Last week, members of the tech, entertainment, and music scene were shocked to learn South by Southwest was canceled. The city of Austin, Texas declared an emergency and canned the week-long festival. It was a huge blow to the city and attendees of the fantastic festival. It’s been such a huge blow that South by Southwest may have trouble returning next year.
SXSW in 2021
The city of Austin will lose around $400 million without SXSW. As for the organizers of the festival, they’ll lose tens of millions of dollars, according to the festival’s chief executive, Roland Swenson. Their insurance didn’t cover disease-related cancellations. We are, of course, talking about the coronavirus, which also led to the delay of the next James Bond film, No Time to Die, and may lead to the cancellation of Coachella and the Cannes Film Festival.
The Concern for 2021
Where does such a catastrophic blow leave South by Southwest? Swenson isn’t sure. He spoke to the Wall Street Journal about the problem and expressed his uncertainty about the high-profile festival’s future:
“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…. We’ve had to show our insurance policy to all kinds of people, and nobody ever said, ‘Hey, there’s a big hole here. We did not anticipate a pandemic. We’d always taken the attitude of, ‘Well, we’ll never cancel, so that’s not going to be an issue.’”
The Cost
Right now, the makers of SXSW are scrambling to figure out how much the event will cost them. Truckloads of supplies need to be sent back and countless travel and hotel accommodations need to be cancelled. Even worse, what about paying back sponsors and vendors and musical acts? One way the festival will save some money is by not refunding those with purchased badges for the festival. Instead, they’ll get to use their badge at next year’s festival, if there is one.
The Cancelation
Swanson admits they’re considering rescheduling the festival for sometime later this year, but if they’re already struggling to think of how to pull off next year’s, that sounds impossible. Unless maybe they get some major, big-time investors involved. The makers of SXSW wanted to continue ahead with the festival despite growing concerns surrounding the coronavirus, but the city and its mayor put a stop to it.
It’s a terrible shame all around for the tech, music, and film industry, plus the beautiful city of Austin and South by Southwest. Local and international businesses will suffer, and so will filmmakers and musicians and tech geniuses. Recently, the folks behind SXSW commented on the festival’s cancellation, posting the following message to their site:
We are devastated to share this news with you. “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, 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.
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.
