Both companies announce concert postponements
Australia’s Frontier Touring and Chugg Entertainment have suspended all concerts due to the coronavirus. The two organizations are adhering to the Australian Goverment’s COVID-19 directive to restrict all public gatherings of more than 500 people until further notice beginning Monday, March 16th.
The New Order, Gengahr and Julia Jacklin shows scheduled for this weekend will be proceeding as scheduled.
Frontier Touring and Chugg Entertainment are presently working with all artist teams to determine if dates can be rescheduled to late 2020 or early 2021. Shows by Marc Rebillet, Kip Moore, Miranda Lambert, Seaforth and Introducing Nashville are set to be rescheduled. The Jimmy Eat World’s shows in Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide will be canceled. Ticket holders will be contacted directly with refund information. Fans can visit the Frontier Touring and Chugg Entertainment Facebook pages for more updates.
Tickets will remain valid for rescheduled dates and they will be notified directly as soon as details of new dates are confirmed. Where concerts cannot be rescheduled a full refund will be available for all tickets purchased through official ticketing agencies.
The news follows the majority of the entertainment industry suspending productions through at least March 31st. Live Nation, the world’s largest concert promoter, has suspended all domestic and international touring through at least the end of March. Billboard reports that the company has instructed tours to return home in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak worldwide. The company will re-evaluate the outbreak in hopes to resume touring in May or June.
A slew of artists and festivals were either canceled or postponed due to the worldwide pandemic in the past week. Many acts, including Reba McEntire, Blake Shelton, Kenny Chesney, Chris Stapleton, The Who, Pearl Jam, Dan + Shay, Sammy Hagar, Santana, Sons of Apollo, Zac Brown Band, Slipknot and others, had canceled or postponed spring shows due to the outbreak before Live Nation’s announcement.
Major festivals and events have also been canceled including the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo to shutting down 11 days early because of public health concerns, SXSW in Austin and the Ultra Festival in Miami. Promoters Goldenvoice Entertainment announced earlier this week that Coachella and Stagecoach have been pushed back six months to October 2020 due to the coronavirus outbreak. The Tin Pan South Songwriters Festival in Nashville has also been rescheduled “in light of the tornado this week as well as growing health concerns over the coronavirus.”
The C2C: Country to Country Festival in London, Dublin and Glasgow has also been postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak
The 35th Annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony set for May 2nd has also been indefinitely postponed. No new date has been set as of this writing.
The ACM (Academy of Country Music) Awards are still slated to be held in Las Vegas in April, but organizers are monitoring the situation closely. CMA Music Fest organizers are also closely watching the outbreak as they prep for the June event in Nashville.
Earlier this week, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the coronavirus a worldwide pandemic. More than 125,000 cases have been reported in 110 countries with nearly 5000 deaths. However, nearly 70k people have contracted and survived the virus that was discovered last year.
On Wednesday (March 11th), U.S. President Donald Trump declared a 30 day travel ban to European countries, except the U.K., for foreign nationals that goes into effect at midnight on Friday, March 13th. He shares, “I am confident by counting and continuing to take these measures we will significantly reduce the threat to our citizens and we will ultimately and expeditiously defeat this virus,” per Fox News.