COAF will return in 2021

COAF Community,

I’m Rosa, convention chair. This is a hard letter for me to write. It’s also a little frightening.

We’ve made the difficult decision to call off our plans for a 2020 convention and will return next year, on March 19–21, 2021.

After consulting with our wonderful Marriott DTC partners for available dates and discussing what a postponed show would look like among our staff, we ultimately decided cancellation was our best long-term option. We want to thank you for your patience this past week as we switched gears from convention prep to cancellation.

Why not reschedule?

In the time since Governor Polis issued restrictions on large gatherings, we’ve thoroughly considered all of our options. We had two primary concerns: whether we could put on a show worthy of the name Colorado Anime Fest and ensuring the long-term viability of the convention.

Had we rescheduled, we would have had to verify all guests, vendors, artists, panelists, and others would be able to come to the show’s new dates and fill in the spots left open by those who couldn’t. Right now, with all of the uncertainty around this virus, we weren’t confident that restrictions would be lifted in a timeframe that also made sense for the convention. And even when restrictions lift, we know it’ll be a slow return to normalcy. The last thing we’d want to do is announce new dates and then have to cancel anyway.

Colorado’s events calendar also gets increasingly crowded as the year goes on. Being too close to another convention doesn’t benefit the events or attendees. Choosing a date close to another convention would mean many of our attendees would have to choose between attending us or the other event. Here at COAF, we love all of our fellow conventions and wouldn’t want to ask attendees or industry to make that choice.

But most importantly, rescheduling to the fall or winter seasons would put us much too close to our 2021 dates. We pride ourselves on putting on a quality show, and we wouldn’t want to compromise on what we could offer you in a shortened timeframe. It’s too much to ask of our staff, and it’s too much to ask of you. Even though we know some of you wonderful people would happily attend both.

We know this decision will cause a lot of disappointment. We’re deeply disappointed, too. We had such great plans to share with you for our fifth convention. We hope to show you those next year, March 19–21, 2021.

Rosa Halcomb
Convention Chair

Rollovers and Refunds

Please read through the options below.

Rollovers

We’ll automatically roll your pre-registration over to COAF 2021 unless you request a refund. No action is required on your part. This is the best way you can support us and ensure future COAF events can happen. 

Because we’re going to start next year’s weekend pre-registration price back at $35, we will provide coupons to anyone who pre-registered for COAF 2020 at a higher rate. If you paid $40, you’ll get a $5 coupon. If you paid $45, you’ll get a $10 coupon. And day badges will be converted to full weekend badges, on us. We will also include a small, exclusive thank you that shows off your support!

These coupons will be provided to you at COAF 2021 when you pick up your badge and can be redeemed for COAF merchandise or on-site pre-registration for the following year.

Refunds

COAF is a show built by fans, for fans, and this is a tough time for everyone. All along, we’ve been as honest and transparent as possible, so here’s the reality: events like ours are expensive to put on. When Governor Polis issued restrictions on large gatherings, we had just days to go until our event was scheduled to begin. Most smaller conventions like COAF rely on money from pre-registration to pay upfront costs—things like guest flights, new equipment, rentals, badges, and program books. We’re not at the size where we can run the entire convention with only the revenue from the previous year.

Where does that leave us? To be absolutely blunt, it means that if the majority of our attendees request refunds instead of rolling their badges over to 2021, there’ll probably be no more Colorado Anime Fest. Not in 2021, not ever. We’ll have to liquidate our assets to pay the remaining refunds and shut down the convention for good.

Make no mistake: we’ll provide a refund to any attendee who requests one, no questions asked. We know a lot of people are going to be in tough financial situations as a result of current events. If that includes you, please don’t hesitate to request a refund. But if you plan to join us next year and it isn’t going to hurt you financially, know you’ll be helping to ensure the long-term viability of Colorado Anime Fest by rolling your badge over.

If you can’t come and want to give your badge to a friend instead, we’ll gladly transfer it. We also have the option to gift your badge to a COVID-19 first responder. Should you choose to do that, we’ll offer those badges to local healthcare workers, police, and other folks on the front lines right now.

Our refund period has ended. All remaining badges will be rolled over to COAF 2021.

Artists and Vendors

Watch your email, we’ll be reaching out to you directly with more information.