Cannes Film Festival May Be Canceled This Year Due To Coronavirus

Source: Forbes.com

The Guardian recently reported on comments from the Cannes Film Festival president, Pierre Lescure, who said that if the coronavirus condition worsens around the world, he and the organizers will have to cancel the festival.

During a conversation with Le Figaro, Pierre Lescure argued that he and the festival organizers remain optimistic that the “peak of the epidemic” will be around the ending of this month, or in April, that way they’ll breathe a lot easier about the situation.

With that said, however, they will cancel the event if it continues to get worse. This past Sunday, the French government banned events where 1,000 or more people were slated to join together. Their hope in doing this is to thwart the spread of influenza.

Fans of Cannes Film Festival know that it’s supposed to start on the 12th of May, and they hope to attract around 40,000 attendees. On Monday, Europe’s number one film festival claimed the event would go ahead as originally scheduled.

Lescure also addressed the festival’s insurance policy after a report from Variety claimed they didn’t have an option covering the spread of infectious diseases. Lescure claimed that the insurance policy was “peanuts,” after revealing the amount would only be around 2 million euros.

Reportedly, Cannes Film Festival has a number of ways accruing funds, including corporate sponsorship as well as public funding. Lescure claimed that the festival is ready to face at least one year without revenue, without worrying about significant financial loss.

As most know, this comes after a series of artists have canceled performances at some of the most popular festivals of the year. Yesterday, it was suggested that even Coachella would be postponing dates, however, it was never confirmed by an official spokesperson.

Additionally, a report from earlier this week suggested that Justin Bieber had to downgrade four stadium concerts to arenas due to a shortage of ticket sales. In other words, there weren’t enough seats filled to justify using a stadium, rather than an arena.