San Diego Comic-Con is now defending its decision to set their event during the Thanksgiving holidays this year as they reschedule instead of cancel.
San Diego Comic-Con announced the weekend dates for their convention. The dates, listed for Nov. 26-28, will conflict with the Thanksgiving holidays in the US. The organizers are defending this decision, noting a lack of better dates.
SDCC blames “packed Convention Center calendar”
SDCC is one of the biggest pop culture conventions all over the world. So far, most conventions have canceled their events, especially those who announced for the summer. Chief among these is EVO Championship and PAX East 2021.
Also they announced the November event back when they announced SDCC was going virtual-only again in 2021. The "new" part of this "news" is the dates and the name.
— SDCC Unofficial Blog (@SD_Comic_Con) March 28, 2021
Comic-Con International, however, plans their potentially first-ever face-to-face convention since the pandemic. The big problem comes through the date, going on a conflict over Thanksgiving schedules.
Thanksgiving is one of the big-deal holidays in the United States. The backlash to making fans choose between family or convention is a problem. Regardless, the organizers detail their reasons.
“As conventions and events have had to cancel their in-person shows or have converted to virtual formats during the pandemic, some have been postponed to later years while others have been rescheduled to the later part of 2021, resulting in a very packed Convention Center calendar,” said Comic-Con international on their official website.
“Of the dates presented with the fewest restrictions, Friday through Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend seemed to be the best balance of available space and our envisioned event. As longtime fans ourselves, we have attended many conventions over that holiday weekend, opting to spend Thanksgiving day with family and the rest of the weekend with friends and our families of choice. While this is not unusual in the convention trade, we understand this choice is not optimal for everyone.”
SDCC 2021 will be a special 3-day event
San Diego Comic-Con 2021 will be a special three-day event, calling it “Comic-Con Special Edition”. It will be a day shorter than the original summer Comic-Con. They’re also doing the event much later, historically opting for July, but that is understandable.
So they scheduled #SDCC on the same weekend as the first chance most families will (hopefully) be fully able to celebrate Thanksgiving in two years.
See you in 2022! https://t.co/5TUS26rOsQ
— Charles Soule (@CharlesSoule) March 28, 2021
While COVID-19 is starting to wane due to vaccinations, any date during the summer is optimistic at best. Countless events in June and July already canceled, including PAX East. Many even believe that August and September are still questionable.
Putting Comic-Con in November gives organizers enough time to monitor the situation.
“Currently we do not know whether having this event in November is even feasible as we are still in the midst of the pandemic and while we are optimistic about Q4, we have not been privy to any specific information on large gatherings,” added CCI. “However, it was our desire to have something in place for our fans who have longed for an in-person event.”
Apart from San Diego Comic-Con, no other convention has clear plans for an in-person event. PAX will be doing PAX Online in July, rather than a face-to-face event.
Featured image courtesy of Comic-Con/Official Press Release