Breaking news — this year’s South By Southwest festival has been cancelled, by order of the city of Austin, due to concerns over the growing coronavirus, or COVID-19. The festival shared the news Friday afternoon (March 6) via Twitter.
The annual tech, music, and film conference was slated to happen March 13 to 22 across a wide number of venues in the Texas capital. This is the first time in the fest’s 34 year history that it has been cancelled outright.
The fest annually draws a massive number of music, film, and comedy fans from all over the world to its city center. In 2018, more than 160,000 people attended, according to sxsw.com.
Read SXSW’s statement below.
And here is the SXSW statement in full:
City of Austin Cancels SXSW March Events
The City of Austin has cancelled the March dates for SXSW and SXSW EDU. SXSW will faithfully follow the City’s directions.
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. We are now working through the ramifications of this unprecedented situation.
As recently as Wednesday, Austin Public Health stated that “there’s no evidence that closing SXSW or any other gatherings will make the community safer.” However, this situation evolved rapidly, and we honor and respect the City of Austin’s decision. We are committed to do our part to help protect our staff, attendees, and fellow Austinites.
We are exploring options to reschedule the event and are working to provide a virtual SXSW online experience as soon as possible for 2020 participants, starting with SXSW EDU. For our registrants, clients, and participants we will be in touch as soon as possible and will publish an FAQ.
We understand the gravity of the situation for all the creatives who utilize SXSW to accelerate their careers; for the global businesses; and for Austin and the hundreds of small businesses – venues, theatres, vendors, production companies, service industry staff, and other partners that rely so heavily on the increased business that SXSW attracts.
We will continue to work hard to bring you the unique events you love. Though it’s true that our March 2020 event will no longer take place in the way that we intended, we continue to strive toward our purpose – helping creative people achieve their goals.