South by Southwest (SXSW) has officially canceled the annual music conference amid the threat of coronavirus possibly spreading at the highly populated event.
The news comes as a list of sponsors and attendees that planned to go to this year’s SXSW conference started dwindling as concerns of the virus spreading grew.
Netflix called off their planned screenings and a panel discussion scheduled for the festival. Amazon Studios also canceled their screening and panel sessions because of coronavirus.
TikTok had opted to skip SXSW and look for “alternative ways to bring parts of the previously scheduled experience to the audience.”
Even the Breakfast Club hosts DJ Envy and Charlamagne were in limbo over whether they should do panels at the festival.
Other companies that pulled out of SXSW included Facebook, Twitter, Apple, Intel, Vevo, Mashable, Sony, Universal and Warner Music.
“I’ve gone ahead and declared a local disaster in the city, and associated with that have issued an order that effectively cancels South by Southwest this year,” said Austin Mayor Steve Adler.
A petition with thousands of signatures had been circulating online to shut down the festival, yet for a period of time SXSW officials said that the festival would not be canceled.
Just a few days ago SXSW released the following statement:
“Regarding the current Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak: SXSW is working closely on a daily basis with local, state, and federal agencies to plan for a safe event. As a result of this dialogue and the recommendations of Austin Public Health, we are proceeding with the 2020 event with the health and safety of our attendees, staff, and volunteers as our top priority.”
The conference was going to take measures to ensure the safety of attendees by providing disinfectant wipes, hand sanitizers and pamphlet information.
Many speculated that SXSW’s hesitation to cancel the festival may have been a tactic to avoid potential losses and recoup on insurance. In order to do this, the fest would need an order from Austin’s city government to pull the plug on the event.
However, SXSW co-founder and Managing Director Roland Swenson said that communicable diseases are not covered on the current insurance policy.
“We have a lot of insurance (terrorism, injury, property destruction, weather). However, bacterial infections, communicable diseases, viruses and pandemics are not covered.”
The conference was supposed to take place on Friday, March 13 through Sunday, March 22.
