Companies and Events Shut Down for the First Time Ever

The NCAA Basketball Tournament, also known as March Madness, has been cancelled for the first time since the event began in 1939 because of concerns involving the coronavirus. The decision applies to both the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments. The men’s tournament is held over a three-week period and generates about $1 billion in annual revenue for the NCAA and its member schools.

The Tribeca Film Festival, born out of the tragedy of the 9/11 terrorist attacks as a way to help heal New York City, has itself the victim of the coronavirus outbreak. The movie fest that showcases emerging filmmakers was canceled on March 12 for the first time since it began in 2002. This year’s festival was set to run from April 15-26 throughout New York City and in New Jersey for the first time.

In a statement, Jane Rosenthal, cofounder and CEO of Tribeca Enterprises, said, “It is in our DNA to march forward while caring about our community. […] We are committed to ensuring the health and safety of the public while also supporting our friends, filmmakers and storytellers who look to Tribeca as a platform to showcase their work to audiences.”

Burning Man Festival is an iconoclastic cultural and musical event held in Nevada that is attended by thousands. The festival, which usually ends with the burning of a wooden effigy, has been canceled. Organizers said the event was not cancelled and will happen “on the multiverse” online. The event began at Baker Beach, San Francisco, in 1986 and was shifted to Black Rock City, Nevada, in 1991.

The London Book Fair, one of the world’s biggest and scheduled to start for three days beginning March 10, was canceled on March 4. Around 25,000 publishers, authors, and agents planned to attend the event. Reed Exhibitions, who holds the event, was prompted to cancel the book fair after divisions of international publishers elected not to send their local staffs to the fair. Organizers plan to hold the event in 2021.

South by Southwest, also called SXSW Conference & Festivals, is an annual assemblage of film, interactive media, and music events and conferences that is usually held in mid-March in Austin, Texas. This year, the event was canceled for the first time in its 33-year history when Mayor Steve Adler made the announcement to shut down the event on March 6. Prior to the announcement, Amazon Studios, TikTok, Facebook, and Twitter were among the companies that canceled appearances at SXSW, which was scheduled to run from March 13 to March 22.

Event planners said on the SXSW website that they were “exploring options to reschedule the event and are working to provide a virtual SXSW online experience as soon as possible for 2020 participants.”

Shakespeare in the Park, a summer staple in New York City since the early 1960s, has been canceled for the first time in its 58-year history by its operator, The Public Theater. Shakespeare in the Park is held at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park from May to August. Among the Oscar winners who have appeared in the long-running free event are Meryl Streep, Al Pacino, and Denzel Washington.

St. Patrick’s Day Parades are another rite of spring and are among the oldest such public events in America. The New York City event, held every year on March 17 since 1762 (a blizzard in 1917 disrupted the parade but the grand marshall rode a horse down Fifth Avenue to commemorate the event), was canceled because of the coronavirus. Other parades in Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, and Dublin were canceled.

The pop-culture convention that draws thousands of comic-book fans would have celebrated its 50th anniversary in late July, but organizers canceled the event because of coronavirus concerns. “Continuous monitoring of health advisories and recent statements by the Governor of California have made it clear that it would not be safe to move forward with plans for this year,” event organizers said in a statement. San Diego Comic-Con organizers plan to hold the event July 22-25, 2021.

The Eurovision Song Contest scheduled to be held in Rotterdam in May, was canceled on March 18. The contest, in which contestants from various European countries compete by singing live, is hosted each year by the winning country and had been held every year since its inception in 1956. The competition’s website says the event was canceled because of “uncertainty created by the spread of COVID-19 throughout Europe and the restrictions put in place by the governments of the participating broadcasters.

Among the winners of the competition in years past was the Swedish pop group Abba. The competition has been recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-running annual TV music competition.

The Penn Relays is one of the premier events on the American track and field calendar and is held annually at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Hundreds of track and field athletes from high schools and colleges from around the nation compete in the event that is held in the spring. This year’s meet, scheduled for April 23-25, was cancelled for the first time since the Penn Relays began in 1895. Penn Relays organizers said they will hold a substitute event at a later date.

