Coronavirus cancellations and delays from the NBA to Disney and Eurovision

The novel coronavirus continues to wreak havoc worldwide — not least in its impact on events from tech and sports to entertainment and politics. As people are advised to stay at home and avoid contact with others, a cascade of cancellations and postponements has wiped major events off the calendar.

Disneyland is shut. Movies from James Bond to Black Widow have been postponed, while big tech industry events such as SXSW, the E3 gaming show, Facebook’s F8, the Geneva Motor Show, Google I/O and Mobile World Congress have all been called off. 

On March 11, the WHO declared the outbreak a pandemic and the NBA suspended the remainder of its season. The English Premier League soon followed. Coachella, Glastonbury and the Eurovision Song Contest have also been hit, showing the worldwide impact of coronavirus disruption. If the coronavirus situation continues, the Olympics and San Diego Comic-Con could well be next.

Here’s how the outbreak is affecting our lives with postponements, cancelations and closures:

Sporting events

• NBA On March 11, the NBA suspended the rest of the 2019-2020 season after Utah Jazz player Rudy Gobert reportedly tested positive for the coronavirus.
• Formula One The Australian Grand Prix, the first race of the 2020 Formula One season, was canceled after a McLaren team member tested positive for the virus. Upcoming races in Bahrain and Vietnam have been postponed.
• English Premier League English football authorities have suspended all matches until at least April 3 after a player and coach on different teams tested positive for the virus. On March 17, European soccer’s governing body UEFA postponed its European Championship national tournament to next year. This may allow leagues including the EPL to finish their seasons over the summer.
• Major League Soccer The MLS season was suspended on March 12 as it “continues to assess the impact of COVID-19 with its medical task force and public health officials.”
• NCAA Several major Division I conferences in the NCAA, including the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, ACC and American Athletic Conference, said on March 12 that they would cancel their respective conference tournaments this week. The March Madness tournament was also canceled.  
• NHL On March 12, the National Hockey League joined the list of sporting bodies suspending their season.



• MLB Major League Baseball spring training games were suspended, and health fears initially delayed the start of the 2020 baseball regular season by at least two weeks. On March 16, after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shared updated recommendations restricting events with more than 50 people for the next eight weeks, the MLB said it would follow those guidelines and further delay the opening of the regular season. 
• The Masters Tournament The Augusta National Golf Club postponed the 2020 Masters Tournament on March 13, citing “the health and well-being of everyone associated with these events and the citizens of the Augusta community.” The club didn’t provide a new date for the tournament.
• Kentucky Derby The Kentucky Derby Festival postponed all events through April 4, with the Kentucky Derby race reportedly postponed until Sept. 5.
• Boston Marathon Originally set to take place on April 20, the Boston Marathon will now run Sept. 14, according to the Boston Athletic Association. 
• EA esports Video game publisher EA said it’s suspending all live events for its competitive gaming series, which includes the Apex Legends Global Series, EA Sports FIFA 20 Global Series, FIFA Online 4 Live Events and Madden NFL 20 Championship Series. The suspension began March 13 and will continue “until the global coronavirus situation improves.” Online events in which participants and staff are isolated will continue, EA said.

Political events

Cultural happenings and institutions

• Met Ball On March 16, Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour said this year’s Met Gala, slated to take place in May, has been postponed.
• Coachella The Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival has been pushed back to October.
• Glastonbury The UK’s legendary Glastonbury music festival, this year intended to feature Taylor Swift, Paul McCartney, Kendrick Lamar and Diana Ross, will no longer take place on June 24.
• Ultra Music Festival This Miami festival has been postponed until next year.
• Movie blockbusters A number of high-profile movies have seen their release dates pushed back, including Black Widow, A Quiet Place 2, Mulan and the next James Bond installment, No Time to Die.
• Forthcoming films Many films and TV shows currently in production have shut down, including The Matrix 4 and several of Disney’s live action films.
• WonderCon Anaheim On March 12, WonderCon Anaheim, which was slated to take place in April, was postponed.
• Tribeca The Tribeca Film Festival, slated to take place in April, was postponed after New York banned events with 500 or more people.
• SXSW Sprawling tech and entertainment festival South by Southwest, slated to take place in March, was one of the first to be canceled. 
• Talinn Music Week has been rescheduled for August.
• Broadway Broadway theaters closed on March 12.
• Eurovision Song Contest The famously flamboyant Eurovision Song Contest, due to take place in the Netherlands in May, has been canceled.
• Beyond Wonderland SoCal Dance music festival Beyond Wonderland SoCal, which was scheduled to take place in March, was postponed until June. EDC Las Vegas is still currently scheduled to take place in May.



