One of the biggest public events to be cancelled so far due to concern over the coronavirus was the scrapping of the South by Southwest festival which was supposed to begin March 13th.
The festival’s chief executive Roland Swenson tells The Wall Street Journal that the cancellation of SXSW by the city of Austin could end up costing festival organizers tens of millions of dollars due to insurance not covering disease-related cancellations.
As a result, he tells the paper that having to swallow that cost could make it extremely difficult for SXSW to return in 2021: “I am most worried about my people and what this means for their future, and I don’t know what that is yet. We are planning to carry on and do another event in 2021, but how we’re going to do that I’m not entirely sure.”
Right now, festival organizers are figuring out all the logistics that come with cancelling the event – from returning supplies to cancelling travel for guests, and the many contracts the festival signed with sponsors, vendors, venues, artists, and more.
Swenson says they should know if there’s a possibility of rescheduling the event for later this year within the next few weeks.
