Coronavirus latest: London's Grace Jones-curated festival, Meltdown, moves to 2021 with same lineup

Here’s a summary of the global impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic, officially specified as COVID-19, on festivals, clubs, promoters and the electronic music scene at large.

Find ways to help the community and resources for artists and promoters here.

Last updated: 14:35 GMT, Wednesday, April 8th

Key developments

• Cities around the world have imposed capacity limits on public gatherings or banned them altogether, forcing key nightclubs, including Berlin’s Berghain and Tresor and London’s fabric, XOYO and Printworks, to temporarily halt events, work at reduced capacity or switch to livestreaming.

• Festivals planned for March, April and beyond, including California’s Coachella and Morocco’s Beat Hotel, have been postponed, while others, like Japan’s Rainbow Disco Club, Netherlands’ Rewire and UK giant Glastonbury, have been cancelled.

• Many artists, including the likes of Four Tet, Caterina Barbieri, Arca and Thom Yorke, have called off gigs and tours.

• Community resources for helping artists and promoters cope with the crisis and livestreaming events have begun springing up.

Live updates

April 8th

• London’s Cross The Tracks Festival has cancelled its 2020 edition in June. The organisers say it’ll return in 2021, with a portion of free tickets going to NHS staff.

April 6th

• In London, Southbank Centre‘s Meltdown festival, which this year was curated by Grace Jones, has been postponed until 2021. The whole lineup, including Solange, Baaba Maal and Jones herself, will remain the same.

• Danish festival Roskilde has been postponed to 2021 after the Danish government extended its ban on events through August 30th.

• En Masse, the new Welsh festival curated by Batu, has postponed this year’s inaugural edition until June 11th through 13th, 2021.

April 3rd

• This year’s edition of Lente Kabinet, the Amsterdam festival run by the Dekmantel crew, has been cancelled. However, the bulk of its lineup has been transferred to a new one-day event in September called Zomer Kabinet. It’ll go down on Saturday, the 5th, at the same venue, Het Twiske.

• LWE’s London festival Junction 2 has been postponed until June 2021.

April 2nd

• About 15-20 Tribal Gathering festivalgoers are still stuck in Panama City after the country went into lockdown during the event, which ran from February 29th through March 15th in Colón, Crack reports.

• Bulgarian festival Meadows In The Mountains has postponed its tenth anniversary edition until 2021.

• Albania’s week-long Kala Festival has been postponed from mid-June until September 9th through 16th.

• Iceland’s Secret Solstice festival, planned for June 26th through 28th, has been postponed until 2021.

April 1st

• London venue the Barbican has extended its closure period until June 30th, 2020.

March 31st

• The Swiss government has announced a relief grant for the cultural sector worth 280 million CHF as part of a 32 billion CHF government package. All major clubs (including Hive, Audio, Zukunft, Nordstern and more) have closed as country went into lockdown from March 14th.

• In Japan, DJ Nobu, Mars89 and others have launched a petition in support of their bid for club compensation from the government. More than 300,000 people, including Ryuichi Sakamoto, have already signed.

March 28th

• Primavera Sound, one of Europe’s most popular music festivals, has postponed this year’s edition from June until August. The event will still take place at Parc del Fòrum in Barcelona.

March 27th

• Belfast’s AVA Festival has postponed this year’s edition.

• UK festival Gottwood has postponed this year’s edition until June 2021.

• After the Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike “requested” residents remain home this weekend, several clubs have temporarily closed (WOMB until April 2nd; Contact until the 6th; ageHa until the 25th) or called off this weekend’s events (Circus Tokyo, Azumaya, Solfa, EN-SOF, R Lounge, Spread and more).

• East London festival All Points East has cancelled its upcoming third edition, with the main event planned for the late May bank holiday weekend.

• Manchester festival Parklife has been cancelled for 2020.

• Seoul venue vurt. has closed until further notice.

