Entertainment world affected by COVID 19

BY: SARAH TAHER

The COVID 19 virus is forcing many events, festivals and premiers to be postponed over concerns of the outbreak. 

The Coachella music festival in the Southern California desert has been postponed for six months until October because of concerns regarding the virus, organizer Goldenvoice said on Tuesday. The festival, one of the biggest in the world, brings half a million fans to an open-air site in Indio, east of Los Angeles, over two weekends and was due to take place on April 10-12 and April 17-19

Madonna canceled shows in Paris Yesterday and Today due to restrictions imposed over the coronavirus outbreak, promoter Live Nation said on Monday. On Sunday, France banned gatherings of more than 1,000 people as the death toll and number of coronavirus infections continued to rise. 

Sony Pictures on Tuesday said it was postponing the release of movie “Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway” to August from March, citing disruptions in movie markets. The decision followed the announcement last week that the new James Bond movie “No Time to Die” would be postponed to November from its previously scheduled April release because of disruptions to movie-going in China and other parts of Asia due to the coronavirus.

U.S. rock band Pearl Jam, with hit songs including “Black” and “Even Flow,” said on Monday they would postpone the first leg of their Gigaton Tour, which has 17 shows in North America and was set to begin March 18 at the Scotiabank arena in Toronto. “We are being told that being part of large gatherings is high on the list of things to avoid as this global health crisis is now beginning to affect all of our lives,” the band said in a letter on their website, adding that the postponed shows will be rescheduled. 

Pop star Miley Cyrus has canceled a trip to Australia for a bushfire relief concert three days ahead of the show, citing recommendations that travel be curtailed to counter the spread of the global coronavirus epidemic. Cyrus, 27 was set to be the headline act for a concert on March 13 in Australia’s second-largest city, Melbourne, which the organizers have now called off. 

Circulating Twitter are song-recommendations to sing while washing your hands to ensure you’re washing for the entire recommended time of 20 seconds. Twenty seconds is the minimum amount of time people should spend scrubbing with soap if they want to prevent infection, The Centers of Disease Control Prevention (CDC) says. Some of the recommended songs include: 

• Happy Birthday
• God Save the Queen
• Mambo No. 5
• The Chorus to “Landslide” by Fleetwood Mac