South by Southwest Cancels Festival Over Coronavirus Risks

(Bloomberg) -- Organizers of South by Southwest canceled this year’s arts, music and technology festival in Austin, Texas, citing concerns from city officials about the continuing spread of the coronavirus.

The gathering attracts hundreds of thousands of people to the city each year to catch a glimpse of some of the world’s biggest bands, filmmakers, politicians and business executives. The event, which was scheduled to begin in a week, is a substantial force in the local economy.

“It’s really unfortunate to be canceling South by Southwest; it’s a really important event to our city in a lot of ways,” Mayor Steve Adler told reporters Friday. “I’m proud that we’re making decisions that are data-driven and based on the evidence.”

The conference brings the city invaluable media attention that’s helped Austin raise its profile globally over the decades as a technology and cultural hot spot. It has even helped transform the town into a mini Silicon Valley. Dozens of startups and tech titans including Alphabet Inc., Apple Inc. and Facebook Inc. have opened offices there in recent years. In the past week, many of those companies had canceled their appearances at the conference as the virus spread in the U.S.

More than 100,000 people have tested positive for the coronavirus worldwide, and more than 3,000 have died. U.S. President Donald Trump signed a $7.8 billion emergency coronavirus spending bill on Friday, and several state and city governments are seeking to tap emergency funds for treatment and prevention.

Around the world, high-profile musical acts, including Green Day, Mariah Carey and Wolf Parade, called off concerts or entire tours, and the release of the newest James Bond movie was delayed. Some of the largest conventions in the technology industry and beyond have been canceled or postponed to prevent the spread of the deadly virus. Among them: Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Facebook’s F8 developer conference in San Jose, California, and the TED conference in Vancouver.

Several event organizers said they will offer online content in place of a physical gathering. South by Southwest said it’s exploring options to provide web programming and hold the show at a different date. The event injects hundreds of millions of dollars into the Austin regional economy each year -- by far the most profitable event for the city annually.

South by Southwest has branched out over the years from a film-and-music festival to a multitiered conference offering classes, video game competitions, technology panels and political interviews. All those components drew more than 400,000 participants last year and contributed $356 million to the local economy, according to data from the conference.

The financial impact will be felt by restaurants, bars and the municipal government, in addition to the conference, its participants and performers. Many event contracts don’t account for cancellations due to an uncontrollable occurrence like a virus outbreak, said Lauren Spahn, an entertainment law partner at Shackelford, Bowen, McKinley & Norton in Nashville who was scheduled to attend South by Southwest. “This is such a widespread issue,” she said. “Everyone is losing.”

--With assistance from Ian King and Susan Warren.

To contact the reporters on this story: Lizette Chapman in San Francisco at lchapman19@bloomberg.net;Brendan Walsh in Austin at bwalsh8@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Mark Milian at mmilian@bloomberg.net, Andrew Pollack

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