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Zion Garcia remembers watching his first South by Southwest (SXSW) set online at 10 years old.
"Growing up, I'd see the South by Southwest name across performances on YouTube," he told ABC News.
"And then when I got the email saying I was doing it this year, it just felt like a no-brainer."
The Western Sydney rapper and producer played two sets at the creative arts festival this week.
SXSW has been held in Austin, Texas since its inception in 1987, but ventured outside of North America for the first time in Sydney.
The festival draws crowds from around the world for conferences, showcases, and acts across music, tech, and film.
It is known for turning emerging talent into household names, with a finger on the pulse for discovering the 'next big thing'.
Garcia is one of 13 west and south-west Sydney artists representing the area on the music line-up over the last week.
"My friends and I say 'haps', and SXSW Sydney just looks like the place where it's all happening," the 21-year-old said.
"It just feels sick to be doing stuff at a kind of official level with people that I really look up to.
"To be recognised at this level, I feel like that alone is already a pretty big achievement."
'Playing a home game'
Singer-songwriter Ashley Dawes has played at SXSW twice this year.
The 23-year-old, who performs as Ashli, brought her pop, soul, and R'n'B set to Texas back in March, and described it as an "out-of-body experience".
"The highlight was just meeting people, who come from all parts of the US, all parts of the world really, and seeing them engaged with the stories that I'm telling with my music was super priceless and motivating."
Dawes played again in Sydney on Thursday and Friday and said the best part was sharing her new releases with the SXSW audience seven months on.
"There's nothing like home, it's kind of like when a sports team is playing a home game, it just hits different.
"The fact that I can perform to the SXSW audience in my own city, it's just a new level of confidence."
The New Jersey-born woman moved to Penrith when she was 11 years old and has lived there ever since.
"Growing up in the area and seeing all these artists rise and be proud of where we're from has influenced me a lot as a person and an artist," she told ABC News.
Garcia said he had always seen Western Sydney as a microcosm of Australia — an expansive, multicultural area boasting its own lingo, and where where no corner is the same.
He looks to the diversity around him, and his own Tongan-Spanish heritage to inspire his work.
"Western Sydney is undeniably, community-based. It's just beautiful, vibrant, there's so much untapped potential and culture that's there," he said.
Subverting expectations
Sudanese-Australian rapper Veronica Peter, known on stage as Vv Pete, describes her music as having a "party vibe".
"It's baddie, it's just embrace yourself and have fun with it," the 22-year-old told ABC News.
Peter raps about the inner goings of her life, including growing up in Mount Druitt, which she refers to as "seven O'block" after its postcode digits 2770.
"The things that you see happening, everything that I've gone through, my childhood – whether it's traumatic or fun, I feel like it's just influenced my life and shaped me to become who I am today."
She said hip-hop subgenres like drill and trap are popular in Western Sydney, but most artists in the area lean into their own sound.
"I really do respect artists like myself who are really authentic to themselves — who are like their own genre," Peter said.
The cultural richness of the community is also reflected in the range of music coming out of the west, Dawes said.
"The cool thing is, we're just as diverse genre-wise as the rest of Australia. There's singer-songwriters here, rappers, pop artists."
But the scene isn't insular, Dawes argued, saying its inclusivity expands beyond Western Sydney.
"People who may have never found something that they liked in the Sydney scene feel represented by the music that's coming out of Sydney," she said.
"It's an integral part of a big puzzle piece."
Reviving Sydney culture
Sydney's nightlife and creative scene has been stunted in the last decade by lockout laws and lockdowns.
But despite the circumstances, Peter has faith the city can claw its way back to greatness.
"Sydney is such a beautiful place with great scenery," she said.
"I feel like SXSW is going to elevate the city because it's been quite dead lately."
Peter is playing her second show at SXSW today at the University of Technology Sydney.
"I am super honoured to be on the line-up, it's great for exposure, for clout and for elevation."
Garcia said artists from out west could sometimes be viewed as an afterthought, othered from the city's wider scene.
"Western Sydney is Sydney, it's part of the overall landscape ... I think Western Sydney artists always get given, almost like a crutch."
He hopes SXSW Sydney brings "more of an understanding" and recognition of what Western Sydney artists are creating.
"There's just so much life there that I think it's a shame people haven't gotten access to it yet ... Western Sydney could be the next San Francisco or New York," Garcia said.
"Hopefully people can get a sense of how much we are not playing around. We love doing what we're doing and we have such big ambitions."
A bright future
Peter said she hopes Australian artists continue to get the exposure they deserve.
"Mostly when people ask, 'who's your favourite artist?' everyone tends to turn to American artists.
"But I'd like people to also recognise Sydney, Melbourne, Perth," she said.
"There's good talent here."
Garcia hopes Australia can secure its seat at the table when it comes to cultural influence and sees events like SXSW Sydney as an important step.
"We're always looking outside to tell us what the cool thing is, or what's important," he said.
"I don't want people here to feel like we have to leave to make it.
"This is where I live, this is where I've been brought up, and I don't want to feel like I'm not going to [find success] unless I move and come back."