SXSW Canceled – The View From Austin
For the first time in 34 years, SXSW is canceled. Concerns about COVID-19 have led the City of Austin to shut down the annual festival one week before it was due to begin. Is it the brave and responsible action of a city concerned for the safety of its citizens, at the cost of hundreds of millions of dollars in the local economy? Or is it a weak capitulation to an overblown media frenzy, compounded by the signatures of 50,000 frightened people? In either case, it must have been an agonizing decision to make, and I’m glad I wasn’t the one to make it. As hard as SXSW has tried…