With the Coronavirus cases rising across the world, a lot of people are beginning to panic and officials are finding out the best way to go about treating the spread of the COVID-19. The World Health Organization have suggested limiting not only travel to certain countries but, also limiting gatherings of multiple people. What does this mean for the upcoming festival season?
Not only have some concerts that were set to take place in other countries, (such as Khalid’s entire leg of his Asian tour and Green Day canceling in 8 countries affected by COVID-19) but even concerts in America have been impacted (such as Mariah Carey rescheduling her show in Hawaii to November).
It’s not only single night concerts getting canceled and rescheduled, a lot of festivals have been either already canceled or a lot of people speculate they will be canceled. South By Southwest, a multi day festival for music and film that takes place in Austin, Texas every year has been canceled for 2020. The festival was scheduled to begin on March 16th and conclude on the 22nd. This is the first time in 33 years that the festival has been canceled.
Ultra Music Festival, a festival for electronic dance music that takes place in Miami, has been postponed for the year. The festival was supposed to take place on March 20-22. This is the first time in twenty one years that the festival has been canceled. Another EDM festival, Tomorrowland, that takes place in the French Alps from March 14-21, has also been canceled.
With the case numbers in the United States rising lately, it’s hard to say what the future of a lot of festivals and tours will be for the rest of the year.
