January 27, 2007
Three more conventions cancelled
by PatrickDAdding to the growing list of recently cancelled conventions, Gen Con So Cal, Garden City Anime Festival, and Anime Express are all cancelled for 2007.
On January 25th, Peter D. Adkison, the CEO of Gen Con, LLC, issued an open letter explaining why Gen Con So Cal, which had been located in southern California since 2003, will no longer be held. The letter cites a steady drop in booths reserved in the dealers' room over the years as well as a recent drop in attendance. Gen Con will still hold Gen Con Indy in August and has it booked through 2010.
Amanda Hall, CEO of Garden City Anime Festival, also announced that the convention would not be returning. The announcement makes several mentions of a "conflict" as well as a "staff issue", but does not mention specifics of the conflict. There is no mention of any future GCAF events. The 2007 event was being planned for St. Catharines, Ontario.
Additionally, the long-running Anime Express of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida has announced that their 2007 convention will be cancelled. The announcement cites construction issues related to a Christmas tornado and issues between the AGAnime Club and the university administration. The announcement goes on to mention that the past two years of the convention had "breeches of trust, ERAU policy, and even of the law itself" which has put AGAnime Club in a bad position with the university. The club would like to hold their 10th convention next year, but cannot make any announcement without university approval.
These three cancellations come within 10 days of the postponement of Llamacon and the cancellations of Kami Kon and AnikiCon, not to mention Anime Tour for the Cure which cancelled all Sunday programming during Saturday of the event.
