The owner of the Hanford Fox Theater is concerned about the cancellation of school groups to the theater. Photo via Hanford Fox Theatre

Following cancellations and postponements of national and state sporting events and other gatherings, event organizers across the Central Valley have followed suit.

Gov. Gavin Newsom put out a statement Thursday recommending that events with more than 250 people be cancelled or postponed. His executive order directed residents “to follow public health directives and guidance, including to cancel large non-essential gatherings that do not meet state criteria.”

The Office of the Governor would not clarify the extent of enforcement of the directive and directed press to contact attorneys to interpret the statement.

Jeff Pardini, general manager of Pardini’s Catering & Banquets in Fresno, said half of the events they were booked for in the upcoming week had been cancelled, many of them at the last minute. He had been watching events unfold on the news and was hopeful panic wouldn’t set in as quickly as it did.

“We were fearful this was going to start happening, but nothing has cancelled until this week,” Pardini said. “This week has really been the trigger that has started a lot of these cancellations.”

It’s made it hard for managers to schedule upcoming events, he said. He’s working with clients who are trying to postpone events for later in the year.

Things like hand sanitizer have been hard to come by. Some vendors have even run out of hand cleaner, Pardini added.

By reacting as aggressively as a lot of these organizations have been, Pardini said “hopefully we’ll be able to recover sooner.”

Dan Humason is the owner operator of the Hanford Fox Theater. He says he’s taking it on a “day-by-day basis” on whether to cancel bookings.

“It’s something we have to pay attention to,” Humason said.

One thing he does worry about are school field trips. School groups visit the theater for special screenings of kids movies, and it’s good business because there are times the theater would be otherwise vacant. He hasn’t heard anything yet about upcoming field trips. He does have one planned in the upcoming month.

“If we were to lose one of those that’d be a big deal,” Humason said.

Vikky Escovedo, executive director of the Visalia Fox Theater, said a March 21 performance by the Sequoia Symphony Orchestra was rescheduled to May. Another show called “Catapult: Amazing Magic of Shadow Dance” scheduled for March 25 was cancelled, along with all of the tour’s California dates.

“Everything changed overnight,” she said.

Other event cancellations include:

— Minor League Baseball seasons, including that of the Visalia Rawhide and the Fresno Grizzlies, have been delayed, according to a statement by Minor League Baseball.

“In light of the current coronavirus outbreak, and after consultation with medical professionals and our partners at Major League Baseball, [we] will delay the start of the 2020 Championship Season. We will continue to monitor the developments and will announce additional information about the 2020 season at a later date,” a statement from Minor League Baseball read.

—In a Facebook post on Save Mart Center’s website, Lynyrd Skynyrd announced that “out of an abundance of caution,” they would be rescheduling all March stops of their Last of the Street Survivors Farewell Tour. The Fresno date has moved to Aug. 14.

Save Mart Center said that all tickets are redeemable for that date and that seating locations would remain the same. Refunds are also available through the vendor tickets were purchased from.

—Clovis’ Big Hat Days is still set for April 4-5, but representatives from the Clovis Chamber of Commerce are meeting with city officials to discuss the event.

—The Mariachi Festival at Warnor’s Theatre scheduled for March 21 has been moved to July 11. Tickets would be honored for that date, and refunds would be available

—The Sixth Annual Fight with Fashion event set for March 28 at Haron Jaguar has been postponed. A date has not yet been reset for the fundraiser to combat human trafficking. Ashley Swearengin was scheduled to speak at the fashion show and silent auction.