This was supposed to be a breakthrough spring tour in Europe and North America for Montreal-based underground electronic music duo Pelada. Instead, Tobias Rochman and Chris Vargas are stuck in a Brussels hotel, watching show after show get cancelled due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Major music festivals such as Coachella in California and South by Southwest (SXSW) in Texas have been postponed or cancelled, depriving already financially precarious artists dependent on touring the ability to make ends meet. On Thursday, Montreal promoter Evenko suspended all shows with 250 or more people for the next 30 days based on measures put in place by the provincial government. The Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (OSM) cancelled 11 concerts until April 5, and their appearance with Kent Nagano at Carnegie Hall in New York March 24 will no longer happen. Popular Montreal indie band Wolf Parade scrapped its upcoming European tour.

While major concert promoters and venues are feeling the effects, for many smaller local artists the inability to tour can be career-threatening.

“After six years as a group, this would have been our first profitable tour,” Rochman said Thursday via Skype from Brussels, where they had unexpectedly camped the last three days. “This was our first time working with a more professional agency out of the U.K. We were looking forward to this tour as the first major one after being signed and putting out our record. The shows we’re playing are of a higher profile, with better pay. We’ve been planning for this tour for more than a year.”

Pelada, who released the critically acclaimed Movimiento Para Cambio in October, were supposed to start the 15-date first leg of their European tour in Italy. That show was cancelled, as was their weekend show in Russia, which required they pay for a work visa upfront. They ended up in Brussels and were due to make their way Friday to Switzerland.

With their shows not going as planned and those expected guarantees — normally paid out after the show — gone, even an extra $140 for a hotel stay in Belgium can be a financial strain. Flights, trains and buses are other costs bands pay for in advance, and being able to exchange them for a later date isn’t always a help.

“Before we came, we applied for P-2 visa work permits for the United States because while we were gone, we needed it to process before our show April 17 at UCLA,” said Vargas. “That was around $2,000 we needed to make sure that was processed while we were here. And it’s not even a guarantee we get the visa.”

Added Rochman: “We’d be fine going home, but we don’t even have the means to do that.”

The band was set to play high-profile festivals like Primavera in Spain and Rewire in the Netherlands. With a touring itinerary set to last through the summer, Rochman and Vargas left their day jobs to pursue music full-time.

“When you’re living right on the threshold of profitability, it can be very dangerous,” said Rochman. “We’re in the gig economy, and the reality of seeing that bubble burst is devastating.”

Michaël Bardier books and manages local and international artists with his Montreal company Heavy Trip. He estimates he’s lost $250,000 in guarantees for his acts so far, in addition to flights and other costs.

“Honestly, the company has been in a good position lately. We’ve been booking bigger tours in the U.S. and Europe,” Bardier said. “We’re not going to put the key in the door, but for sure, this is rough.”

An added problem for Bardier and many others is bands route their tours around major North American festivals in the spring such as SXSW, Big Ears in Nashville and Mission Creek Festival in Iowa. All three have been cancelled.

“Honestly, it’s just really bad timing because last year around this time, I really determined March and April to be a really good period for international, experimental, world and jazz to tour in North America, so I really gave everything I had to route these tours,” Bardier said. Right now everyone is scrambling to move their dates to the fall, when things will presumably be better.

One artist set to play SXSW was Montreal rapper Naya Ali.

“It’s actually been a long time dream of mine to attend, let alone perform at SXSW. It would have been a solid foot in door in the U.S. market,” Ali said. “However, I completely understand the seriousness of the situation and the measures that are being taken to protect all of our health.”