Coronavirus cancels SXSW as city declares local disaster

SXSW 2020
Photo credit courtesy SXSW

AUSTIN (Talk1370.com) -- For the first time in its history, South By Southwest is effectively cancelled as the City of Austin declares a local disaster due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Austin Mayor Steve Adler and Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt made the announcement Friday afternoon at City Hall. Dr. Mark Escott of the Interim Health Authority and Austin Public Health Director Stephanie Hayden joined Adler and Eckhardt.

Officials say the move allows them to proactively increase preventative measures and require mitigation plans for events in the region.

There are no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Travis County as of yet, although there are several positive cases in the Houston area. Escott said officials are still waiting on test results from one or more cases to come back from the CDC.

The disaster declaration prohibits events that will draw 2,500 or more people, unless organizers are able to assure Austin Public Health that mitigation plans for infectious diseases are in place. Officials say each event will be evaluated case-by-case.

Escott added, "We are focused on mitigation strategies to protect the community. These may involve modifications to public gatherings, including places of worship practices or school attendance. We will also be working closely with local hospitals and the business community to increase the availability of hand washing stations, hand sanitizers, messaging and posters to remind people of the importance of personal hygiene."

Despite assurances earlier this week that SXSW would go on, and that there was no evidence to support cancelling the festival, Escott said the situation rapidly evolved in the past couple of days. Officials said because SXSW would have attracted an international audience, the threat of contagion became too much to ignore.

The cancellation comes just seven days before the festival was scheduled to start next Friday. A number of high-profile companies had already pulled out of the festival, including Netflix, Mashable, Apple, Intel, and TikTok.

The annual Austin festival, which made its debut in 1987, generates hundreds of millions of dollars for the Austin economy each year and attracts more than 400,000 attendees to the festival - many of them from all over the world.

SXSW organizers said in a statement they are devastated to share this news, but that they will respect the City's decision. "'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," officials said.

As of Friday, nearly 56,000 people had signed a petition on Change.org to cancel the festival.