• Milan Design Week has been postponed from April 21st to 26th until June 16th to 21st.

• Loom Festival in Barcelona has been postponed.

• New York festival Governor’s Ball has been cancelled.

March 26th

• In Japan, DJ Nobu and several volunteers (who wish to remain anonymous) have appealed directly to the Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yoshihide Suga, in a bid to secure financial compensation for the many clubs and venues suffering due to the coronavirus. This follows yesterday’s meeting between Nobu and co. and three Japanese politicians: Akira Koike, Yoshiko Kira and Manabu Terada. No decision has yet been reached.

• Ibiza’s business leaders are trying to push this year’s party season back to November, Diario De Ibiza reports. The #moveyourspring campaign urges people to postpone their holidays instead of cancelling them altogether. According to El Mundo, summer tourism brings around €770 million to the island and accounts for 35 percent of jobs.

March 24th

• The Netherlands has banned gatherings of more than three people until June 1st.

• DGTL Amsterdam, set to for April 11th and 12th, has been cancelled.

• Shanghai club Elevator reopened last weekend. It’ll open from 9 PM on weekends for the time being, with strict new sanitation guidelines in place.

March 23rd

• UK enters lockdown.

• Rainbow Disco Club are hosting a livestream event on April 18th, the day its now-cancelled festival was supposed to take place, from the festival site in Chubu. The lineup features DJ Nobu, Kenji Takimi, Yoshinori Hayashi and more.

• Welsh festival Freerotation has been postponed until 2021. Read the statement by founders Suzybee and Steevio.

• Lyon festival Nuits Sonores has postponed its 2020 edition from May 19th through 24th until July 22nd through 26th.

• LA-based live talent agency Paradigm lays off 100 people out of about 700 total staff.

• Tokyo club VENT closes until at least April 10th.

March 22nd

• Similar to the UK’s decision on Friday, Australian Prime Minster Scott Morrison has announced the shutdown of all nightclubs, bars, pubs, restaurants and many other non-essential services across the country. Any non-essential domestic travel is being strongly discouraged, with Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania effectively closing their borders to travellers from other states.

March 20th

• The UK government has ordered the closure of clubs, bars, pubs, restaurants, cinemas and similar public social venues in a press conference today. Chancellor Rishi Sunak said the state will cover up to 80 percent (up to £2,500 per month) of salaried workers wages. There’s no word yet on a plan for freelance and contract workers.

• International Music Summit (IMS) Ibiza has been postponed until May 2021. It’ll host a “virtual edition” for 2020.

• New “livestream club” KLO will hold its first event on Saturday, March 21st, from 8 PM CET. Tune in here.

• Sheffield venue Hope Works is closing until further notice.

• Movement Detroit has postponed this year’s festival to September 11th through 13th. Ticketholders can attend the new dates or save their tickets for the 2021 edition.

March 19th

• Urvakan Festival, which was due to go down in Yerevan in May, has been postponed after Armenia declared a state of emergency. The plan is to return with the same lineup at a later date.

• London venue Village Underground is closing until further notice.

• Donaufestival in Graz, Austria, has been cancelled. The two-weekend event was due to start on April 24th.

• Two guests at San Diego festival CRSSD, which took place at Waterfront Park across March 7th and 8th, have since tested positive for COVID-19. Read the festival’s statement via Facebook.

• Chicago’s smartbar has closed and has posted a fundraiser for staff affected by the crisis. Nightlight, a venue in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, has also closed and has its own GoFundMe page.

March 18th

• Malmö festival Intonal is not happening in 2020. It was due to start on Thursday, April 23rd.

• The Design Museum in London has postponed its upcoming exhibition Electronic: From Kraftwerk To The Chemical Brothers, which was due to open on March 31st.

• Portugal’s Festival Forte, scheduled to take place in August, has been put on hold.

• Despite optimistic signs last week, Glastonbury Festival has cancelled its 2020 edition. Tickets for this year will roll over to 2021. Full statement from Michael and Emily Eavis here.

