San Diego Comic-Con will be holding an in-person three-day “special edition” event over Thanksgiving weekend, Nov. 26-28, 2021 at the San Diego Convention Center, the organization announced Saturday.
The hope is that by the Fall, the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic will have passed and larger public gatherings will be permitted.
“While we have been able to pivot from in-person gatherings to limited online events, the loss of revenue has had an acute impact on the organization as it has with many small businesses, necessitating reduced work schedules and reduction in pay for employees, among other issues,” David Glanzer, spokesperson for the nonprofit organization, said in a statement Saturday. “Hopefully this event will shore up our financial reserves and mark a slow return to larger in-person gatherings in 2022.”
Details about specific events, badge cost and attendance capacity are all still in the planning stages and will be announced down the line. You can visit their website, comic-con.org, for updated information as it becomes available.
Due to concern for public health and safety, the annual convention had to cancel in-person events in San Diego 2020, as well as its spring 2021 show, WonderCon in Anaheim. In its place, WonderCon@Home held a free online event on March 26 and 27, 2021, and a three-day Comic-Con@Home event is set for July 23-25, 2021.
Last year’s Comic-Con@Home featured three days of pre-taped Zoom panels and other content. It also came at a massive cost to the non-profit organization that puts on the yearly event. San Diego Comic-Con typically draws 135,000 comic book fans to Southern California every July.
The financial impact extended to the city of San Diego, which also went an entire year without fans in attendance for San Diego Padres games. According to the San Diego Convention Center Corporation, the city was projecting a regional impact of more than $166 million, including almost $100 million in total spending by attendees, which includes hotels, restaurants and other city attractions. Hollywood studios that are promoting the launch of a new film or TV show often hold activities outside the center and other venues. Those studios usually hire local companies to help.
Comic-Con also generates more than $3 million in taxes for the city.