Cancellation of Texas festival throws wrench in plans for Halifax booking company

A Halifax-based booking company is scrambling to halt more than a dozen shows after the South by Southwest music festival was cancelled over concerns about COVID-19.

As a pilot project this year, Side Door partnered with SXSW to organize tours for eight bands between their hometowns and Austin, Texas, where the festival would be held.

It was meant to give the bands an opportunity to get some exposure and make money on the way to offset travel costs.

But of the 26 scheduled shows, fewer than half will proceed.

"The artists just couldn't make it viable to go down and then have to make their way back," said Laura Simpson, the company's CEO and co-founder.

Side Door is an online platform that matches touring artists to hosts in the area so they can find spaces to perform. That could be a community hall or someone's living room.

"We really seek out hosts, people, who really care about bringing in their own community and sharing the music with them," Simpson said from her living room in Halifax, where she has hosted shows since 2011.

The tours were slated to start Sunday and end two weeks later, with a showcase of all eight bands on the second Friday of the festival.

"We had sort of made a plan because we were getting a little worried in the days before," Simpson said.

She said Side Door let the artists and hosts involved know they would be supported if they wanted to go ahead with the shows despite the showcase being cancelled.

"We can roll with the losses, but artists are the ones who are hardest hit," Simpson said. "They're the ones who are definitely not going to be able to recover some of the revenue that's lost."

One of the artists taking part in Side Door to SXSW was Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter Madison McFerrin.

"The thing that's really tough about this is that in this day and age, touring and playing shows is the No. 1 way any musician makes money … that's how we make a living," McFerrin said.

It's also a huge loss for the people of Austin, McFerrin said, who rely on the significant increase in tourism revenue the festival brings every year.

McFerrin had three shows booked with Side Door — one was cancelled over COVID-19 concerns and the other two are going ahead, for now.

"People bought tickets, people were excited to go to these performances. So if the people still want to see live music, who am I to deny them that?" she said.