Shortly after the Beastie Boys, Ozzy Osbourne and Trent Reznor announced they’d pulled out of the annual South By Southwest music festival, the Austin-based event has been canceled. According to a statement on the official SXSW website, the coronavirus is to blame.
“We are devastated to share this news with you,” the statement reads. “‘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 (March 4), 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.”
The festival organizers vowed to do their best to somehow make it right.
“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,” the statement continued. “For our registrants, clients, and participants we will be in touch as soon as possible and will publish an FAQ.
Beastie Boys Forced To Cancel SXSW Appearance Over Coronavirus Concerns
“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.”
Over the past few days, Facebook, Intel, Twitter and TikTok all pulled out of the conference as large corporations limited travel for employees amid the virus outbreak.
The conference said it had 73,716 attendees in 2019, 19,166 of whom were from outside the United States.
Ffs. It’s an overhyped cold virus. Funny how the media aren’t publishing the figures on the people killed each year by seasonal influenza, or the huge number of people who have caught COVID-19 and made a FULL RECOVERY. This is scaremongering of the highest degree. Let’s get this straight – if you’re relatively healthy, and not an elderly citizen, this virus won’t be killing you. People making out like this is some world ending event and it’s pathetic.
It’s mortality rate is way higher than flu. Please understand basic stats.
Corona is serious. Not only is mortality rate magnitudes higher but people normally who don’t die from the flu, healthily individuals in their 30s-40s have died due to Corona.
Says who the news? If they said it it must be true
The news sucks balls. The media in general. But the number of infected and fatalitys is not created by the media. That comes from factual medial records. Corona virus is not comparable to influenza. We fully understand the flu, and how to treat it successfully. We do not have the answer the curing the Corona virus as is. If we cannot find a cure at all, it’s only a month away or less until over 1 million plus cases are worldwide. The whole reason it scares anyone is because it Spreads extremely easily, and we do not have answers on how to cure someone yet. I’m sure in time this will all blow over, and not be such big deal. But if we take too long to find a cure, we can be looking at hundreds of thousands of deaths worldwide.
I understand but you got to remember the media amplifies that actual event by like 10x end of the day they can say whatever they want in regards to deaths because no odys going to question that. 100thousand plus cases almost 4000 deaths and 69 thousand recoveries… and yet the real problems lie in poverty while we all worry about a flu
Poverty lmfao? Everyone in my inner city ghetto gets a handout who is fucking lazy. It’s called WORK! Fuck the poor… Survival of the fittest.
It’s really not higher. Considering there are many who’ve had it and don’t even know it unless they got tested. You are a perfect example of the idiots the media are trying to scare Johnny Blayze.
your a fucking dumbass. i hope u remember this comment if someone u know dies.
You are a sheep
While I partly agree with you, the fear over the Corona virus is due to the fact we do not have ANY known cure. The flu does. The flu has killed over 45,000 Americans in the past year, with that said, millions and millions have had a the flu. Point is, to compare Corona virus to the flu is complete idiocy. Compare Corona virus to the flu once 2 million Americans have tested positive for it, and most everyone lives through it. Currently speaking, a couple hundred infected cannot be compared to the flu.
Clean up your fkn act!
Shut up nerd.
Thanks Corona! I hope they cancel all these disgusting events like this.
What?
I can’t wait to see how this whole Corona virus shit plays out.