Every Major Event Canceled or Postponed Worldwide Due to Coronavirus

Massimo Pinca/Reuters
Massimo Pinca/Reuters

As the 2019 novel coronavirus continues to wreak havoc on world financial markets and fuel fears of widespread contagion, major events such as conferences, summits, concerts, and sporting events are being forced to cancel or postpone. Even the upcoming Democratic primary debate in Arizona has been affected, with the Democratic National Committee announcing Tuesday that there will be no live audience at the event next Sunday “out of an abundance of caution.” The virus has reached more than 100 countries, killed at least 4,000 people, and sickened more than 110,000 people around the globe. Many significant sports events, however, must go on even without an audience in order to keep their season schedules on track. Noteworthy tech conferences have been moved online due to fears that the virus will multiply in large gatherings. Here is a running list of the major disruptions to events around the world.


Major Global Sporting Events


  • Indian Wells Masters (also known as the BNP Paribas Open) tennis tournament in Palm Springs, California—canceled

  • Asian Football Confederation and FIFA Asian World Cup qualifying matches in Qatar—postponed

  • Round 5 of the Guinness Six Nations Rugby in France—postponed

  • Hong Kong and Singapore rounds of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2020—postponed

  • Tokyo Marathon—canceled

  • Chinese Grand Prix—postponed

  • The Professional Golf Association (PGA) Tour Series in China—canceled

  • World Athletics Indoor Championships—postponed until 2021

  • Grand Prix in Bahrain—closed to spectators

  • All sporting events in Italy, including the Serie A football—cancelled or closed to spectators

  • All sporting events in Iran—cancelled

  • All sporting events in Greece—closed to spectators


Major Festivals and Events


  • Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) presidential campaign rally in Cleveland, Ohio on March 10—canceled

  • South by Southwest (SXSW) music, tech, and film festival in Texas—canceled

  • Pearl Jam North American tour—postponed

  • Coachella—postponed

  • Tucson Festival of Books—canceled

  • Ultra Music Festival in Miami—postponed

  • Annual TED 2020 conference in Vancouver—canceled

  • Seattle’s Emerald City Comic Con—canceled

  • Prague Film Festival—canceled

  • London Book Fair—canceled

  • Tomorrowland Electronic Music Festival in Belgium—canceled

  • Livre Paris Book Fair—canceled

  • National Book Critics Circle Award Ceremony in New York—postponed until fall 2020

  • St. Patrick’s Day parades in Ireland—canceled

  • Tokyo Cherry Blossom Festival—canceled

  • Azalea Festival in Okinawa, Japan—canceled

  • Venice Carnival—canceled

  • The Dalai Lama has canceled all public events

  • Purim parades in Israel—canceled

  • Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia—closed

  • New York International Auto Show—postponed until late August


Movies and Productions


  • Peter Rabbit 2 release—postponed to August

  • James Bond film No Time to Die—release postponed until November

  • New York premiere of Superman: Red Son—canceled

  • Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cinderella musical—postponed until October


Major U.S. Corporate Events and Conferences


  • The World Bank and International Monetary Fund’s Spring Meeting in Washington, D.C.—canceled, virtual conference only

  • Google I/O developer event in California—canceled

  • Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society’s global health conference in Orlando, Florida—canceled

  • Adobe Summit in-person conference in Las Vegas—canceled, moved to online event

  • Aruba Networks Atmosphere 2020 conference in Las Vegas—canceled

  • HIMSS health and tech conference in Orlando, Florida—canceled

  • The Mobile World Congress in Barcelona—canceled

  • Workday internal sales conference in San Francisco—canceled, online only

  • ASEAN Summit in Las Vegas—postponed

  • Shopify annual developer conference ‘Unite’ in Toronto, Canada—canceled

  • Cisco Live in Melbourne, Australia—canceled

  • DEF CON China in Beijing—postponed

  • Dell World in Las Vegas—canceled, online only

  • EmTech Asia in Singapore—postponed

  • Facebook F8 Developers Conference in San Jose—canceled

  • F5 Agility 2020 in Orlando, Florida—canceled, online only

  • Facebook Global Marketing Summit in San Francisco—canceled

  • Game Developers Conference in San Francisco—postponed to summer 2020

  • Google Cloud Next in San Francisco—canceled, online only

  • Google I/O in Mountain View, California—canceled

  • Google News Initiative Summit in Sunnyvale, California—canceled

  • Semicon conventions in Korea and China—canceled

  • Microsoft WSLConf in Redmond, Washington—canceled, online only

  • Microsoft MVP Global Summit in Redmond, Washington—canceled, online only

  • Paris Blockchain Week Summit—canceled

  • SAS Global Forum in Washington, D.C.—canceled

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