SXSW Said Not to Be Insured for Cancellation of 2020 Event

March 8, 2020 by

SXSW, the 10-day technology, film and music festival that has taken place in Austin every March since 1987, will not be held this year after Mayor Steve Adler declared a local disaster in response to the spread in Texas of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus that emerged late last year in China.

While SXSW’s organizers had insured the event, several media outlets have reported that coverage included in the insurance policy does not apply to cancellation related to an outbreak of disease.

In a March 6, online story, the Austin Chronicle quoted SXSW co-founder and CEO, Roland Swenson, as saying the event was covered for such things as property damage, terrorism, injury and weather but not for cancellations due to pandemics.

The Chronicle, a weekly “alternative” publication, came into being in the early 1980s with extensive coverage of the city’s burgeoning music scene. Chronicle publisher Nick Barbaro is also one of the co-founders of SXSW.

Several sponsors, presenters and companies, such as Apple, Twitter, Facebook and Netflix, had pulled out of SXSW this year even before Mayor Adler made the call that effectively shut it down.

Despite the withdrawal of major sponsors and presenters, SXSW nevertheless had insisted that the event would go on. After the mayor’s disaster declaration, however, SXSW posted a message on its website stating in part:

“The City of Austin has cancelled the March dates for SXSW and SXSW EDU. SXSW will faithfully follow the City’s directions.

We are devastated to share this news with you. ‘The show must go on’ is in our DNA, and this is the first time in 34 years that the March event will not take place. We are now working through the ramifications of this unprecedented situation.”

The Texas Tribune reported that it has been the policy of SXSW not to reimburse for festival passes for any reason. It remains to be seen how that practice will play out this year.

SXSW attracts thousands of performers and attendees from around the globe to Austin each year, pumping several hundred millions of dollars into the local economy. SXSW reported that it had 73,716 SXSW conference attendees in 2019 and that attendance had been expected to be about the same in 2020. Nearly 20,000 of last year’s attendees came from other countries.

Combined SXSW’s gaming expo and education conference, overall SXSW attracted more than 400,000 people to the area in 2019.

Many are still expected to converge on the city this year despite the festival’s cancellation. Still, bars, restaurants and other local vendors and businesses that would normally reap monetary benefits from their service to conference attendees are expected to suffer economically from the cancellation.

SXSW had been scheduled to kick off on March 13.

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