San Diego Comic Con 2020 is Officially Cancelled
The coronavirus pandemic has claimed another victim. The organizers of San Diego Comic Con, the largest fan convention in North America, have decided to cancel this year’s event, which was supposed to take place July 23-26.
The decision is not at all surprising and was deemed by many to be inevitable. California has been restricting all large scale events, and the hopes of such restrictions being scaled back by July were dashed by California Governor Gavin Newsom a few days ago when he said, “…large-scale events that bring in hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of strangers, all together across every conceivable difference, health and otherwise, is not in the cards based upon our current guidelines and current expectations.” That all about sealed Comic Con’s fate, which brings in between attendees, exhibitors, press and participants about 200,000 people to the San Diego Convention Center, not to mention the 100000+ that are not ticket holders that come for the events in nearby venues.
Comic Con has been near and dear to our hearts here at the Winchester Family Business. I personally have attended all but one Comic Con as a member of the press since “Supernatural” season four ended and have seen “Supernatural” move from a smaller, almost forgotten about panel to a marquee event in the coveted Hall H. Nightsky has joined me the last few years and our experiences with the fans, actors, and writers have always been amazing. Last year was SPN’s farewell, but some had held out hope that they would return this year when the final season was disrupted because of the pandemic, moving the final seven episodes potentially to this fall. This cancellation is no doubt devastating to those independent artists that rely on the event to promote their projects and the vendors that sell merchandise, as well at the studios that use it as a spring board for upcoming TV shows and movies.
This is the first time in the 50 year history that Comic Con has had to cancel. Postponing was not an option given the uncertainty of a timeline. They have also cancelled Wonder Con, which was initially postponed from last week. Ticket holders have an option of either getting a refund or transferring their badges to next year. Anyone who put down hotel deposits through the organizers of the convention will get those back as well.
San Diego Comic Con will resume next year on July 22-25, 2021.
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