Houston officials will likely announce the temporary shut down of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo on Wednesday due to concerns over the spread of the coronavirus.
The Houston Chronicle reports:
Mayor Sylvester Turner informed city council members during the group’s regular Wednesday morning meeting of a coronavirus-related announcement at noon, which sources confirmed was that further events at the rodeo — the massive, weeks-long event and concert series that routinely draws more than 100,000 visitors to NRG Park on Saturdays and Sundays — will be truncated.
The pending announcement would come days after rodeo officials said it had no plans to cancel the annual festival. In a statement on Saturday, organizers said that RodeoHouston primarily was a local event.
“The Rodeo is predominantly a local event, with 73% of the 2019 Rodeo visitors residing in the greater Houston area, 94% in Texas, and 99% in the U.S.,” read RodeoHouston’s statement. “In contrast, 26% of the 2019 SXSW attendees were international.”
As of Wednesday, Texas public health officials have confirmed 14 cases of coronavirus in the Houston area and 21 total cases statewide. One thousand cases have been confirmed in the United States and 29 have been killed by the illness nationwide, according to data released by Johns Hopkins University.
The RodeoHouston event isn’t Texas’ only major event to face cancellation.
Officials in Austin, Texas, canceled the South by Southwest film, interactive, and music festival amid coronavirus fears, event organizers said Friday.
The fest was scheduled to take place March 13-22.
Earlier this week, companies such as WarnerMedia, Netflix, Apple, Twitter, and Facebook began pulling out of the festival out of concern for COVID-19. Austin Mayor Steve Adler announced on Friday he ordered the cancellation.
SXSW confirmed the cancellation in a statement on Twitter.
“‘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,” the organizers wrote. “As recently as Wednesday, Austin Public Health stated that ‘there’s no evidence that closing SXSW or any other gatherings will make the community safer.’ However, this situation evolved rapidly, and we honor and respect the City of Austin’s decision.”
Organizers for the Ultra Music Festival also announced Friday that the city postponed the Miami festival, which was scheduled to take place March 20-26.
The UPI contributed to this report.
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