Live Nation, AEG pause spring tours amid coronavirus concerns—UPDATE
Amid all of the chaos and cancelations of concerts, movies and sporting events due to coronavirus, Live Nation might just pause all of their ongoing and future tours. According to sources speaking with Billboard, the company is instructing all of its touring staff to prepare to return home.
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The past two days we’ve seen a massive wave of event cancelations from Coachella and SXSW to the NBA. Washington and California have even banned public gatherings larger than 250 and 1000 people, respectively. Other regions are expected to follow suit.
As recently as March 11, Live Nation President Joe Berchtold recently told CNN that they are currently looking for Plan B’s for the major upcoming stadium and arena shows. The CDC controls what happens and will work with local officials who will decide regulations in the area. Live Nation will work from there, going to the artists to decide what they want to do and when. He said they want to keep these artists employed to continue making revenue and not have them (the artists) livelihoods damaged by the coronavirus.
Read More: Reading & Leeds “going ahead as planned” amid coronavirus pandemic
Now it seems that Live Nation, one of the United States’ largest promoters might be pausing all of their ongoing and future tours.
Live Nation has already instructed its corporate employees to stay and work at home, away from their Beverly Hills, CA headquarters.
According to Billboard, Live Nation will be pausing the remainder of shows starting this weekend. They also report that they will look back into the matter at the beginning of April. They hope to resume their tours by May or June.
The Center For Disease Control website updates every weekday at noon with the current coronavirus statistics. Thus far, there are a total of 1,215 confirmed cases in the U.S. with 36 deaths. Washington, New York and California have the highest confirmed number of cases. The latter two totaling between 100-200 and the former with up to 500 confirmed cases.
UPDATE: MARCH 12, 2020, 3:44 P.M. ET
Following the news that Live Nation will be pausing tours, fellow concert promoter AEG will also halt tours in the U.S. and internationally.
The two companies joined Creative Artists Agency (CAA), William Morris Endeavor (WME), Paradigm, and United Talent Agency (UTA) in addressing the current decision, according to Rolling Stone.
“The world’s leading forces in live entertainment have come together to form a global task force to drive strategic support and unified direction ensuring precautionary efforts and ongoing protocol are in the best interest of artists, fans, staff, and the global community,” the joint statement reads. “At this time, we collectively recommend large scale events through the end of March be postponed. We continue to support that small-scale events follow guidance set by their local government officials. We feel fortunate to have the flexibility to reschedule concerts, festivals, and live events as needed, and look forward to connecting fans with all their favorite artists and live entertainment soon.”
We’re sure there will be more breaking news regarding cancelations as the week progresses.
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