• The team behind Mint Warehouse in Leeds is postponing all events at the club, plus its new festival, Newsam Park Open Air, until further notice.

• The Australian government has amended its ban on public gatherings of 500-plus people, now restricting any non-essential indoor gatherings to 100. The country’s events industry is self-reporting financial losses of over $100 million so far, with upwards of 65,000 jobs impacted.

March 17th

• The Scottish government has announced a £320 million rescue package for small businesses.

• In Manchester, The Warehouse Project and Broadwick Live have postponed eight upcoming shows at Depot Mayfield, including Patrick Topping All Night Long, 100% Joseph Capriati and Charlotte de Witte. New dates are currently being negotiated

• London venue Printworks is closing and has postponed the rest of this season’s events. “We’re in the process of rescheduling the postponed shows to later in the year, and ask that you please bear with us—we are hoping to announce the new dates within the next seven days,” reads a statement.

• London sister clubs XOYO, Phonox and The Jazz Cafe have closed until further notice.

• Manchester spot Soup Kitchen is shutting until further notice. “We have had to make the most difficult decision in our history,” says the club.

• Clubcommission Berlin and Reclaim Club Culture are launching the world’s “biggest digital club” on Wednesday, March 18th. Different venues around the city will host the stream, starting at 7 PM each night. As well as DJ sets and live performances, there will be discussions, presentations and films related to club culture. Viewers will be asked for voluntarily donations, which will go towards supporting the local scene in this difficult time. Head to the website for more info.

• Brighton Music Conference has been postponed from April 22nd through 25th until September 23rd through 26th.

March 16th

• London’s RE-TEXTURED festival has been postponed until 2021, while fabric has announced its temporary closure, joining venues The Cause, Ministry Of Sound, Tola and Egg, as well as Soho record shop Phonica, in shuttering. This comes after Prime Minister Boris Johnson advised the public to avoid “non-essential contact” with people and to avoid spaces like clubs, bars, pubs and restaurants. More on what’s happening in London here.

• Slam’s upcoming events in Glasgow, educational programme Soma Skool and party Maximum Pressure, due to take place on March 28th, have been postponed.

• Defected has cancelled its events until May, including all Glitterbox and Classic Music Company shows. As it stands, the brand’s summer schedule, which includes festivals in Croatia and London, plus an Ibiza season, is still going ahead.

• Berlin’s popular Mayday celebrations, known locally as Erste Mai or Myfest, have been called off.

• Copenhagen festival Distortion has moved from June 3rd to 7th to August 26th through 30th.

• Japanese festival Labyrinth is urging clubs in Tokyo and throughout the country to close.

• France’s Snowboxx Festival has cancelled its 2020 edition, planned for March 21st through 28th.

• UK radio station NTS has closed all its studios worldwide, though it’ll keep broadcasting 24/7 with “remote broadcasts and specialist mixes.”

• Berlin club Kater Blau is closed until further notice. One guest, who partied at the venue for most of last Saturday, March 7th, has since tested positive for COVID-19. If you were also present during that time, this statement offers advice on possible next steps.

• ://about blank, another Berlin club, has also cancelled its events until further notice, including its upcoming tenth anniversary in April. “Cancel everything,” reads the club’s statement. “Show solidarity. Take care of each other!”

• Kyiv club Closer shut down last Saturday and will remain closed until at least April 3rd.

• Prague club Ankali, which has been closed since March 12th, has announced a weekender with a TBD date for “as soon as the crisis is over” called Antivirus A.

