Ali
With more and more people testing positive to COVID-19 (including actor Tom Hanks, who tested positive in Australia this week), a grey cloud hangs over many of this year’s major entertainment and sporting events. Quite a few of those events – including SXSW, Coachella, E3 and Cinemacon – have either been cancelled or postponed.
Tonight, it was announced that Governor Newsom will be announcing recommendations as it pertains to all upcoming events in Los Angeles.
JUST IN: Mayor Garcetti says Gov. Newsom will soon be releasing guidelines on the cancellation or postponement of large-scale gatherings https://t.co/zNJV9e0gV1 pic.twitter.com/zxjPgFU02q
— CBS Los Angeles (@CBSLA) March 12, 2020
The California Department of Public Health is asking for the cancellations at least through the end of March.
“Changing our actions for a short period of time will save the life of one or more people you know,” Newsom said.
“That’s the choice before us. Each of us has extraordinary power to slow the spread of this disease. Not holding that concert or community event can have cascading effects – saving dozens of lives and preserving critical health care resources that your family may need a month from now.”
Going by that, Wondercon -held in Anaheim on April 10-12 – might be either postponed or cancelled. It depends if numbers are still popping large. Expect some kind of announcement about that over the next week.
One of the big questions whirling around the twittersphere right now is, ‘will San Diego Comic-Con go ahead?’
Sure, it’s in July, and that’s months away – but with the numbers of people afflicted with Coronavirus soaring week by week, is it possible we might still be staying clear of large events, and hordes of strangers, come mid-year?
Yes, that’ll hurt the industry considerably, not to mention disappointing millions and millions of fans, but whatever is safest, right!?
At this stage, San Diego Comic-Con plans to push on – but they’re monitoring the situation.
The organizers of the biggest pop culture event in the globe tells 10News in San Diego, “Comic-Con is working with local officials as it pertains to the COVID-19 situation and continues to monitor developments closely. At this time both shows, WonderCon Anaheim and Comic-Con in San Diego, are moving forward as scheduled. As always, the safety and security of all our attendees is of utmost importance. Please rest assured that these concerns are being taken very seriously and we will not make any decisions regarding the rescheduling of shows without weighing all considerations carefully.”
Comic-Con regular and MH publisher ‘Caffeinated Clint’ has a “fifty-fifty feeling on it, at the moment”, he told me over Snapchat earlier today. “I think the next month or so will be telling. The trend seems to be that most big conventions are going away this year… but hopefully SDCC bucks the trend”.
Naturally, this could change at any moment.. and we almost expect it to. If, like SXSW, the studios decide it’s too dangerous to attend, if actors and filmmakers refuse to attend the event, and if exhibitors drop out, then it’s unlikely we’ll be all sitting together in Hall H this year.
Fingers crossed that doesn’t happen.
Stay tuned…
