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New Jersey’s ‘Anime Fan Fest’ 2017 Has Been Cancelled, Is Apparently a ‘Major Bummer’

Well, mark another con in the cancellation file. Otaku Magazine’s Anime Fan Fest was originally scheduled for April 22-23, 2017 at the Garden State Exhibit Center in Somerset, NJ. Unfortunately for fans in the area, this is no longer true.

The Anime Fan Fest official Facebook page posted the following earlier today:

MAJOR BUMMER- We are so sorry to inform you that due to complications with the facility, Anime Fan Fest 2017 has been canceled. We've started issuing refunds to our attendees, vendors, and artists. Please note funds may take up to 3-5 business days to return to your account. Thank you for understanding and we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

No reasons were given for the event’s cancellation beyond “complications with the facility,” though we can speculate it’s likely for the normal reasons any con cancels — no one is buying. Frankly, we’ve heard reports of sub par experiences from their 2016 event, so there’s been a distinct lack of surprise. The event organizers did go on to say in the comments that they were unsure of their plans for the con in 2018 as well.

None of this seems to have affected Anime Fan Fest Baltimore, which is still scheduled to take place this June, though when an organization starts cancelling events less than seven weeks before their dates, they don’t exactly look stable.

Trae Dorn

Trae Dorn has been staffing conventions for over twenty-five years. They also wrote and drew the now completed webcomic UnCONventional, and produce the podcasts BS-Free Witchcraft, On This Day With Trae, Stormwood & Associates, The Meatgrinder, and The Nerd & Tie Podcast. This leads many to ask how the heck they have the time to get it all done. Trae says they have the time because they “do it all quite poorly.”

9 thoughts on “New Jersey’s ‘Anime Fan Fest’ 2017 Has Been Cancelled, Is Apparently a ‘Major Bummer’

  • The folks behind the events seem to like rolling into facilities that previously hosted other successful conventions. First the GSEC where we were, now the BCC where Otakon was.

    Reply
    • Bernhard Warg

      I was just thinking the same thing. And also how it’s a bad idea to schedule multiple conventions so close together both geographically and temporally.

      Reply
      • Jefferson Eng

        No mention on their official website, although the last guest announcement was made at the end of January. If anything, they should post something on the main page just for reasons of damage control.

        Reply
        • Bernhard Warg

          To be fair, I know from experience that it’s not always possible to schedule an event at a time that doesn’t conflict with anything else. I was referring to the fact that they scheduled two of their own conventions both within a month and a half of each other and a geographical radius of less than 200 miles.

          Reply
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