SXSW festival cancelled over growing concerns about Coronavirus
March 7, 2020 Andrew Buss News, SXSW
As most people who were planning to attend the festival know (as well as many who weren’t), yesterday SXSW, one of the leading festivals in all things music, film, and comedy, was cancelled by the city of Austin. A first in its 32 year history. This due to the increasing concern of large gatherings and of the spread of Coronavirus. Austin declared “a local disaster” and placed a temporary ban on large gatherings. With an estimated 400k+ people expected to attend from all over the globe, it would surely be classified a large gathering and potentially pose problems if an illness were to break out.
In the days leading up to the festival’s cancellation, large brands names like Netflix, Amazon, Sony, FaceBook, Apple, and Warner Brothers Music had pulled out from their participation in the festival amid increasing concerns.
Just days ago, a lineup of all the comedy events at the festival was released. Included on that list was The Laugh Button’s own annual event which had been a part of the festival for over 10 years. It unfortunate but also an incredibly rare instance that occured and was unforeseen.
There had been a great lineup announced. Some of the events included Pete Davidson and The Kings of Staten Island Revue, 420 Show with Matt Besser, Hannibal Buress unveiling his new comedy special Miami Nights, National Lampoon Radio Hour: The Podcast, Roast Battle, Maltin on Movies interviewing Frank Oz, and UCB’s ASSSCAT, among many others.
Our hearts do go out to the city of Austin and everyone else as they’re dealing with this tense situation. And we look forward to coming back soon in the years to come.
