NO-GO. A list of events cancelled due to Coronavirus

With the recent spread of the Coronavirus, now classified as a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO), major events from around the world have been cancelled or at least postponed by their organizers, while big tourist attractions have closed their gates to the public. Even though travelling or attending crowded places shouldn’t really be on anyone’s priority list right now, BR compiled a list of the top events or sites, Romanian and international, that have been cancelled, closed, or postponed in order to contain the COVID-19 outbreak.

INTERNATIONAL

Culture:

Broadway shows. On March 12, all Broadway performances were suspended effective immediately until April 12, announced The Broadway League, a national trade association.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Also, on March 12, the “Met” announced that it would temporarily close.
The Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival was postponed until October.
The Tribeca Film Festival.
Berlin state theaters, operas and concert halls. Closed from March 11 until April, 19.
The Colosseum, Pompeii and the Uffizi Galleries in Florence, Raffaello exhibition in Rome, the Vatican Museums. As Italy has been hard hit by the outbreak, many of the country’s iconic landmarks have been closed to the public.
Saint Patrick’s Day parade. One of the landmarks of New York and its Irish community, scheduled for March 17, was postponed due to Governor’s Cuomo decision to ban public gathering with more than 500 people, which also affected Broadway shows and New York museums, among others. Also, Several St. Patrick’s Day parades across the US and Ireland were cancelled.
SXSW 2020. The Tech & Culture festival held in Austin, Texas, which had been due to kick off on March 13, was cancelled on March 6.
Tokyo’s cherry-blossom festival.
Concerts & Tours. Most, if not all the important concert tours this spring were cancelled, including Madonna, Kiss, Pearl Jam, Avril Lavigne, Green Day, Rage Against the Machine, and many more. Also, a ll events at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, or The Met Opera have been cancelled.
Prague Film Festival.
The London Book Fair. One of the world’s largest book festivals was forced to cancel.
Film premieres. Several important blockbusters were forced to postpone their release in cinemas, such as the latest James Bond movie, No Time to Die, or Disney’s live-action remake of Mulan.
Disney theme parks. One of the biggest tourist attractions in the world, Disney announced on March 12 the closing Disneyland and California Adventure, its theme parks in Anaheim, California, from March 14 to March 31. Later in the day, Disney also announced it’ll be shutting the doors of Disneyland Paris, Walt Disney World (both in France), and of all its theme parks and studios in Orlando, Florida, for the same time period. Earlier in the year, the company’s theme parks in Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong were also closed due to the Coronavirus outbreak in East Asia, which remain close to this day.

Tech:

Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). On March 11, 2020, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) announced that it was cancelling the E3 2020 event, the premier trade event for the video game industry.
Facebook F8, Google I/O and Microsoft Build. The largest developer conferences in the world, all scheduled in May, have been cancelled, but will instead be held as 100% online events.
Global Marketing Summit. Facebook’s event was supposed to host 5,000 people in San Francisco, but it was cancelled in early March.
TED 2020. Supposed to held in Vancouver on April 20-24 but was postponed to July 20-26.
Mobile World Congress (photo). Scheduled on February 24 in Barcelona, was cancelled in early February.
Geneva Motor Show. Scheduled to start on March 3, it was cancelled after the Swiss government banned all public gathering larger than 1,000 people.
Adobe Summit in Las Vegas. The company announced that instead will offer content online.
Nvidia’s GPU Technology Conference. More than 10,000 were expected in San Jose for Nvidia’s conference. Switched to digital-only event with a webcast planned March 24.
Game Developers Conference. Scheduled between March 16 to 20 in San Francisco, but postponed to a later date after exhibitors such as Amazon, Microsoft, Epic Games, Sony, EA and Facebook announced they won’t be attending.

Sports:

Almost every major sports competition on the planet was suspended in the past week. The list is huge, but some worthy mentions are: NBA, NHL, MLB, MLS, the Boston Marathon, Paris Marathon, Barcelona Marathon, Rome Marathon, all WTA and ATP tournaments (tennis), Formula 1 season, FIFA World Cup Qualifiers, the top European football leagues (La Liga, Premier League, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1, UEFA Champions League and Europa League, have all been suspended, while individual events in other important competitions such as the Rugby Six Nations have been postponed, without an official announcement about the suspension of the competition.

