Summary: if you have planned travel to Japan or any of the Asian shows next month, do note it’s quite possible travel to and from some of the nations (especially Japan) may be reduced or outright stopped. I would recommend getting travel insurance, if possible (be sure to check it includes things like Epidemics, as many do not). This could also end up affecting the 2nd leg of the European tour.

Hopefully everything goes on as planned, but in case it happens I wouldn’t want to see people lose a lot of the money they spent on this.

Japan and Asia (March, April, and May)

As most here might know, the Coronavirus (COVID-19) has been spreading and has affected travel and many events, mostly from China. Japan has also had many confirmed cases, and it appears that they are not containing it well, as it has been spreading more into smaller communities. Because of this, several countries have been issuing notices to their citizens to take care if travelling there.

Just today 7 countries have restricted entry from Japan, the list now includes Israel, Kuwait, and many small island nations, but it could very well end up including one or many of the countries they will visit (or where you travel from).

The US’s CDC currently has Japan at an Alert Level 2 (Practice Enhanced Precautions), but I wouldn’t be surprised if they raise it to a Warning Level 3 (Avoid Nonessential Travel) soon, as South Korea was added yesterday, and they aren’t far behind in number of cases.

Likewise, events in Japan have been reduced or cancelled entirely, but no update yet on how this may affect Knotfest.

For now the other Asian tour nations are fine. At the time of writing Thailand, Malaysia, and Taiwan don’t have many cases, and Philippines and Indonesia don’t have any.

Europe 2nd Leg (June)

This might end up affecting Europe leg 2 as well, depending on how things progress from here on out. Several countries have reported their first cases today, including places where BM will play, like Switzerland; Austria; and Barcelona, Spain). But it’s still thankfully far from that at the moment.

No matter if some of these shows get canceled, this has been a terrible tour in terms of luck:

• Summer Sonic Osaka: BM barely played after a typhoon made some damage to many stages, including their own (bands playing earlier were cancelled)
• Orlando: almost cancelled because of a passing hurricane (the airport even closed forcing some fans, maybe even the band, to arrive by different means)
• The Forum: Fires in California made it hard or impossible for some fans to make it, likewise a Typhoon passing over Japan cancelled most Live Viewings of the show there.
• Hong Kong: Festival cancelled due to protests, BABYMETAL’s first ever cancelled show.
• Asia Tour/Europe Tour 2: possible cancelation looming due to COVID-19 (this type of Coronavirus)

Especially terrible for Asia… their first ever tour.