Petition Started to Cancel SXSW Festival Due to Coronavirus

A few thousand people are calling for the annual SXSW Festival to be canceled out of fears of bring the Coronavirus to Texas.

As reported by KVUE, a China Gathering program has already been cancelled for the upcoming two-week event, but that's not enough in the minds of some. A petition has been created on Change.org demanding the event be outright cancelled,

I'm concerned about the hundreds of thousands of people who will be traveling to Austin, Texas in march for the SXSW festival .

I believe that having an event like this is irresponsible amid an outbreak .

So far SXSW has not made any plans to cancel or reschedule the festival . They have not made any plans on how they will prepare against the spread of the virus .

please think about the

• children
• Immune compromised
• elderly
• diabetic
• asthmatic
• (ETC) people who could die because of this.

As of writing this article, the petition is nearing its goal of 5,000 signatures. Organizers of the festival, which attracts hundreds of thousands to Austin, issued a statement saying there are no plans to cancel the event, the safety of those attending SXSW is their top priority, and they've already seen some cancellations due to fear of the Coronavirus,

Where travel has been impacted, especially in the case of China, we are seeing a handful of cancellations. However, we are on par with years past in regard to registrants who are unable to attend.

We are increasing our efforts to prevent the spread of disease per Austin Public Health’s recommendations. We will continue to monitor the situation closely and will provide updates as necessary.