ROMANIA

In Romania, the government’s decision to ban all public gatherings with more than 1,000 people has forced many events and venues to shut their doors. 14 theaters managed by the Bucharest Town Hall cancelled all performances, while museums were also closed until the end of March. In sports, the Romanian football Liga 1 was suspended, after playing some games with no spectators, while on March 13, all national sports leagues were suspended. For more Romanian events cancelled due to the Coronavirus outbreak, check out the list below, by BR’s Romanita Oprea:

Soundart Festival (13-15th May) in Quantic, Bucharest, proposes itself to pass the area of prog and stoner sounds and to be a festival for a music perceived as an art that stands by itself. From sludge and post-metal, passing through the essence of stoner and reaching the avant-garde of the modern neofolk, this Soundart wanted to be the most interesting and experiential edition so far, a real try of expending the audio-visual boundaries. The new dates of the festival are not available yet.
Creative Evenings – Creativity and Marketing was supposed to take place March 16^th at Cartier Hub Drumul Taberei, having as speakers Toni Bunaiasu (Brand Mentors) and George Bonea (Demotivational Speaker). The new date is not announced yet.
Positive Fest (14-15^th March), taking place at Beraria H, was cancelled. The bands on the line-up were: Implant pentru Refuz, Argatu & Mos Martin, Blazzaj, Kumm, Cred ca sunt extratereustru, Am fost la munte si mi-a placut, EMIL, Fantome, Phaser, etc.
Mastering The Music Business 2020 (17-19^th March), Carol Park Hotel was cancelled and will take place in 2021, 9-11^th March, at the same location. The conference Mastering the Music Businessis the first and most important professional event organized in Romania regarding the music industry. The event targets the artists, the managers, the booking agents, the musical PR agencies and the rest of the representatives of the industry – tour managers, lawyers, promoters, major and independent labels’ representatives. In the four previous editions took part over 200 speakers from Romania, Europe and USA. The event is organized by the Association RAW Music.
The eight edition of the Romanian Design Week was supposed to take place 15-24th May at the National Art Museum, but is now postponed. Starting 2020, Romanian Design Week will present a new festival architecture, therefore each year the event will approach a new theme that will contour the entire event: CHANGE. Following the chosen concept, Romanian Design Week 2020 will investigate the processes and contexts that generate change, to question the role of designers in a circular economy and present innovative projects, materials and processes, but also the most relevant examples of experimental, conceptual and inclusive design. Having the certainty that creativity is the most important tool for change, the aim is to highlight how sustainability can play an important role for a better future. The exhibition will encourage visitors to explore all the layers of sustainability, from the importance of rational use of natural resources and the conservation of the intangible heritage through their integration in the processes involved in contemporary design, to conceptual products and experimental projects that bring into discussion the relationship between innovation and future, projects that focus on recycling or sustainable production. Furthermore, the exhibition will also include examples of micro-interventions of community urbanism and social design that helped transform cities, neighborhoods and communities. Besides the known formats, such as connected events and the main exhibition, the festival will have new formats such as Professionals, Young Showcase, Design Flags, Kids love design, Design Market.
Digital Marketing Forum 2020 was postponed from 26-27th March to 22-23th June 2020. The event will take place at JW Marriott Bucharest Grand Hotel and aims to reunite 400 specialists in marketing and communication. The first day will be allocated to the conference, while the second day is for the in-depth training and workshops, the discussions starting from the latest digital trends, creative digital experiences and finishing with the sessions about influencer marketing, e-mail marketing and SEO.
Machine Head’s concert at Quantic was postponed from 12^th of May to possible October or November. The band recently announced the rescheduling of its entire European tour. “Of paramount importance to us is the heath and safety of the Head Cases. We’ve worked hard with all our management, booking agents, and business associates to find other solutions or options, but the levels of risk to our audience and their communities is simply too high for our comfort level. In addition to that, we also have a unique group of extraordinarily passionate fans who travel from all over the continent to watch our shows. We are eternally humbled by the dedication and devotion of the Head Cases, however in this case, travel is something not recommended. So it is with deep frustration and regret that we are forced to make this announcements. The Burn My Eyes 25th anniversary tour is to be postponed and shows rescheduled for a later date, hopefully in the Fall, but possibly later. We look forward to our next concerts with you all, and the ability to publicly gather together and play raging heavy metal for you and vent all of our collective frustration, as a result of this insane moment in history, out in the circle pit,” said Machine Head on a statement released March 11^th.
Linked Culture 2020 – Cultural Management and Marketing conference that was supposed to take place in Timisoara between 19-20^th March will take place instead between 21 to 22^nd of May, at Escape Underground Hub in Timisoara. The event will host many creative people and entrepreneurs, cultural managers, artists, representatives for the cultural institutions, etc.
The French Institute in Romania cancelled the „Infinités Plurielles” exhibition and the “How to consolidate women’s representativeness in science?” conference, scheduled for March 18-19.
Bookfest Timisoara 2020. The 9^th edition of the book festival was scheduled for March 12-15.
Wardruna concert that was supposed to take place at Arenele Romane, May 8^th was postponed for August 26^th. The band from Norway is famous for its unique sound and the intimate atmosphere it creates during its concert. It was launched in 2002 by the multi-instrumentalist Einar Selvik whose desire was to bring back in the music the old traditions specific to the Scandinavian Peninsula.