At its best, rock 'n' roll is all about street-level grime and raw danger. Which should be enough to have a couple hundred thousand folks totally stoked about this year's annual South by Southwest blowout, scheduled to take place in Austin, Texas from March 13 to 22.

But with fears about the coronavirus continuing to spread like wildfire across the globe, industry players, frontline workers, and attendees are beginning to worry about spending a week standing in lines, packing into clubs, and sitting in jammed-to-capacity conference rooms.

A change.org petition started by Austin resident Shayla Lee has been set up to call for the cancellation of South by Southwest, which traditionally showcases up-and-coming acts from across the world. 

The petition, which had racked up 54,000 digital signatures with the goal of getting to 75,000, reads as follows. 

 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.

Based on news today, Lee isn't the only one concerned about the potential for an outbreak of Covid 19 at the festival, which--because it tends to showcase artists on the cusp of breaking into the mainstream--is one of the most important music events of the year. 

Rolling Stone has reported that Warner Brothers records has decided against sending staff to SXSW. In an internal memo, chief human resources officer Masha Osherova said, “Given the event draws in many people from around the world, we’ve decided to cancel WMG’s attendance at SXSW this year....Many of our partners are reaching similar conclusions, which also means the benefits of attending would be much reduced.”

Warner isn't the only major company that's decided against heading to Texas, with major labels Sony and Universal also suggesting to its staff that attending the festival might be a risk not worth taking. 

Other major tastemakers have already officially pulled out of South by Southwest, with Facebook, Twitter, Netflix, TikTok, Intel, Apple, and Mashable all cancelling scheduled events and declining to send employees to the festival. 

Scheduled keynote speaker Tim Ferriss has also decided not to attend. The technology guru and podcaster explained his decision in a Tweet earlier this week. 

 https://twitter.com/tferriss/status/1234860126756012039

Despite the cancellations, Austin health officials and festival organizers continue to maintain that attending SXSW isn't nearly the health risk that some are making it out to be. There are currently 16 confirmed coronavirus cases across the State of Texas, which has a population of almost 29 million people. 

An online coronavirus advisory by the city states that there is no reason to think that cancelling SXSW will make Austin safer, and that health officials continue to work with fest organizers. 

Included in the statement, which is here, is “The overall risk of COVID-19 in the United States to the general public remains low at this time"

Numerous Canadian bands are scheduled to play SXSW, including Vancouver art-glam king Art D'Ecco, dark-wavers Actors, Toronto’s Bad Waitress and Gloin, Winnipeg’s Begonia, and Montreal’s Ada Lea and Basia Bulat.
 
d'Ecco told the Straight he was still planning on playing.

"I’ve spent way too much money and there’s just too much at stake to pull out now- I’d be losing several thousand dollars," he said. "I understand the fears etc., but at this point I’m going in and we’re gonna play and honour our showcases. It’s a huge gamble to play these showcase festivals, and now with an added pandemic scare I’m just gonna try and protect myself and surrender. I’m armed with hand sani and will follow directives posted regarding hand washing etc. I’m a germophobe enough already. This shit doesn’t scare me any more than life in general."

And then, perhaps serving as a commentary on how fast coronavirus panic is spreading, he added: "And just as I typed all this I’m getting messages that it may be cancelled. Fuck. Let’s see if it’s still on. It’s up to Austin to cancel if they don’t get insurance money apparently is the rumour."

SXSW continues to tweet out show and scheduling announcements. It's last tweet addressing COVID-19 came three days ago and it suggested the fest is still going ahead as planned.