Photo: Chicago Auto Show
The Chicago Auto Show has joined a long list of automotive industry events postponed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Earlier this month, the annual car show’s organizers announced that the event would not be held in February as planned. Instead, it will tentatively be held at a yet-to-be-announced time in March, or perhaps a bit later.
“Show organizers are working closely with McCormick Place along with state and city officials to be able to host a safe Chicago Auto Show for all involved,” notes an FAQ on the show’s website. It goes on to say that organizers “are hopeful and optimistic that we will be able to open our doors in spring of 2021.”
Put on every year at the McCormick Place complex, the Chicago Auto Show is America’s biggest auto show. It’s been held 112 times since the event first started back in 1901. The 2020 show took place just a few weeks before the pandemic triggered widespread event cancellations around the world.
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The Chicago Auto Show isn’t the only big auto industry event to have its scheduling plans scrambled by COVID-19. The Los Angeles Auto Show is now expected to take place in late May, several months later than its normal November timeslot.
The New York Auto Show moved from April to August, then got canceled altogether for 2020. It’s now on the calendar for this coming August.
The North American International Auto Show in Detroit was rescheduled as well. It was originally slated for June, but will now be held at the end of September.
Organizers are cautiously confident that each of these events will be safe to hold in 2021. A COVID-19 vaccine is now in the beginning stages of distribution across the U.S., but it’s not clear yet what the public health situation will be a few months from now.
A longtime editor/writer and recently transplanted Hoosier, Caleb Cook lives in Xenia, Ohio. His favorite activities are reading and listening to music, although he occasionally emerges from the heap of books and vinyl records in his basement to stand blinking in the sunlight. Once fully acclimated to the outside world again, he can be observed hanging out with his wife, attempting a new recipe in the kitchen, attending movies, walking the dog, or wandering into a local brewery to inquire about what’s on tap. See more articles by Caleb.