March 15th

• Lockdown measures are being adapted throughout the US with at least 3,244 confirmed cases and 62 deaths stateside. The CDC has recommended against all gatherings of 50 or more people for the next eight weeks. Governor Mike DeWine of Ohio issued an order closing all bars and restaurants starting at 9 PM tonight, while Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker said his state would enforce closures of restaurants and bars starting Monday. California Governor Gavin Newsom announced that all bars will be closed with restaurant capacity halved, and Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker has ordered all bars and restaurants to stop on-premises consumption (takeout only), and banned gatherings larger than 25. New York City mayor Bill DeBlasio has promised to restrict restaurants and close nightclubs starting on Tuesday. More on what’s happening in New York here.

• Bossa Nova Civic Club, the Bushwick techno hotspot in New York City, closed its doors amidst calls for a citywide lockdown.

March 14th

• Sydney’s winter festival Vivid has been cancelled as a result of the Australian government’s ban on gatherings of over 500 people. The three-week citywide event typically draws well over two million attendees from late May to early June.

March 13th

• The UK will ban all mass gatherings starting next weekend, after a number of sporting leagues and other organizations announced they would shut down even without government intervention. Parliament plans to pass legislation to aid affected businesses next week.

• Berlin mayor Michael Müller announced Friday that all clubs, bars and pubs will be closed until at least April 20th, beginning this Tuesday. Restaurants will remain open with distance rules, while public transit will also be scaled back considerably, reported The Local. Read yesterday’s report on the Berlin club scene’s struggles in the midst of the pandemic.

• Washington, DC, club Flash will close after a reduced-capacity party tonight, while U Street Music Hall is postponing all events through March 31st.

• Canadian provinces British Columbia, Alberta and Quebec have banned all gatherings of 250 or more people, as the federal government advises against all international travel and announces measures to limit inbound flights.

• Movement Detroit has postponed local club events in the coming weeks, but the main Memorial Day weekend festival “is still moving forward as planned with safety as a top priority.”

• New York club Nowadays joins House Of Yes, BASEMENT and Avant Gardner in temporarily closing.

• The UK government halts business rates for small firms, like venues, pubs, and restaurants, as part of a £30 billion stimulus package, the Independent reports.

• Spain declares a state of emergency, which allows the government to limit people’s movements and close restaurants, bars and venues, among other measures.

• France has banned gatherings of 100 people or more. Clubs such as Dehors Brut, La Station and À La Folie have announced closures.

• The Hague festival Rewire has cancelled its upcoming edition, set for April 3rd through 5th.

• Record Store Day has been postponed from April 20th to June 20th.

• Finland has banned events of 500 people or more until the end of May. Solstice Festival, scheduled for mid-June, is safe—for now.

• Corsica Studios is one of the first London venues to begin cancelling events, postponing this Saturday’s Hivern Discs and Trouble Vision party. Meanwhile, AVA Festival released a statement saying this weekend’s conference and club night at the 5,000-capacity superclub Printworks will go ahead with “precautionary measures” such as “promotion of cleanliness via onsite signage” and “additional hand-washing provisions on site.”

• The Australian government has banned all non-essential gatherings of 500 people or more, which has forced festivals like Inner Varnika to cancel.

• Japanese promoter REITEN has announced the postponement of the first edition of its new experimental festival Ensō four weeks before it was due to commence.

March 12th

• Belgium and Portugal are each shutting down all venues, nightclubs and bars, as well as restaurants in Belgium’s case.

• New York governor Andrew Cuomo has banned all events of 500 or more people, a decision that will impact clubs and venues across the state and New York City. Restaurants and bars that remain open will have to reduce capacity.

• Pittsburgh venue Hot Mass is closing “until further notice.”

• Marble Bar in Detroit will close indefinitely.

• New York’s BASEMENT club announced it will close “for the time being,” as will House Of Yes and Avant Gardner. Good Room will operate at “reduced capacity,” while the Sound Room at public records will close and all ticketed events will be cancelled, though the bar and cafe will remain open. Bossa Nova Civic Club will be open regular hours but is restricted to half-capacity.

• San Francisco club 1015 Folsom is closing for the first time in 35 years.

• The state of California has advised against all gatherings of 250 people or more, while LA mayor Eric Garcetti announces a ban of events with 50 people or more on city property.

