The Song Fight Bulletin Board

https://www.sxsw.com/2020-event-update/

Not sure what to say except now I'm worried about the festivals I'm planning to attend.

Yeah, this is pretty major. SXSW was supposed to start in a week! They estimate it brings in $350MM of spending in Austin during the festival. Moscone Center here in SF has had a couple of big cancellations (Google I/O, Game Developers Conference, etc.). Not that I have any empathy for that business but for a convention center like that, if they have like half their major bookings for year wiped away I wonder how they can handle that financially? Similarly there are probably a lot of local businesses in Austin that depend on their SXSW revenue bump to make ends meet. (I've heard from folks in retail that many small retail businesses have a similar dependency on holiday spending.) Also scary will be if the COVID-19 situation has a major impact on manufacturing in and/or shipping from China. That could ding mega companies like Apple. Scary stuff! A bunch of my coworkers were supposed to go to SXSW. One of them said she's bummed but also relieved. The idea of going to such a huge crowded festival right now sounded scary.

Shoot, I bet the annual official nerdcore showcase gig there is also a big deal for MC Frontalot, and that's cancelled. 100s/1000s of small time musicians will be negatively effected.

I heard about this through a Sarah Shook post. I, too, feel bad for all the performers that book tours around this event that are now all trying to rejig their schedule AT THE SAME TIME.

Not to mention that concerts are a gathering of people in close proximity, so how long until people just start stopping their attendance at live music because of COVID fear? Maybe we should be passing out sneeze-guards at shows...