SXSW LLC, the company behind the South by Southwest festival held in Austin each year since 1987, is reeling financially from the city’s decision to cancel the 2020 event over coronavirus fears, apparently putting its future in jeopardy as it scrambles to ascertain how much money it stands to lose. SXSW said Monday it has laid off about a third of its 175 year-round employees. The company “has been rigorously reviewing our operations, and we are in the unimaginable position of reducing our workforce,” a SXSW spokesperson said in a written statement. “We are planning for the future and this was a necessary, but heartbreaking, step.” SXSW co-founder and CEO Roland Swenson told the Wall Street Journal in an interview that SXSW is “planning to carry on and do another event in 2021.” But “how we’re going to do that I’m not entirely sure,” Swenson said. SXSW is concerned its losses could run into the “tens of millions of dollars,” he said, and it will be out of money by this summer if it doesn’t find additional sources of income, such as grants. Swenson previously told the American-Statesman that SXSW didn’t have insurance coverage for cancellations triggered by “bacterial infections, communicable diseases, viruses and pandemics,” and he told the Wall Street Journal that the coverage it does have “will likely not cover” the cancellation.

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