10 Events Canceled by Coronavirus Thus Far
The Coronavirus, the most disruptive event to happen in recent human history. The disease that has put countries on lockdown, and shaken the world to its core. We sit in isolation day after day in order to slow the spread of the infectious disease. Mandates have been put in place to stop gatherings of more than 10 people. The aftermath of the effects of Covid- 19 have put a stand still to any and every live event for the foreseeable future. Leagues, concerts, festivals, graduation ceremonies, restaurants, bars, all closed down until further notice. With all this going down within the last month we are left to sit and reflect on what experiences we’ve missed out on due to Coronavirus.
The NBA season
The cancelation of the NBA season came as a shock and a wake up call to many earlier this March. I remember exactly what I was doing when I got the news. I was sitting around a bar table with my loved ones playing Wednesday night trivia at a local Milwaukee bar. I got the text and instantly my stomach started turning. The NBA season was canceled until further notice and an all star player on the Utah Jazz had tested positive for the disease. Maybe this disease is more dangerous than I thought. Yes I had known it was serious, but to cancel the season would mean forfeiting so much revenue that I didn’t think the owners of any league would ever actually do it. As I coped with the idea of the most legendary Buck’s basketball season I’ve ever witnessed get ripped out from under me I thought of what was to come next.
St. Patrick’s Day
St Patrick’s day was shut down this year. Bar’s were not allowed to be open and people were not supposed to be outside. St. Patrick’s day might be the first of many holidays this virus takes away from us, the Irish drinker in me mourns the loss of one of the great holidays.
Movie Premieres
Want to go see the invisible man in theaters? I did too but as are any other gatherings with more than 10 people movie theaters are shut down for the foreseeable future. This has prompted studios to delay the release of their movies until this whole pandemic thing blows over. What it’s also delayed is film production in general. James Cameron has stopped production on Avatar 2, and if that thing doesn’t get done soon I’m going to lose my MIND! Although this means a lack of movies for us right now, there is a bright spot at the end of this Covid-19 tunnel. All those who survive will get a plethora of great movies to watch in theaters come next fall.
E3
E3, the event that unveils many of the games of the future and updates us on highly anticipated games is canceled. It goes to show that this virus doesn’t discriminate, it infects gamers and sports fans alike. I was bummed out to hear about this one though. E3 is an event that promotes progress as much as it promotes new games. Each year I’m blown away at what game developers are making to expand the ever evolving genre of gaming.
In Person Classes
As a college student this has been the most apparent change in my life. Right now school systems in this country are in a scramble trying to transfer their classwork online. A lot of teachers have never taught an online class before and are being thrown directly into the fire and are expected to not miss a beat. It’s sink or swim and right now the school system is actively drowning. It’s only been a week for me with my online classes, and it’s bad. Teachers and students alike seem like they’re not aware of how to work a Skype chat. The amount of wasted lecture time has tripled in this new adjustment period.
The college system isn’t even that bad in comparison to the public school system. As the transition to online school is being made we have to face an ugly truth that many students in our public school systems don’t have consistent access to the internet. These students are usually the ones that are at risk of not graduating as well. Parents are having to step up nation wide trying to homeschool their children until the unforeseen future.
Music Festivals
Many people use music festivals as their escape from mundane everyday life. Personally, big festivals aren’t really my thing, but I have friends that live for going to these events, and all of them are canceled or postponed until further notice. Sorry Coachella fans, maybe try waiting it out until October.
Scripps National Spelling Bee
This one’s kind of unique because out of all the cancelations on this list so far this one affects the least amount of people. That being said it’s still a shame. I feel like the National Spelling Bee is always good for at least one meme every year and this year we’re missing out. Also I feel bad for the kids that train for this because there’s no worse feeling than training for a spelling bee and then not getting to show off your latin root knowledge.
TEDx 2020
Tedx 2020 will not be going on this year either. Plans to postpone the event in Vancouver are unclear at this point.
The Kids Choice Awards
You know it’s bad when they cancel the kids choice awards. I haven’t watched in awhile, but i remember watching it back in the day when Jack Black hosted every year. It was a big deal when I was a kid and is just another event that Covid-19 had come for.
Summerfest
That’s right, the world’s largest music festival held at the Summerfest grounds in Milwaukee will be canceled. Just Kidding! It’s only postponed. Summerfest which was scheduled for June 24th- July 5th is being rescheduled to the weekends of 3-5, 10-12, 17-19 of September. Fear not my fellow Milwaukians, Summerfest, even if hosted in the fall, will prevail.
Coronavirus is affecting us all in some way and I think it’s important to remember that as bad as it is right now it will come to end at some point. With everything getting canceled we might be able to take this time and step back and reflect on things we may have taken for granted before this all started.
What are you looking forward to after this pandemic ends? Let me know in the comments.
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Jackson Wiberg is a student, comedian, and podcast personality. He currently attends school at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee where he is pursuing his bachelors degree in communication. He's toured his stand up routine around the midwest and when he's not working likes spending time with his family and friends. You can follow Jackson on his social media: @jackson_wiberg on all social media platforms, and you can listen to his podcast The Blockbuster Boys podcast, the number 1 rated college comedy podcast in the world, on Apple podcasts and Spotify.