victims.

South by Southwest scored a major coup in 2016 when it had Barack Obama as a keynote speaker , the first time in the festival’s 30 year history that a sitting president attended. Michelle Obama also participated in a panel that year.

The following year, in 2017, SXSW booked Joe Biden, who talked about his plans for a new initiative to fight cancer . Last year, the festival featured conversations by Sen. Elizabeth Warren and New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

The announcement of Clinton’s talk comes following concerns about thousands of travelers descending on Austin as the coronavirus continues to spread across the globe.

Twitter announced over the weekend that it will not be sending any employees to Texas, including its CEO Jack Dorsey, who was scheduled to give a talk. The company is banning all “non-critical” business travel as a result of the coronavirus.

Despite a petition signed by more than 15,000 people to cancel the event, organizers are saying that SXSW will continue on as planned.