How many of us have the Don McLean song stuck in our head with “The Day The Music Died?” Well, it’s been looping through our heads as the burst of cancellations continues over the coronavirus pandemic. The entire Entertainment industry is taking a significant plunge during this time including Late Night shows based in New York, and many more. For music, the best thing you can do is support bands by buying merch, supporting their crowdfunding campaign, and even support your local photographer by ordering prints from them. The list continues, and as this pandemic progresses, it will be time for bands to get creative on ways to keep music alive. Perhaps we should see more online sessions, playthroughs, etc.. as time passes. With that being said, the next wave of cancellations comes from Rage Against the Machine, Deftones, Carnifex, and more.
Rage Against the Machine have postponed the first part of their North American reunion tour (March 26th – May 20th):
Deftones have decided to cancel their New Zealand and Australia tour:
Carnifex were forced to cancel their tour with 3Teeth, The Browning and Skold:
“Regrettable but inevitable. We are forced by local ordinances and the music industry grinding to a halt to cancel the Meta-X tour. We are gutted by how this has played and like many other bands are now digging out of a massive pit of debt. We will be posting all our tour merch online ASAP. Be safe and Carnifex will return to the road as soon as we are able.”
My Chemical Romance have decided to postpone their scheduled shows in Australia and New Zealand:
“To our dearest friends –
It is with heavy hearts that we have decided to postpone our performances in Australia and New Zealand. We felt this was the right decision for our fans, our band, our crew, and our families given the current global situation. We apologize to our fans, but please know that we didn’t come to this decision lightly. Thank you for your understanding and we look forward to being with you all again as soon as we can. In the meantime, please be good to each other. My Chemical Romance”
Following the news on My Chemical Romance dropping out of this year’s Download Australia festival, the event is officially cancelled:
“STATEMENT REGARDING DOWNLOAD AUSTRALIA 2020
Melbourne Friday March 20 || Showgrounds
Sydney Saturday March 21 || The Domain
It is with intense disappointment that we announce that My Chemical Romance will not be coming to Australia to play Download.
MCR have released the following statement today:
“To our dearest friends –
It is with heavy hearts that we have decided to postpone our performances in Australia and New Zealand. We felt this was the right decision for our fans, our band, our crew, and our families given the current global situation. We apologize to our fans, but please know that we didn’t come to this decision lightly. Thank you for your understanding and we look forward to being with you all again as soon as we can. In the meantime, please be good to each other.” My Chemical Romance
Given that this announcement has come barely 7 days prior to Download Australia we will not be able to secure an alternative headliner as there is insufficient time to secure visas and arrange the other relevant logistics that are required prior to the festival.
As we are unable to deliver a complete line-up to meet the standard that Download fans both expect and deserve, we have very reluctantly made the decision to cancel Download Australia 2020.
The Download team has been working around the clock to create an unforgettable experience for heavy music fans and we are devastated not to be able to deliver this show to Australian Downloaders as planned.
We are currently working with both My Chemical Romance and Deftones to schedule separate headline shows in Australia in 2020 and will update you all as soon as we have these.
We are also working with a number of artists who have official Download side shows scheduled, to add headline shows in Sydney and Melbourne next week, stay tuned for these dates.
All ticket purchasers to the Download Melbourne and Sydney 2020 events will receive a full refund including booking and payment processing fees.
We appreciate that the decision to cancel Download Australia will cause huge disappointment and may create major difficulty for ticket holders, for which we sincerely apologise.
Moshtix will contact account holders on Monday 16th March via email with information regarding the refund process. We apologise for any inconvenience and appreciate your patience. For any questions relating to your Download ticket purchase, please contact Moshtix directly. https://tixsupport.moshtix.com.au/”
Tool has postponed another show, this one’s for March 16th at the Maverik Center. The band has decided to take the rest of their spring tour as a day-to-day approach:
“We are continuing to monitor the evolving situation with Coronavirus and are in continual conversations with local promoters and venues. The health of our fans, bandmates, crew members and all of those that work in and around the venues is what we are focused on. As of now, our March 14 date at the Ford Idaho Center Amphitheater is going on as planned but our March 16 performance at Maverik Center has been postponed. As for the recently announced North American Spring tour, we are taking a day-to-day approach so please continue to monitor our website (Toolband.com) and social media channels for updates.”
Billboard reports, Lollapalooza Chile and Argentina, which includes Guns N’ Roses as a headliner, has been postponed. Lollapalooza Brazil is still on, however, this can always change.
Gustavo Posse, the mayor of San Isidro, a suburb of Buenos Aires where the event was scheduled to take place, shared the following via Twitter:
“For reasons of public knowledge related to coronavirus, I inform you that Lollapalooza will not be held in San Isidro on the scheduled dates: March 27, 28 and 29, The festival will be rescheduled”
Lollapalooza Chile issued the following message:
“Facing this unprecedented situation, our highest priority is to maintain the health and safety of the public, artists and our teams and abide the preventative methods of public and health authorities.”
Por las razones de público conocimiento relacionadas con el #coronavirus les informo que no se realizará el #Lollapalooza en San Isidro en las fechas previstas: 27, 28 y 29 de marzo. El festival se reprogramará. Los mantendremos informados. pic.twitter.com/cc3pQX5QUo
— Gustavo Posse (@gustavoposse) March 12, 2020
Steelfest Open Air is cancelled due to the Finnish Government’s restriction on all events over 500 capacity should be cancelled due to the coronavirus until the end of May:
“Finnish government just align that all events over 500 capacity should be canceled due virus situation until end of May 2020.
This is news what we received 30 minutes ago. We will keep you more informed as we get detailed info how to proceed with “everything”. So hold on with questions. All will be answered on time as we get more info.
This is not cancellation, we are forced to re-schedule Steelfest 2020. All tickets remain valid for Steelfest 2021. Steelfest 2020 dates will be moved to May 14-15 2021.
So, now we need your support and trust.
I hope that past decade and our work with festivals and events, we have showed to you our dedication and no compromise spirit and earned your trust.
Its critical for our events to come that you hold on your ticket(s) and use those for Steelfest 2021.
For us this means huge financial loss. Big part of this year festival expenses are already fulfilled.
Costs like flights of the bands, marketing , salaries of staff etc. etc. all this we cannot get back anywhere.
As you can imagine we do not have big capital or etc. companies behind us as many mainstream festivals have, so basicly this means that all losses mentioned above are covered from our own wallet.
So, once again, this is the time, now we need your support and trust. That’s all we got.
HAIL THE HORNED ONE!
-COMMANDER-”