• Canada’s JUNO Awards ceremony has been cancelled.

• London promoter LWE is calling off its upcoming events.

• Help Musicians UK offers helpline to artists affected by the coronavirus.

• The Scottish government has advised that all gatherings of 500 people or more should be cancelled.

• Mannheim festival Time Warp has cancelled its upcoming edition, planned for April 4th and 5th.

• More Berlin clubs announced closures today: Tresor and OHM, until April 20th, in line with Berghain‘s announcement yesterday, and Salon Zur Wilden Renate, which will livestream club nights instead. Kraftwerk announced the cancellation of its “The Long Now” event. Read more about what’s going on in Berlin here.

• The Dutch cabinet is prohibiting events with 100 people or more until March 31st. Amsterdam clubs De School and RTM then announced they’re cancelling all upcoming events.

• The Swedish government has banned all events with 500 people or more. [Correction: The German government, as this update read earlier, has not altered its ban on 1000+-capacity events from Tuesday. More on that below.]

• Clubbing Spain has compiled a list of all the cancelled and postponed events and temporarily closed venues in the country.

• Ableton Loop in Berlin has been postponed from April 24th to 26th until April 2021, according to a statement today.

• Lithuania’s Opium Club has cancelled all events from tomorrow through April 17th “due to recent restrictions announced by the Vilnius city municipality.”

• The Irish prime minister, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, has called for the cancellation of indoor events with more than 100 people and 500+-capacity outdoor events, in effect from 6 PM local time tonight through March 29th.

• Tbilisi club Bassiani has “call[ed] off club nights for some period of time… Please be assured that we dance together, even in isolation.”

• Brussels Listen! Festival has postponed its 2020 edition, initially planned for March 25th through 30th, until November 10th through 15th.

• Resident Advisor has closed all offices—London, Manchester, Berlin, Barcelona, New York, LA, Tokyo and Sydney—sending all staff to work from home. We will continue to provide our coverage and services as normal.

• Japanese festival Rainbow Disco Club has cancelled its 2020 edition, which was planned for April 17th to 19th.

• In a rare address to the nation, President Trump revealed the United States will issue a 30-day ban on travel from Europe to the US, excluding the United Kingdom as well as US citizens, permanent residents and their families. The ban will go into place Friday, March 13th.

March 11th

• Austrian festival Snowbombing has been called off after “discussions with the Austrian authorities.”

• Berlin club Berghain has cancelled all its “self-produced” events until April 20th. Read more about how the Berlin scene is affected here.

• San Francisco mayor London Breed is prohibiting all events of 1,000 people or more in the city and county, effective immediately.

• Knoxville, Tennessee, festival Big Ears is cancelling its 2020 edition, which was due to take place at the end of March.

• Washington governor Jay Inslee will ban events and public gatherings of 250 or more people in the Seattle area.

• Geneva is cancelling all events between 100 and 1,000 people, with authorizations granted “under certain conditions.”

• Catalonia, the Spanish region home to Barcelona, has banned all indoor and outdoor events with 1,000 people or more, starting from Thursday, March 12th. The authorities added that for events of fewer than 1,000 people, attendance should be reduced to one-third of the legal capacity to avoid crowding. Barcelona venues Razzmatazz, LAUT and Sala Apolo, AKA Nitsa, have confirmed their closure.

• Swiss festival Caprices Presents Modernity has pushed back its two-weekend April event to September.

• Dublin Digital Radio has cancelled this weekend’s Alternating Current event at The Sound House.

• Though Berlin authorities yesterday announced the closure of state-run theaters and concert halls until at least April 19th, Mayor Michael Müller has since delayed the city-wide ban on all smaller, privately run venues, including nightclubs: “Not every event harbors the same risks of infection.”

• After persistent rumors, Goldenvoice announced Coachella will be rescheduled, now taking place October 9th to 11th and October 16th to 18th, 2020. (The related Stagecoach festival has also been moved.)

