SXSW festival in Texas cancelled over coronavirus fears, mayor says

South by Southwest has been canceled in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. It was announced on Friday's that this year's event, which was scheduled to kick off March 13, has been canceled.

SXSW, as its more commonly known, is an annual emerging tech and media conference and music festival that was founded in 1987. Prior to the event's cancellation, over 35,000 people signed a petition asking for the organizers to call off the event.

The event is one of major events and conferences that were canceled following the coronavirus outbreak. Tech industry conference Mobile World Congress was called off, the Game Developers Conference was postponed , Facebook canceled its F8 conference and its marketing summit ,and Google canceled I/O , its yearly gathering for developers.

The coronavirus, which began in Wuhan, China, two months ago , causes a respiratory disease known as COVID-19. Cases have been recorded in 70 countries, including more than 100 in the US . More than 100,000 people have been infected, and more than 3,000 people have died from the virus.

BI