The outbreak of Coronavirus has officially been confirmed as a pandemic by the World Health Organization. The chief of the organization, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said: "coronavirus has been assessed and this outbreak around the clock and we are deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction”. "We have therefore made the assessment that #COVID19 can be characterized as a pandemic”. A huge statement coming from such a renowned doctor could mean that over the next coming weeks and months, we may very well go into lockdown. Coronavirus is affecting everything such as radio stations closing down, music festivals, food supplies and football. As self-insolation increases and some find themselves spending more time with the family more than they are at work, the question on everyone’s mind is are our major music festivals going to go ahead? For example, Coachella, Wireless, Reading & Leeds Festival or Park Life. Since the outbreak two of the USA biggest festivals have been affected because of COVID19. Coachella that was meant to be starting next month (April 10 - 12 th) has been pushed back to 6 months later than planned, to October because of fears over the virus. Good news is Wireless have come out and said everything will still be going to plan as they expect the virus will have slowed down dramatically by July and therefore enabling the festival to go ahead. But reading & Leeds festival may be delayed if the government decide over the next coming weeks to ban all mass gatherings in the UK by the end of next month. As well as music tours not being existent across Asia and Italy at the moment and several of our favourite artist postponing dates for any upcoming UK and France tours in the music scene. Not only is coronavirus affecting us the consumer potential favourite festivals and cancelled shows it effects upcoming artists too. Rex and Beano had been planning their trip to America for months with five "important" shows planned and meet and greets with fans and supporters. As well as this using this opportunity to build connections with a lot of major influential industry people in order to boost their social following in America. "That's unfortunately fallen apart now," says singer Rex, who calculates the duo are set to lose thousands because of cancelling flights and accommodation. "I hope music fans know how financially difficult this is for the duo they care about. And he also hopes it means they'll stream there music more and get involved in local music scenes more than they did before."
Although coronavirus seems like it may affect our favourite music festivals in the summer and has already had an effect in America for the moment it’s mainly good news for us hardcore music fans as no other major UK festivals have yet to been cancelled. Is my festival affected? Here's a list of major UK festivals this summer - we'll be updating this as we hear from festival organisers. June: Isle of Wight Festival - has released a statement saying the festival is going ahead as planned. Download - Going ahead as planned. Lovebox - no update. Parklife - no update. Glastonbury - "Glastonbury Festival thoroughly plans each year's event, and puts in place all necessary measures to protect the public and maximise safety... with our 2020 Festival still 16 weeks away, we continue to plan and prepare for the event, whilst at the same time closely monitoring developments with the coronavirus situation." July: British Summer Time - no planned changes. Wireless - Going ahead as planned. TRNSMT - no update Latitude - Going ahead as planned. Camp Bestival says the festival is going ahead as planned. It told Newsbeat: "We are excited to welcome everyone to the event in 20 weeks. Safety of our artists, fans, and staff is always our top priority and planned for accordingly." August: Cream fields - no update. Reading and Leeds - Going ahead as planned. Keep an eye out for future updates as we will be publishing more regularly over the forthcoming months.