• Estonian festival and conference Tallinn Music Week has been postponed, moving from March 25th to 29th to August 26th to 30th.

• Dark Mofo has become the first major Australian festival to be called off due to COVID-19, with organisers citing potential losses in the millions of dollars. ABC reports the 13-day Tasmanian event will be moved to June 2021.

March 10th

• [This development has been clarified in a more recent bullet point.] Berlin has become the latest German state to ban gatherings of 1,000 people or more, the Guardian reports. Chancellor Angela Merkel urged authorities to strictly implement the bans, which now apply to seven of the 16 German states. Berlin authorities have also announced the closure of all theaters and concert halls until at least April 19th.

• Berlin venue Trauma Bar und Kino has cancelled all its upcoming events in March.

• Winter Music Conference will not take place in 2020, Billboard reports, following the cancellation of Ultra Music Festival and postponement of Get Lost’s Miami party.

• Caterina Barbieri has cancelled her upcoming US tour as a result of Italy’s lockdown. She was due to play five shows between March 18th and 28th, including stops in Dallas, Los Angeles and New York.

March 9th

• Goldenvoice, the promoter behind Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, is in talks to move the massive, two-weekend festival to October 16th and 23rd, Billboard reports. There are four active COVID-19 cases in Riverside County, where the site of the festival in Indio is located.

• All of Italy will be placed under lockdown starting on March 10th, as part of a decree by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conti. Conditions already imposed on northern Italy will be extended to the entire country—some 60 million people—which includes prohibition on all non-essential travel and the closure of nightclubs, venues, gyms and other gathering spaces.

• Get Lost’s 24-hour Miami party, planned for March 21st, has been postponed. The March 9th announcement says, “Our new location for the event that we have been working on for six months is based in the district of Hialeah, [where] city officials announced a ban on all public gatherings due to fears of the COVID-19 virus spreading.”

• The French government has banned events with more than 1,000 people from March 8th through April 13th, Le Monde reports, heightening its previous call to halt 5,000-capacity events. Concrete’s Brice Coudert expressed frustration with the move.

March 6th

• A note posted on the South By Southwest website on March 6th indicated the City Of Austin has cancelled the March dates for SXSW. “We are devastated to share this news with you. ‘The show must go on’ is in our DNA, and this is the first time in 34 years that the March event will not take place,” it reads, adding that the festival honors and respects the city’s decision.

• Organik Festival has cancelled its 2020 edition in Taiwan. The Smoke Machine-run event announced the news via Facebook on March 6th. “There was no other option but to cancel the festival for this year,” organisers said. Organik 2020 was supposed to take place from April 24th through the 27th.

March 5th

• Bangface Weekender announced on March 5th that this month’s festival, set for March 12th through 16th, will go on as planned. “This is following the government’s announcement on Tuesday that there are no immediate plans to ban large public gatherings,” the team wrote on Facebook.

• Marrakech festival Beat Hotel has been postponed as a result of Moroccan government’s ban on large gatherings.

March 4th

• Miami’s Ultra Music Festival has been cancelled.

• France’s Tomorrowland Winter has been cancelled by the government.

February 28th

• The Swiss Federal Council banned events with greater than 1,000 people from February 28th through March 15th, forcing local clubs and promoters to adjust their programming. Audio Club confirmed to RA that it would be closing its second room and bar in order to operate under the capacity limit and remain open, a move the venue said others in the country were making.

February 13th

• Sónar’s Hong Kong edition has been postponed.

January and February

• Mass cancellation and closings of festivals, parties and venues across Asia, affecting the scene in Chengdu, Hong Kong, Singapore and further afield: an in-depth report by Nyshka Chandran.

We will continue updating this post as we learn more.

Find the latest COVID-19 statistics on this interactive map created by Johns Hopkins University.

Photo credit: Kirsten van Santen