Nashville’s Country Music Hall of Fame Closes Doors Amid Coronavirus Outbreak

As the coronavirus threat continues, Nashville’s Country Music Hall of Fame has made the difficult decision to temporarily close its doors. The announcement came on Friday afternoon that the museum would be closed, effective immediately, throughout the remainder of March.

“The health and safety of our guests and staff is our top priority,” Kyle Young, CEO, Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, said in a statement. “While there have not been any confirmed cases of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) connected to the museum at this time, we must do all that we can to help ensure a safe and healthy environment for our visitors, employees and community, which at this time calls for us to close temporarily.”

In addition to the museum, the Hatch Show Print, Historic RCA Studio B and the CMA Theater at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum will also be temporarily closed.

Country music fans have been unfortunately getting used to bad news, due to the coronavirus pandemic. South by Southwest, Tin Pan South Songwriting Festival, C2C: Country to Country, iHeartCountry Festival and Stagecoach are just a few of the events that have been canceled over coronavirus concerns.

In addition, numerous artists have been forced to delay shows, including Blake Shelton, Dan + Shay, the Zac Brown Band, Jason Aldean, Kenny Chesney, Chris Stapleton and Country Music Hall of Fame member Reba McEntire have all recently announced that they were postponing tour dates to make sure their band, crew and fans were healthy and safe.

“For the safety of everyone, we have decided to postpone our new arena tour until July,” McEntire said in a statement, which was also shared on all of her social media pages. “All tickets will be honored for the new dates. Most importantly, stay safe and take care of you and your loved ones. We’ll get through this together.”

President Donald Trump declared coronavirus a national emergency during a press conference on Friday afternoon.

“To unleash the full power of the federal government in this effort today, I am officially declaring a national emergency,” Trump said during a press conference. “Two very big words. The action I am taking will open up access to $50 billion… for states and territories and localities in our shared fight against this disease.”

Photo Credit: Getty / Terry Wyatt