For the first time since their inception in 1974, the annual Daytime Emmy Awards ceremony set to be held in June in Pasadena, California, has been canceled, according to the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences said on March 19.

Terry O’Reilly, chairman of The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, said, “As there are so many unknowns right now with the flow of information changing on a daily, almost hourly, basis, it would simply be irresponsible to move forward with our annual celebration of excellence in daytime television at this time.” Daytime Emmy Awards executive director Brent Stanton said the organization was working toward “some interesting alternative ideas for how to best recognize the honorees later this year.”

Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, one of the biggest rodeos in the world, was closed by order of the Houston Health Department on March 11, one week into the event. It was scheduled to run through March 22. The event, which typically draws thousands of people, includes bull and horse riding as well as exhibitions of llamas, pigs, and other animals. The rodeo has been held in Houston since 1932.

The Montreux Jazz Festival was canceled by organizers on April 17. The festival has been held in the Swiss city since 1967 and is one of the most prestigious annual musical events in Europe. This year’s event was scheduled for July 3-18 with featured performers such as Lionel Ritchie and Lenny Kravitz. Organizers plan to carry over at least part of the canceled program to next year’s event, scheduled for July 2-17, 2021.

The E3 trade show, the largest video game event of its kind, was scheduled to return to Los Angeles in June, but was canceled for the first time since its inception in 1995. The Entertainment Software Association said in a statement on March 11 that it made the decision not to hold the event at the Los Angeles Convention Center after consulting with members “regarding the health and safety of everyone in our industry.” The statement further said the organization was weighing plans to “coordinate an online experience” in place of the event. The ESA plans to hold the trade show next year.

The Isle of Wight Festival, showcase for many pop acts and one of the iconic music fests in the United Kingdom, was canceled on March 27 for the first time since the event was rebooted in 2002. Among the performers slated to appear at the venue in June were Duran Duran, Lionel Richie, and Snow Patrol.

A statement from the event’s organizers on Instagram said, “This decision hasn’t been taken lightly and we have tried our hardest to make it work, but it was unavoidable given the current status.” The organizers said the event will return in 2021. They also said those who bought tickets can either get a refund or use the tickets for next year’s event.

The Isle of Wight Festival first began in 1968 and hosted such acts as The Doors and Jimi Hendrix. It was not held for many years and was restarted by promoter John Giddings in 2002.

For the first time in its 50-year history, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival has been canceled because of concerns about the coronavirus. The event has grown from a small affair that attracted jazz musicians into an international festival that included performers from various genres that drew as many as 400,000 people. Among the acts tentatively scheduled this year were The Beach Boys, The Who, and Stevie Nicks. Promoters for the festival said that tickets bought for this year’s event will be honored for the 2021 jazz festival.

New York City’s BookExpo, which had been postponed from May to July, was called off for this year, according to an announcement from Reed Exhibitions on April 14. The publishing industry’s annual convention was to have been held at the Jacob Javits Convention Center, however, that facility has been converted to a hospital to help with the city deal with coronavirus patients.

In a statement, expo organizers said “initially, we were optimistic that our events could run in late July. However, as the pandemic has continued to escalate in the United States and we see the challenges it has brought for the book industry, it is clear that 2020 is no longer a viable option for this community.” The organizers plan to hold the expo in the spring of 2021.

Jewelry store Tiffany & Co., immortalized in the film “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” closed its flagship location on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan on March 17, as well as its other locations. The retailer with the signature blue boxes opened its flagship at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street in 1940. It had closed for renovations in January. The company was founded in 1837 by Charles Lewis Tiffany and his friend John B. Young as a stationery and fancy goods store on Broadway in New York City.

New York City cultural icon Carnegie Hall was shuttered on March 12, following an order by Mayor Bill de Blasio who declared a state of emergency and forbade gatherings of 500 people or more because of concerns over the coronavirus. The institution’s archives department said in an email that Carnegie Hall was not closed during the 1918-1920 Spanish flu pandemic, although some individual events were postponed or cancelled.

The institution said the only time there had been an extended closure was during the 1986 renovation of the Hall, when it closed from mid-May to mid-December.