Attention artists, we're hosting a Fan Art competition! We will give away two day tickets to the winner, so you can bring a companion too and enjoy the event together! All different art mediums and types are welcome to join, so feel free to use all your creativity! The deadline is May 20, and you can send your submission and any questions you may have to Dit e-mailadres wordt beveiligd tegen spambots. JavaScript dient ingeschakeld te zijn om het te bekijken. Feel free to post your art on social media in the meantime and tag us! (Already got a ticket? No worries! We will give you a refund :D)

Dear visitors,

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. Below are a few of the reasons why we had to make this hard decision.

First of all, as you know the measures now in effect are imposed for the next three weeks, at the very least. Since this edition would be one week later, we are not yet subject to these measures. However, we are less than confident that the number of infections will decrease enough to allow for some form of relaxation of the current measures. Then the question becomes: can we deliver what we have promised to our visitors and partners? And to that, the answer is no.

We would have to cancel 6 hours of our Saturday and 2 hours of our Sunday program. That alone is already more than we would like to. Also, we would have to transform much of the program 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.

We could have postponed this decision. However, as you can imagine, a festival like AnimeCon is a massive undertaking. Many partners, vendors, and event holders need preparation, like planning staff or preparing items to sell. Also, AnimeCon itself needs to hire equipment, furniture, and staff like security and first-aid responders. If AnimeCon were to cancel one week in advance, a lot more costs would be incurred by the vendors and the convention. And, of course, the disappointment would be a lot larger.

Another consideration is specific to the location itself. The Broodfabriek has been used as a vaccination location. Some of our staff and visitors have even been vaccinated at the location. Soon, the Broodfabriek will once again fulfill that function. 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.

Now, what will happen with your ticket?

Next week, all visitors will receive an email about their orders, and they will get various options. We will post on our social media when you should have received your mail and please, do check your junk mail. This may take a few days; we are working as hard as we can to accommodate the refunds but we need to configure this internally as well.

We know you will have many questions and concerns. Feel free to mention those and we will do our best to answer them.

We will hold a special Q&A session on Wednesday the 17th at 20:00 CET/Amsterdam time on our Discord server, which you can find with the following link:
https://discord.gg/yvYH9MK

On a more positive note, even though the AnimeCon 2021 Christmas Special is cancelled, we can’t just do nothing on this day. So, while it is not nearly as much fun as a real convention, on the 11th of December there will once again be an AnimeCon @ Home event. We are still working on the content so please keep an eye on our socials.