Otakon 2020 is Cancelled, will Return on August 6-8, 2021

To those who are looking forward to Otakon this year, we have some bad news. It was announced recently on their official website that this highly anticipated anime convention is cancelled. The main reason for the cancellation is due to current Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Aside from this, the venue, the Walter E Washington Convention Center will be converted to an Alternate Care Facility.

Below shows the joint full statement by Otakon President Nick Avgerinos and convention chair Andrew Zerrlaut:

We are very sad to announce that we must join the countless other events around the world and announce the cancellation of Otakon 2020. While we had been clinging to the last bits of hope that our later dates would allow us the potential to hold an event, on April 17th it was announced that our venue, the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, would be converted into an Alternate Care Facility. After discussing the timelines with the Convention Center staff and Destination DC, even in the most optimistic scenario that the facility is not needed to be used they would still be in the move-out/clean up process by the dates of our event.

We know this is not the news you wanted to hear. For those of you who may not know, Otakon, is run, planned, staffed, and organized by an ALL volunteer organization. As our staff have been trying to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe, we have also continued planning, and holding out hope that Otakon 2020 would still happen. All of the best things that make up our community are needed more than ever right now. We need fandom, we need inclusion, we need acceptance, we need family and friendship, we need creativity and escape; we need FUN! We held out hope as long as we could that we could be all of that this year. Please know that this decision breaks our hearts as much as it does yours.

So, we are at least happy that we can announce our dates for next year:

Otakon will return to the

Walter E. Washington Convention Center

August 6-8, 2021

All registrations for 2020 will automatically be registered for 2021.  No additional action will be needed.

If you are unable to attend in 2021, or need to request a refund for other reasons, we are making an exception to our standard no-refunds policy for this year.  Please fill out the Refund Request form on our website before May 31st.

Dealers and Artists will have the option to transfer their registrations to next year, or request a refund.

Hotel reservations made through Experient (our official housing provider) will automatically be cancelled.  According to our records, no deposits for any rooms booked inside our room block have been taken.  If you booked outside our housing portal you will need to contact your hotel directly.

We’d like to say thank you to our partners at Destination DC, Events DC, Experient, Hargrove, DSL, Simmons Security, and more.  Thank you to all of our industry partners and guests, both foreign and domestic, and thank you to all of our artists and dealers.

To our members, thank you for your support and encouragement through this crisis.  Our motto has always been “for fans, by fans”.  This is truly a labor of love for us, and we will need your continuing support more than ever in the weeks and months to come.

Finally, we want to publicly thank all the volunteers who work behind the scenes to bring you Otakon and are working so right now to readjust things for 2021.  Our volunteers are more than just a group of people who work to put on a convention each year, we’re very much a family.  We’ll just need to wait till next year for our big reunion.

Stay safe, and we’ll see you in 2021!

About Otakon (as described by their official website)

Founded in 1994, Otakon is an annual convention held in the summer months to celebrate Asian pop culture (anime, manga, music, movies, video games, etc) and its fandom. The event runs from Friday to Sunday and is packed with a schedule that has tons to do.

In 2017, Otakon moved to our new home, the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in our nation’s capital of Washington, DC.

Truly “for fans, by fans”, Otakon is run all by volunteers under the non-profit organization Otakorp, Inc.

Previously, two big conventions Anime Expo and San Diego Comic Con also announced cancellations of their events this year. It is the first time in its 50-year run that SDCC would have cancel. Both conventions cancelled also due to COVID-19 concerns.

To quote SDCC’s statement: “Recognizing that countless attendees save and plan for its conventions each year, and how many exhibitors and stakeholders rely upon its events for a major portion of their livelihood, they had hoped to delay this decision in anticipation that COVID-19 concerns might lessen by summer. Continuous monitoring of health advisories and recent statements by the Governor of California have made it clear that it would not be safe to move forward with plans for this year.”

Aside from Comic-Con, its related conventions WonderCon Anaheim is cancelled and its 2021 run will be on March 26-28, 2021 at the Anaheim Convention Center.

This isn’t the only convention that announced cancellation this year. In fact, big expos like E3 and AnimeJapan have also cancelled this year due to the current pandemic.

Attendees who have already purchased batches for this year’s SDCC can request for a refund or transfer their badges to next year’s convention. Emails will sent to attendees in regards to the refund processing.

The organizers of SDCC is also planning for a major renovation of Balboa Park’s Federal Building which is expected to be completed for the grand opening of the Comic-Con Museum, slated for Summer 2021. However, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, this has also affected this development.

Source: Otakon (Official Website, Press Release)