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:<p>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.<p>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.<p>Really, the city should have cancelled it days ago. It took all three major labels pulling out this morning to make this happen.<p>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.<p>That said, the next high-profile event I'm watching is Burning Man.
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.<p>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.