COVID-19 effect: San Diego Comic-Con going virtual in July 2021
Mar 02, 2021
Washington [US], March 2 : The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has put a halt to almost everything, with film festivals and various cultural activities facing the brunt of the health crisis. The latest to be impacted by the pandemic is San Diego Comic-Con, the largest fan convention in North America.
As per Variety, the organisers on Monday announced that the event will be not be held in person in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, the event will be held virtually over three days, from July 23-25.
In addition, Comic-Con International, the organisation behind SDCC, is planning an in-person convention in San Diego to be held in November 2021.
"While we are buoyed by the rollout of the vaccine and the growing number of individuals being inoculated, it appears that July will still be too early to safely hold an in-person event of the magnitude of Comic-Con," organisers said in a statement.
The organisers added, "While we lament the postponement of the in-person Comic-Con, our commitment to this community of fans and our celebration of comics and the related popular arts endures as an important part of who we are."
In Monday's announcement, organisers further said the postponements and other challenges caused by the pandemic "have left us with limited financial resources," which forced the virtual convention in July to be reduced from four days to three.
Both attendees and exhibitors planning to attend SDCC in July will have the option of rolling over to the November 2021 convention or the July 2022 convention. In their announcement, organisers said details on these plans "will be forthcoming."
It is the second year in a row that the in-person event, which historically has welcomed as many as 130,000 participants each year since the late 2000s, had to go virtual due to health and safety precautions connected to the pandemic.
San Diego Comic-Con launched as a small, comics-focused event in 1970, and grew into a massive gathering that sees fans, movie and TV stars, and movie studios descend upon the city. An estimated 135,000 people came to the San Diego Convention Center for the 2019 event.
