BREAKING: South by Southwest Festival Cancels March Dates

March 6, 2020

South by Southwest Festival cancels March dates

With numerous movie studios already withdrawing from the event over concerns of the worldwide coronavirus outbreak, South by Southwest Festival’s official Twitter account broke the devastating news that this year’s March dates have been cancelled following an order from the City of Austin.

In the update on their official site, the company notes that they are “devastated” to share the news with fans and that typically “the show must go on” is in their DNA, they are going to “faithfully follow” the city’s orders and that they are working through the ramifications of the surprise turn of events. They also noted that despite the Austin Public Health board stating that “there’s no evidence that closing SXSW or any other gatherings will make the community safer,” the situation progressed in a faster manner than anticipated and that they “respect the City of Austin’s decision” and are themselves committed to “do our part to help protect our staff, attendees and fellow Austinites.”

The statement would go on to offer the following:

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.

SXSW becomes the latest in a string of events around the globe to be hit by fears of the coronavirus, with Disney+ cancelling their European Launch event and MGM pushing the final Daniel Craig James Bond outing No Time to Die back to November from its original April release.