While we still don’t know what the long term effects of the spreading COVID-19 cases across the world will be, the short term waves can already be felt among audiophiles near and far. As organizations, businesses, and events shift the way we conduct every day life, multiple audio events have already chosen to either postpone, cancel or reschedule their public gatherings including a recent change to AXPONA 2020.
The latest comes from Montreal, which has chosen to postpone their annual Salon Audio Montreal Audio Fest as of this week. It’s not clear at this time weather it will be rescheduled or totally cancelled, but the following is currently posted on the show web site:
“Although we approve this wise decision, it is with sadness that we welcome the decision of the Government of Quebec to limit or ban public gatherings of over 250 people in Quebec until further notice. We all invested time and money in this project and just like you and the visitors we were really excited as we approached the Audiofest.It is too early to say whether the event will be postponed or canceled, we are working with the Bonaventure hotel to see the remaining possibilities for 2020. A decision will be announced by the end of the month. Thanks for your trust and confidence.
Sarah and Michel”
Earlier this week AXPONA announced that they will also be rescheduling their Chicago Audio show for August, from their statement:
“March 9, 2020
Dear AXPONA Community,
AXPONA has been rescheduled from April 17-19 to August 7-9, 2020 out of concern for the health and safety of all participants due to the growing coronavirus situation. This decision was made following an outpouring of feedback from the AXPONA community over the last 72 hours.
The three most consistent themes we heard were, 1) fears of attending public events will increase in March and April, 2) AXPONA should still be held in 2020, and 3) reschedule later this year if possible. Although the Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel is booked solid all year, they offered us a week in August that will accommodate all of AXPONA’s space needs. So we secured it.
We rescheduled out of an abundance of caution during this unpredictable time to provide the best opportunity for a well attended event and to ensure the best AXPONA experience for all show goers in 2020. We will contact all exhibitors and attendees directly later this week as we work through the details of the move.
Our sole priority today is to communicate this news immediately so everyone can adjust their plans accordingly. We thank you for your understanding and we apologize for any inconvenience.
We look forward to seeing you all at AXPONA in August!
Sincerely,
Joel A.Davis
Founder & CEO, JD Events”
It also looks as though the Munich High End show is fully cancelled for 2020, you can check out the release and details on that happening here.
Also of note, Record Store Day originally scheduled for April 18th has been pushed back until June 20th. You can find all the details for the event in the US here: Record Store Day and the official statement below.
“13.3.20, 1pm: Record Store Day is a worldwide event involving thousands of people and small businesses—In our discussions over the last few weeks, as information came and changed daily, and then hourly, we’ve taken all of them into consideration as we go over various options: Stay the course. Move the date. Change the structure of the event. No one knows what things will look like in any given place in the next five weeks, and decisions for that time period need to be made now, using current facts.
There is no perfect solution. There is no easy answer. We’ve decided that the best of all possible moves is to change the date of Record Store Day this year to Saturday, June 20.
We think this gives stores around the world the best chance to have a profitable, successful Record Store Day, while taking into consideration the recommendations of doctors, scientists, the World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control, and the need to be good citizens of both local and worldwide communities.
We’re working with all of our partners and our stores to make this change as smooth as possible for everyone who participates in Record Store Day: customers, record stores, artists, labels and more. Record Store Day is everywhere and we want to hold our party when everyone can gather around safely to celebrate life, art, music and the culture of the indie record store.
(And hey! Anything with the April 18, 2020 on it just became that much more special!) “