It was looking good for the events planned for autumn and winter to continue, but unfortunately, this is not the case anymore. On the same day that Heroes Dutch Comic Con had to announce that they will postpone the event from this weekend to March 2022, AnimeCon announced that they will have to cancel AnimeCon 2021 Christmas Special, scheduled for 11 and 12 December at Broodfabriek in Rijswijk, with pain in their hearts.
In a message, they shared the following: “There is no easy way to go about it: the current situation leaves us with no choice but to cancel The AnimeCon 2021 Christmas Special. The measures taken by the Dutch government have created a lot of uncertainty and we see no realistic scenario which would allow us to organise an AnimeCon festival of the quality that you are used to. We were all looking forward to the festival, and therefore this decision was not taken lightly. We had to take all sides into account: the visitors, the volunteers, our partners and vendors, guests and so on.”
The organisation shared a couple of reasons why they decided to cancel the AnimeCon 2021 Christmas Special, such as not being sure if the current measures taken by the Dutch government would be relaxed at the time that the event was supposed to take place and with these current measures in mind they looked at what they have to move in their programming. In their explanation, they shared that they had to cancel 6 hours of the Saturday and 2 hours of the Sunday programming. The organisation behind AnimeCon: “We would have to transform much of the programme to make our event fit the rules, and there would be too many compromises, taking away much of the AnimeCon that you expect, like the theatre and catering.”
Furthermore they shared the information that the location itself has been used as a vaccination location and that it will be soon used for this purpose again. AnimeCon: “By cancelling the AnimeCon 2021 Christmas Special, the location will be available for vaccination at least one week earlier. With the current situation, this has been an influence on the decision as well.” They also kept the many partners, vendors, event holders, staff, but also things that have to be hired and more in mind as organising an event as this is a massive undertaking. Those with a ticket for this event will receive an email about their orders and more information about the next steps.
Since there will be no Christmas Special in physical form anymore, the organisation decided to organise another edition of AnimeCon @ Home, the online event that has been organised a couple of times before with diverse activities such as Weeb Lingo, Japanese music showcase, the maids of Neko Neko Nii Maid Café and interesting lectures. The upcoming event is scheduled to take place on Saturday 11 December 2021 on the Twitch channel of AnimeCon. The programming for this day will be announced soon. It is likely that the VTV World event will take place during AnimeCon @ Home, as it was originally announced as a physical and online event during AnimeCon Christmas Special. But if this event will still be part of the upcoming online event of AnimeCon, is at this moment of writing unknown. A good reason to keep an eye on the website and social media of AnimeCon for more information.
🥳VTV WORLD – VR LIVE RELAY-🎉
無事にVR LIVE RELAY終了しました‼️ご覧頂き、本当にありがとうございました😭❣️❣️
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Next #VTVW Event will in #Animecon https://t.co/pT7JkEA778 pic.twitter.com/LkhUA6PTvK
— LilyKanon🧚♀️💫奏音リリィ🎙Vsinger📺 (@kanonlily8) November 7, 2021
In 2022, we can hopefully attend a physical event organised by AnimeCon, Friday 10 to Sunday 12 June 2022, the regular AnimeCon is scheduled at Broodfabriek in Rijswijk and Friday 23 to Sudnay 25 September 2022, AnimeCon Classic is scheduled to take place at Theaterhotel Almelo.