SXSW Coronavirus Cancellation Puts Major Music Festivals On Alert

Coachella, Electric Daisy Carnival & Other Concerts May Be Danger While Bottlerock Sells Out In Napa

 

By Kevin Wilkerson, PubClub.com Music Blogger

When the city of Austin, Texas, canceled South By Southwest due to coronavirus fears, it sent chills down the spines of promoters for other major music festival events.

SXSW has been an Austin institution in March for 34 years; in fact it was the city’s signature event as much as the University of Texas football games (the Memorial Day and Labor Day boat tie-up parties on Lake Travis are mostly attended by locals). Yet the city canceled it on the eve of the 2020 event.

And if a city tied so closely to an event like Austin is to South By Southwest can cancel, then what would other areas do when a major music festival comes to their area?

Almost unnoticed was the cancellation of Miami’s Ultra Music Festival (March 20-22) as well as Calle Ocho (March 15), which annual attracts hundreds of thousands of people to Little Havana. As was the case with SXSW, both of those events were canceled by the city and not the event organizers.

Ahead on the major music calendar is the massive Coachella festival outside of Palm Springs in Southern California, which is a two-weekend event beginning April 10. And it is followed by a country music event at the same area and put on by the same promoters, Stagecoach. The state of California has, like many other states, declared a state of emergency due to coronavirus.

Other spring concerts in potential danger of being canceled are the Electric Daisy Carnival EDM festival in Las Vegas (May 15-17), Bottlerock in Napa Valley (May 22-24) and New York’s Governor’s Ball (June 5-7) and Bonnaroo (June 11-14) in a rural area of middle Tennessee.

By the time Coachella rolls around, the coronavirus fear could well be a thing of the past. For now tho, those in the industry are keeping a close eye on it and the reactions of locals and state governments. South By Southwest put it on the top agenda list for promoters, who are consulting their lawyers regarding whether or not they would have to pay the performers if there is no event.

Still, if Bottlerock is any indications, the fans don’t have the came concerns about coronavirus as do the governments. They just want to go the event and see the bands. Bottlerock sold out within two days.