The German convention DoKomi announced a new date for the 2021 edition, furthermore, they have cancelled AiKon and announced two DigiKomi editions. The organisation shared the following message: ” After we carefully observed the course of the pandemic in winter, it was foreseeable that a DoKomi would not be possible on our regular date in May. However, the progress made with regard to the approval of several vaccines and the start of the vaccination campaign gives rise to hope that events can be held later this year – albeit with considerable restrictions and rules, similar to the concept we worked with in September 2020. Accordingly, with Düsseldorf Congress and Messe Düsseldorf, we looked for and found an alternative date in the second half of the year.”
The 2021 edition is now planned for 7th and 8th of August. DoKomi stated further that according to the German government’s plans, more than 50 million people in Germany could be vaccinated by then. They assume that the restrictions will continue to be necessary and social distancing rules must continue to be followed, so the organisation of DoKomi will use the concept of September 2020 as a basis for their planning.
Of course, given the constantly dynamic situation of the pandemic, there is no guarantee that events will be possible again at that point or that the specifications will not change after all. In the case that the number of infections will be greatly increased or there are other relevant changes, DoKomi might still be cancelled. The organisation also shared information about JRave and Cosplayball, two of their popular events, they were postponed from 2020 to 2021. On the first of June, the organisation will decide if they can hold it or not. The pre-sale for DoKomi 2021 will start on the first of March.
AiKon, the convention, powered by DoKomi, that is meant as a meeting place for LGBT+ cosplayers, otaku, fans of shounen-ai, shoujo-ai, yaoi and yuri, will not take place in 2021. Originally planned for the end of July at Basecamp Bonn, according to the organisation, it would be too close to the new date of DoKomi 2021 and thus it has been decided to plan the convention on 16 and 17 July 2022. And for those who are a fan of the digital version of DoKomi, they can look forward to a new edition of DigiKomi during DoKomi 2021 and there will also be a VTuber edition of DigiKomi on 22 and 23 May 2021, this will be, as you already can guess, focused on the emerging VTuber community.
All changes of Japan-related events and events where Japanese musicians are planned to perform are compiled in a list that you can find here. This list will be regularly updated.
