South by Southwest arts and music festival canceled over coronavirus fears
AUSTIN, Texas — Officials in Austin announced Friday that the South by Southwest arts and music festival has been canceled over coronavirus fears.
The decision by city authorities came just two days after Austin public health officials said the event could proceed as planned despite despite a string of high-profile dropouts and widespread calls to cancel.
"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," Austin Mayor Steve Adler told reporters Friday afternoon.
The event had been scheduled to take place from March 13 to March 22.
"We are devastated to share this news with you. 'The show must go on' is in our DNA and this is the first time in 34 years that the March event will not take place," said a statement from South by Southwest that was posted on social media. (You can read the entire statement at the bottom of this article.)
Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt, the county’s top elected official, said no one in the Austin area has been found to have the COVID-19 virus. However, South by Southwest was expected to have drawn an international audience into close quarters, posing a serious threat of contagion.
The festival drew 73,716 attendees last year, 19,166 of whom came from outside the U.S. Combined with SXSW’s gaming expo and education conference, the 2019 event drew 417,400 attendees, organizers said.
The announcement of the festival's cancellation comes days after several high-profile companies had pulled out of it.
Twitter was the first big company to pull out of the event, citing its new policy restricting all business travel because of the virus. Facebook, Intel, Vevo and Mashable soon followed suit.
Popular video app TikTok also backed out, saying it would explore "alternative ways" to bring its planned SXSW content to audiences. "While we think the risk is relatively low, we are erring on the side of caution," a TikTok spokesperson said Tuesday.
Despite the cancellations, SXSW organizers had announced new keynote speakers this week, including Hillary Clinton and Andrew Yang. The conference organizers said on Monday they would be "proceeding as planned" and that they were working with local, state and federal agencies to ensure a safe event.
SXSW generates millions of dollars for the city. The economic impact of last year's event on the city was estimated to be $355.9 million, according to a report paid for by SXSW.
As recently as Friday, some had been finalizing their schedules and packing their bags for a trip to Texas.
San Francisco-based marketing consultant Kate Talbot, who has attended SXSW every year since 2015 as a way to try to get new business, was expecting to be among those descending on the city next week. She typically attends parties run by venture capital firms or startups and other private events to meet potential clients.
"SXSW is really beneficial to my business," Talbot had said shortly before the event was cancelled. "I'm doing what the CDC is telling us to do and being smart about it. I don't want to live in fear. I don't understand the difference between being in San Francisco and Austin. There's a risk anywhere you go."
A number of tech companies have already canceled the in-person portion of their annual spring events, including Facebook and Google's developer conferences.
Soon after, SXSW organizers came under pressure but had resisted to canceling the conference. A Change.org petition urging a cancellation had garnered more than 53,000 signatures.
An Update on SXSW 2020. Please read our full statement here: https://t.co/P56nF8KFmE pic.twitter.com/ouJPKM9GNy
— SXSW (@sxsw) March 6, 2020
