Another day, another cancellation related to the global spread of the coronavirus. This time it’s Apple making the decision.
According to a repot from Variety, Apple has decided to opt-out of attending this year’s SXSW film festival, where it originally planned to debut some Apple TV+ content. The reason? The global coronavirus outbreak.
Apple had announced back in January that it was going to make its presence known at this year’s SXSW film festival, debuting three Apple TV+ originals at the event. That included Beastie Boys Story, Central Park, and Home. In addition to that, Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon, creators of Little America, were going to host a discussion regarding the anthology series, which has now also been canceled.
Many organizations have pulled out of SXSW 2020 at this point. Apple is just one of many, which includes Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Amazon Studios, and Intel, among others.
As for the event itself? The organizers believe there isn’t enough reason to cancel the whole thing outright just yet. However, they are continuously monitoring the situation, just in case anything changes, per CNN:
It’s important for us to remember at this stage that we’re actively evaluating mass gatherings on a daily basis,” said Mark Escott, the interim medical director and health authority for Austin Public Health. “Right now there’s no evidence that closing South by Southwest or other activities is going to make this community safer. We’re constantly monitoring that situation.
SXSW 2020 will take place between March 13 and March 22.
This is just one of many major events that have been canceled up to this point. Not too long ago the world’s biggest trade show focused on the mobile industry, Mobile World Congress, was shut down over coronavirus concerns. And then we recently reported that Facebook had decided to cancel its annual F8 developers conference as well. Next up, Google, which canceled its own developers conference, I/O 2020, over the global outbreak.
What do you think of Apple’s decision here? The right move? Is this a sign that we will not only not get a March media event, but an indication that Apple is already making plans to cancel this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June?