
SXSW 2020 canceled due to coronavirus - Lagogarda
https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/6/21162247/sxsw-2020-cancelled-coronavirus-austin-texas-virus-fears-public-health-event
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bredren
Last night my friend and I made the call to cancel our little trip focused on
the film portion of the event for two reasons:

1\. There is a lot of revelry in SXSW despite it being more of a conference
than a festival and it did not seem appropriate to take part in that during a
pandemic.

2\. While we are both young-ish and healthy, it does not seem appropriate to
participate in an event that would unquestionably increase the spread of
COVID-19 knowing what it is doing to older folks.

Really, the city should have cancelled it days ago. It took all three major
labels pulling out this morning to make this happen.

I believe the most substantial takeaway from the coronavirus so far has been
how every government seems to be focused measures that support short term
finances i.e. worker productivity and consumption rather than taking swift and
far reaching measures to combat this virus.

That said, the next high-profile event I'm watching is Burning Man.

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whoisjuan
No city wants to become the center of a health crisis. If they didn't cancel
it there was going to be a shitstorm of bad press for the Austin leaders and
the city in general.

Millions of dollars will be lost, but the health of millions + the reputation
of the city was at stake. That was the right call IMHO.

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dpau
Absolutely the right thing to do, but they only did it after days of headlines
of big sponsors pulling out as well as online petitions. I hope this serves as
an example to other cities hosting upcoming events. There are a lot of
conferences that still have not been cancelled.

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whoisjuan
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22507764](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22507764)

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klohto
Not surprising since most of the important companies pulled out. The
attendance would be poor anyway.

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abootstrapper
I feel like this is the right call, but I'm still a little shocked they
actually canceled it.

