Ken Livingstone calls for 'London SXSW'

Ken Livingstone has called on London to produce a music festival similar to the SXSW event held each year in Austin, Texas.

The former mayor and future candidate for the next election made the proposal as part of a document titled Protecting London's Live Music for his Ken 4London campaign.

Livingstone said: "What we don’t have is a music industry-based expo in the style of Austin Texas’s highly successful South by Southwest (SXSW) festival. My plan is to bring a little bit of Texas to the capital with a London Music Festival.

"As well as playing host to signed and unsigned acts representing the multitude of music genres heard around the city, the London Music Festival will be a tool for musicians and the people they work with to develop their careers, and bring together people from a wide area to meet and share ideas."

He added: "Taking place across hundreds of venues, large and small, with big name acts and a host of new names, this project will inject energy into an industry we should all cherish and for one week of the year unite the whole of the city into a celebration of music."

In his document, Livingstone also pledged to enact policy to protect London live music venues through planning law, develop a live music strategy and boost communication between local authorities, the GLA and the music industry.