Benson Boone, John Fogerty, Kesha & More at SXSW 2025: See the Photos

The heat was up in Austin, Texas, this week, but the music was even hotter.

Approximately 300,000 people descended upon the Texas capital from March 7 to 15 for SXSW 2025. As it has annually since 1987, the gathering brought together musicians, artists, directors, innovators and other creatives for panels, performances, barbecue and general revelry.

On the ground in Austin, where temperatures reached 92 degrees in the latter half of the week, attendees buzzed about standout moments that included a spirited performance from rock royalty John Fogerty, who played the city’s iconic venue Stubb’s, and also took part in a keynote conversation with Tom Morello. Benson Boone did backflips onstage during a much-hyped show, Metallica’s Lars Ulrich took part in a conversation with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe (and also hung out backstage with Kesha), and former first lady Michelle Obama and her brother Craig Robinson appeared for a live taping of their new podcast, IMO.

Meanwhile, Flying Lotus came to town for a screening of his newest film Ash (which he both directed and composed the score for), Anderson .Paak got people on the dance floor while playing as DJ Pee. Wee, and Will.i.am took part in a thoughtful conversation about AI.

Billboard also threw the biggest shows of the week at Moody Amphitheatre at Waterloo Park. Here, Billboard Presents THE STAGE at SXSW hosted a trio of artists playing across three different genres, with country titan Koe Wetzel wowing the audience on March 13, Mexico’s Grupo Frontera bringing the heat during on a balmyMarch 7 evening performance, and dance music star John Summit drawing a huge crowd and dropping big beats the next night.

See images from SXSW 2025 below.