SXSW – the annual music, film, and tech festival held in Austin, which was due to take place March 13 to March 22 – has been cancelled due to fears about coronavirus.
“Based on the recommendation of our public health officer and our director of public health,” Steve Adler, the city’s mayor, said at a press conference on Friday, “I’ve gone ahead and declared a local disaster in the city and, associated with that, have issued an order that effectively cancels SXSW.”
This follows multiple companies, including Netflix and Tiktok, pulling out of the festival in advance.
The cancellation will have repercussions for many musicians and filmmakers scheduled to attend, as well as the local community (SXSW contributed an estimated $356 million to the state’s economy last year, The Guardian reports).
Other events that have felt the impact of coronavirus since it began spreading include Seoul Fashion Week, plus BTS shows scheduled to take place in the Korean city, as well as Gucci’s Cruise 2021 show, which was due to take place in San Francisco.
Many events have also been cancelled or disrupted in northern Italy, a centre of the virus, where up to 16 million people have recently been quarantined, according to the BBC.
View the statement on the SXSW cancellation below.