San Diego Comic-Con 2021 is, for now, going ahead in its physical form with fans and organisers (along with, no doubt, hoteliers, restaurateurs and city council officials) desperately hoping that the global pandemic will have abaited, a vaccine will be found and the aftermath of the chaos caused will be at a minimum.
That being said, it’s fairly safe to say that the shape and tenor of the convention will be completely different from what attendees have become used to in recent years with much lower numbers taking the risk and making their way to America’s Finest City – even less so for San Diego Comic-Con.
Comic-Con International is taking some steps in that regard themselves, with a discrete announcement put up on the Badge Sale page of their website, confirming that there will no Badge Sale for new attendees ‘at this time’, meaning the only people that will be entering the San Diego Convention Center next July will be those with rolled-over secured Returning Attendee Badges from the cancelled 2020 event.
This is a prudent move on CCI’s part: why flood the building with the usual maximum quantity when you already have a determined attendee count all lined up? Also, while they are relying on many of those Badge Holders to not give up their ‘golden tickets’, there will be no doubt a percentage that will decide that the risk is too great, they’ll pass on the 2021 event and that’ll bring the attendee count even further. A dedicated audience – but one that can be controlled, in terms of line management, social distancing, room spacing and the like.
True, this doesn’t factor in the crowd movement outside of the building and in the Gaslamp which is always a throng during SDCC; neither does it take into account any of the off-site events that take up every available square meter of the surrounding area. Still, it’s a long way until July and events and developments may transpire to bring things back to some form of normalcy.
For now, however, CCI are erring on the side of caution – and hitting a kind of Reset on the volume of the mass of humanity that has become San Diego Comic-Con.
