Posted on 03/07/2020 5:40:34 PM PST by rktman
After South by Southwest was cancelled on Friday over concerns about the coronavirus, two of its founders told the Austin Chronicle that the film festival doesn’t have insurance to cover the cancellation.
Nick Barbaro, a co-founder of SXSW who is also the publisher of the Chronicle, told the paper that the festival does not have cancellation insurance relating to a disease outbreak or a policy that would be triggered by the city declaring a local state of disaster.
“We have a lot of insurance (terrorism, injury, property destruction, weather). However, bacterial infections, communicable diseases, viruses and pandemics are not covered,” SXSW co-founder and managing director Roland Swenson told the Chronicle.
Insurers routinely exclude communicable disease outbreaks from the cancellation policies that are offered to promoters and artists, but the disease coverage is available for an extra cost as a buy-back — something that most bands have not bothered with, but which many major promoters do take out. Since the outbreak of the coronavirus, insurers have stopped offering the disease coverage as a buy-back option.
The film, music and tech festival was scheduled to take place from March 13-22, but Austin mayor Steve Adler and Travis County judge Sarah Eckhardt held a press conference Friday to announce it would be canceled.
“It’s really unfortunate to be canceling South by Southwest. It’s tied to who we are in this city, and I look forward to the next iteration of South by Southwest when it comes,” said Adler.
(Excerpt) Read more at variety.com ...
The city of Austin made $388,000,000 on the festival last year, so the owners have certainly done splendidly the past 34 years.
“Penny wise, pound foolish.” They will be sued, and they deserve it.
That is exactly my thoughts.
Awwwwwwwwwwwwww!
And with that SWSX was suddenly back on the schedule!
“Springtime for SWSX”
starring Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder
Cancelling this event is classic virtue-signalling. (”WE CARE about our attendees! That’s who we ARE!”). No insurance company I know of covers virtue-signalling.
Tsk, tsk ...liberal gasm down the tubes.
Lloyds of London....just missed that one.
North by Northwest is not amused...
Gee that’s a shame.
I attended the first few SXSW events, back when it was not tainted with liebral stain.
I remember Texas rock with Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, many, many others.
So... I assume they require tickets to most, if not all of their events?
And I assume that if the above assumption is correct, that they have advance ticket sales?
I wonder if they will be refunding advance ticket sales.
Deposits on hotel rooms?
Etc.
I work in the outdoor amusemen industry...that is fairs and festival. Believe me...fairs, carnivals, vendors do not have such cancellation insurance. I checked. Cancel a fair....millions of dollars lost...not only carnival revenue...The fair gets a percentage of the take. Admission revenue...parking....percentage from all food concessions...as high as 35 percent (Marin County)...Vendors lost sales.
Then, the community looses too. No hotel rooms rented by vendors. Food delivery, (Sysco, etc) Beverage suppliers...Home Depot. Huge amounts of revenue are created when the fair comes to town...
This is pain all along the way...
Austin is a deep blue city. You can be sure that money they were going to get for this year’s event is already spent, so they’re now in a bit of a pickle.
Not a fan of the city or event, but certainly they had a force majeure type of clause in any contracts/agreements...right?
There is a wailing and rending of garments in the Progressive Ghetto of Austin this night!!!
If I was a Judge and a plaintiff filed a case because of financial hardship for canceling the SXSW festival, I would dismiss the case.
SXSW organizers have a right to err on the side of public safety with regard to the news of rapid spread of deadly COVID-19. It is a no win situation for them. They would also surely be sued if they allowed the festival to continue resulting in an almost certain infection spread of many attendees. Financial loss weighed against possible extreme illness and even death? No contest...
At this point, I cannot fault anyone or group for canceling large public gatherings. And I would think it would be wise of everyone to think twice about attending any large gathering in the near future…
Mrs rktman used to put on a festival in FL for several years so she knows well the intricacies of those events.
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