News is continuing to trickle in from Australian theatre venues about events going forward or otherwise being cancelled due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.
The latest announcement comes from HOTA: Home of the Arts on the Gold Coast, who have decided to cancel two of their outdoor events this weekend – The Greatest Showman Sing-A-Long Experience and Pop & Play. The latter of these events could have been considered an unofficial third day of Supanova: Pop Culture Expo which this year had to be cut back to only a Friday and Saturday event on the Gold Coast.
In a statement made via their event pages, HOTA: Home of the Arts made the following statement:
[EVENT UPDATE]
Due to the rapidly evolving situation with the COVID-19 outbreak, we have spoken to all the participants for the outdoor events this weekend and we regret to advise that we have made the decision to cancel The Greatest Showman Sing-A-Long Experience, and Pop & Play on Sun 15 Mar.
The audiences and participants for these events include some of the most at-risk groups of people and we believe this is the right thing to do, at this time. We know this might cause some disappointment, but the health and wellbeing of our staff, artists, participants and audiences is our priority.
We will announce a new date for The Greatest Showman in due course and current ticketholders will have a 48 hour priority booking window.
It is always saddening to see events cancelled, especially one which would have brought gamers and pop culture fans to such a fantastic outdoor venue for a day of eSports, gaming, music and more. However, good on HOTA for making this difficult decision in the best interest of their audiences. While they have indicated that The Greatest Showman’s sing-a-long event will be rescheduled, here’s hoping they can offer Pop & Play at a later date as well.
UPDATE 1 – Another update has been posted by HOTA: Home of the Arts, confirming that all other scheduled non-outdoor events including the GC Laughs Gala and Cinema Screenings will be going ahead still:
