Coronavirus Impact: The 50 Largest Events Cancelled or Postponed due to Covid-19 So Far

Event cancellations and postponements have skyrocketed as the novel coronavirus spreads across the world. February experienced a 500% increase in significant and major events being cancelled or postponed compared to the same month last year, and March has reached 590% already. Update: We re-calculated the March cancellation and postponement rate for significant to major events as it was a week old. It is now 875%.
These changes are costing billions of dollars and are likely to continue for some time, especially as the virus spreads into new countries.
PredictHQ is keeping our customers informed about which events are cancelled, postponed, rescheduled or are continuing as planned. This enables them to update their strategies for the coming weeks and months, as well as ensure their 2021 forecasting does assume the coronavirus impact is their new normal. This article maps out how to understand, correlate and adapt to decremental demand drivers. We are also working proactively with news outlets such as Recode to share information.
Despite the cancellation of more than 850 events in February and March 2020, there are still over 35,000 significant and major events scheduled over the next three months, as well as millions of smaller events that frequently combine to form perfect storms of demand.
Get in touch with our team to get access to our millions of verified and ranked events to use in your demand forecasting. We update the API every minute so you’ll be among the first to know when events are cancelled, postponed and rescheduled.
Below is our list of the 50 largest events to be cancelled or postponed so far (as of March 9 Pacific time). They are organized by the number of attendees, not by economic impact.
Event Name | Country | Attendance | Original date in 2020 |
---|---|---|---|
Beijing International Automotive Exhibition – POSTPONED | China | 820000 | April 21 – 30 |
i Light Singapore - POSTPONED | Singapore | 800000 | March 6 – 29 |
Geneva International Motor Show - CANCELLED | Switzerland | 602511 | March 5 – 15 |
BNP Paribas Open - CANCELLED | United States | 450000 | March 9 – 22 |
SXSW - CANCELLED | United States | 417400 | March 13 – 22 |
Salone del Mobile - POSTPONED | Italy | 386000 | April 21 – 26 |
Appliance & Electronics World Expo - POSTPONED | China | 350000 | March 11 – 14 |
China International Furniture Fair (Guangzhou) - POSTPONED | China | 340000 | March 18 – 21 |
China Food & Drinks Fair - POSTPONED | China | 300000 | March 22 – 25 |
CIFF Phase I – Home Furniture - POSTPONED | China | 297759 | March 18 – 21 |
Seoul Living Design Fair - CANCELLED | South Korea | 286265 | March 11 – 15 |
CIAACE Beijing - POSTPONED | China | 286000 | February 18 – 21 |
Leipziger Buchmesse - CANCELLED | Germany | 286000 | March 12 – 15 |
Cosmoprof Worldwide Bologna - POSTPONED | Italy | 265000 | March 12 -16 |
International Signs & Led Exhibition(ISLE) - POSTPONED | China | 250000 | February 24 – 27 |
Schneider Electric Marathon de Paris (The Paris Marathon) - POSTPONED | France | 250000 | April 5 |
Light + Building - POSTPONED | Germany | 220000 | March 8 – 13 |
Hannover Messe - POSTPONED | Germany | 215000 | April 20 – 24 |
Fair of Lyon - POSTPONED | France | 205000 | March 20 – 30 |
Arnold Sports Festival - CANCELLED | United States | 200000 | March 5 – 8 |
Shanghai APPPEXPO - POSTPONED | China | 200000 | March 4 – 7 |
Ultra Music Festival - POSTPONED | United States | 165000 | March 20 – 22 |
ITB Berlin - CANCELLED | Germany | 160000 | March 4 – 8 |
Livre Paris - CANCELLED | France | 160000 | March 20 -23 |
AnimeJapan - CANCELLED | Japan | 152331 | March 21 – 24 |
Chinese F1 Grand Prix - POSTPONED | China | 150000 | April 17 – 19 |
Hotelex Shanghai - POSTPONED | China | 147000 | March 29 – April 1 |
Interop-Tokyo - CANCELLED | Japan | 143806 | April 13 – 15 |
Fibo Global Fitness Retailtech Japan - POSTPONED | Germany | 143000 | April 2 – 5 |
Retailtech Japan - CANCELLED | Japan | 127871 | March 3 – 6 |
The Blue Bay LPGA Tournament - CANCELLED | China | 125000 | March 5 – 8 |
Download Festival Paris - CANCELLED | France | 120000 | May 29 – 31 |
Fensterbau Frontale - POSTPONED | Germany | 110000 | March 18 – 21 |
Mobile World Congress - CANCELLED | Spain | 109000 | February 24 – 27 |
Cartoomics - POSTPONED | Italy | 103000 | March 13 – 15 |
Asiamold - POSTPONED | China | 98776 | February 26 – 28 |
Baselworld - POSTPONED | Switzerland | 94000 | April 30 – March 5 |
China International Equipment & Manufacturing Industry Expo - POSTPONED | China | 93190 | March 6 – 9 |
Expo West - POSTPONED | United States | 85000 | March 3 – 7 |
Prolight + Sound Guangzhou - POSTPONED | China | 81154 | February 4 – 27 |
Foodex Japan - CANCELLED | Japan | 80426 | March 10 – 13 |
Hong Kong Marathon - CANCELLED | Hong Kong | 74000 | February 9 |
Bangtan Boys (BTS) Seoul - CANCELLED | South Korea | 70000 | April 19 |
Annecy Venetian Carnival - CANCELLED | France | 70000 | March 6 – 8 |
International Journalism Festival - CANCELLED | Italy | 65000 | April 1 – 5 |
Shanghai World Travel Fair - POSTPONED | China | 58000 | April 23 – 24 |
Beauty Dusseldorf - POSTPONED | Germany | 58000 | March 6 – 8 |
Dental South China - POSTPONED | China | 55000 | March 2 – 5 |
International Home + Housewares Show - CANCELLED | United States | 52000 | March 14 – 17 |
HIMSS Conference and Exhibition - CANCELLED | United States | 43000 | March 14 – 18 |
HSBC Women’s World Championship - CANCELLED | Singapore | 32000 | February 27 – March 1 |
This list is only 50 of the hundreds of significant and major events cancelled so far. With thousands of high-impact events globally each month still scheduled and occurring, it’s imperative businesses track cancellations and postponements and update their strategies as quickly as possible.