• Billie Eilish As if it wasn’t enough that the Bond film for which she sang the theme tune is delayed, Billie Eilish is postponing her North American tour dates.
• The Rolling Stones Mick Jagger and chums were supposed to continue their world tour in North America, but the Rolling Stones have postponed their summer dates from San Diego to Atlanta.
• Madonna canceled shows in France.
• The Foo Fighters have pushed back their 25th anniversary tour.
• Avril Lavigne has postponed plans for European shows.
• Slipknot have canceled shows in Japan and across Asia.
• My Chemical Romance were forced to pull out of long-awaited reunion shows.
• Pearl Jam have canceled a North American tour.
• Green Day were due to tour Asia.
• Pixies have pulled shows in Australia.
• Action Bronson has pulled shows.
• Mariah Carey has moved a Hawaii concert from March to November.
• Rage Against the Machine have canceled live dates with Run the Jewels.
• The Who have canceled shows in the UK and Ireland.
• Talk shows A handful of late-night shows in New York, including The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Late Night with Seth Meyers, will reportedly halt production until March 30 at the soonest. The Ellen Show announced March 13 it’s suspending production until March 30.
• The Met The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York said on March 12 that it would temporarily close.
• Washington Monument The National Park Service has closed the famous Washington Monument.
• White House Easter Egg Roll The Office of the First Lady canceled this year’s White House Easter Egg Roll, which was slated to take place April 13. “The health and safety of all Americans must be the first priority, especially right now,” First Lady Melania Trump said in a statement.
• The Jonas Brothers Their April 1 to 18 residency in Las Vegas had been canceled. 
• Kelly Clarkson Another Vegas disappointment: Kelly Clarkson has postponed her Las Vegas residency from April 1 to July.
• Mandy Moore An Instagram post from Mandy Moore revealed the postponement to her tour dates.

Theme parks

Tech industry events

Several prominent industry events were canceled or revamped because of concerns over the coronavirus. They include:

• WWDC Apple said on March 13 that its Worldwide Developers Conference will be online only this year.
• Microsoft Build Microsoft announced on March 12 it’s canceling its in-person Build 2020 developer event. The Build show will go on in a virtual way, officials said, in the same mid-May time slot that the regular conference was planned. 
• E3 E3, the biggest gaming event of the year, was scheduled to open on June 9 in LA. Some exhibitors, including Microsoft and Ubisoft, will hold online events instead.
• MWC Mobile World Congress, an annual industry gathering that had been scheduled to open on Feb. 24 in Barcelona, was an early casualty.
• Facebook F8 Facebook’s March marketing summit and F8 developer conference were both called off.
• Google I/O Android fans will miss out on Google I/O, the company’s biggest event of the year, where the tech giant announces its newest products and initiatives.
• Geneva Motor Show The Geneva Motor Show, one of the largest car shows of the year, was hit after the Swiss government banned all events of 1,000 people or more.




Now playing:
Watch this:

The cool cars we missed at the Geneva Motor Show



12:34


• Adobe Summit The annual Adobe Summit in Las Vegas is off, although some content will be offered online.
• Nvidia GPU The keynote and product announcements for Nvidia’s GPU Technology Conference, typically held in San Jose, California, and attracting about 10,000 people, was canceled on March 16. The company earlier announced plans to make the event online-only. Nvidia said it will continue to hold online training sessions starting March 25.
• Snap Partner Summit The annual Snap Partner Summit focusing on messaging app Snapchat will be an online-only event, with a keynote scheduled for April 2.
• GDC The annual Game Developers Conference, originally scheduled to take place March 16 to 20 in San Francisco, has been postponed to an unspecified date after exhibitors such as Amazon, Microsoft, Epic Games, Sony, EA and Facebook dropped out.
• Google News Initiative Summit Alphabet Inc. canceled the Google News Initiative Summit scheduled for late April in Sunnyvale, California.
• Google Next The annual Google cloud conference, which drew 30,000 attendees last year, has been postponed even after it was turned into a digital-only event.
• re:MARS Amazon canceled the upcoming re:MARS conference in Las Vegas, which focuses on AI and robotics and was in its second year. All guests who purchased tickets will receive a full refund of registration fees.
• Dell Technologies World Dell has reportedly told attendees of its 2020 tech conference that it’s been moved to “a virtual setting” due to coronavirus concerns. Keynotes and some sessions will be online, according to the note. Dell Technologies World had been scheduled to go from May 4-7 in Las Vegas. Dell didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

CNET’s Corinne Reichert, Ben Fox Rubin, Jackson Ryan, Shara Tibken, Lynn La, Sean Szymkowski, Dara Kerr, Queenie Wong, Oscar Gonzalez, Dan Ackerman, Stephen Shankland, Chris Paukert, Erin Carson, Edward Moyer, Sean Keane, Abrar Al-Heeti, Eli Blumenthal, Richard Trenholm and Ian Sherr contributed to this report. 

Now playing:
Watch this:

Pandemic: Here’s what’s changed about the coronavirus

5:54