Even though the province of British Columbia had a lot of health regulations to guide what these indoor shows can do or not, thankfully they were lifted in time for this event, and I had a terrific time. My con report can be read here.
In the past two months, we also had The Vancouver Retro Gaming Expo (June 25), Kelowna Fan Experience (July 15-17) and Anirevo Summer (July 29-31) in one side of the border, and the Washington State Summer Con 2022 (June 23-25) on the other. There were no reports from the groups I monitor to say there were lots of covid cases. Most of these events communicated that attendance is at the participant’s own risk, and none of them advertised what the entry requirement was. That was buried in their webpage’s FAQ under the Health and Safety section. Everyone accepts this pandemic is not going away, and it’s up to the attendee to decide on how to stay safe. The concensus is that people just want life to go on as “normal” as possible instead of living in constant worry.
At the San Deigo Comic Con, the grand-daddy event that everyone pays attention to, people got sick. Apparently, this event’s policies, requirements, and pre-show checks was not enough to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Comic creators, guests and attendees taking part in off venue activities may have been the problem. That’s the most likely space where people may have inadvertingly caught the virus, and as there were no daily checks before going inside the venue, it’s still possible to carry and not show symptoms much later.
As for what that means for the State-side shows coming up, namely Britcon (August 5-7, 2022) and Emerald City Comic Con (August 18-21)–only the former is asking to stay vigilant with masking up, and the latter is not doing anything at all (update: they’ve updated their health guidelines the day after posting to say masks are mandatory now). That’ll result in the immunocompromised making the tough call as to whether they want to risk attending.
The lineup for both two events are terrific. There’s enough Doctor Who going around to call this Summer the Time of Who!
Emerald City Comic Con Entertainment guests
- Tom Welling
- Christopher Eccleston
- Billie Piper
- Rachael Leigh Cook
- Brendan Fraser
- Oded Fehr
- Felicia Day
- Freddie Prinze Jr.
(for a full list, please visit their website)
Afterwards will be PAX West over the Labour Day Weekend, and in late September is Capital City Comic Con (Sept 23-25). This event in my hometown has Denise Crosby (Star Trek: The Next Generation, The Walking Dead) and Jim “Hacksaw” Duggan (WWE) headlining. More announcements are expected later this month to realise this city’s defining pop culture show. Thankfully, Cherry Bomb’s Ultimate Toy and Hobby Fair in May went off without a hitch, and people are happy.
If you’re coming to visit Victoria, BC for this event, then you’ll find a nice, quiet convention experience. It won’t be like the big conventions and chances of catching that annoying virus will be slim, if not next to nil. That’s assuming the provincal health board doesn’t post alerts or we enter another wave. In addition to all the other activities happening during this show, I’ll be presenting my picks of must-see films to round out this year with and a quick look back at the past two.
After covering Fantasia Film Festival during the last two weeks, I’ll also include my thoughts on which will make it to distribution first at a late event wrap-up.
