VidCon announced that its US convention, scheduled in late October, has been canceled due to concerns over the increasing number of COVID cases. The organizers, however, say that VidCon 2022 is scheduled for June 22nd-25th and that non single-day tickets for the 2021 event will automatically transfer to the new event. VidCon has noted, though, that the event next year won’t necessarily have the same guests and activities planned for this year.
Last year, VidCon 2020 was canceled with hopes of holding the event in the fall, which then turned into hopes of holding the event in summer 2021. Those hopes finally became the scheduled event that’s now canceled. However, the company does have digital events that it’s been holding as part of what it calls VidCon Now.
VidCon’s announcement post says that anyone who wants a refund will have until June 3rd, 2022, to get one and that single-day tickets will be automatically refunded. It also points users to an FAQ about the cancellation if they have more questions.
VidCon isn’t alone in its hesitancy to hold large-scale events in 2021. We’ve seen other in-person events scheduled for this year get canceled, and tech keynotes from the likes of Apple and Samsung have remained virtual. Some events are still planned for later in the year, such as PAX West and our own On the Verge, both of which will require attendees to be fully vaccinated.
Planners have struggled to find a balance when it comes to organizing events during the pandemic, having to figure out whether to hold hybrid events, cancel things entirely, or move things to a future date where conditions will, hopefully, be better. In early 2021, it appeared as if that time would come sometime this year, but various concerns have kept that from being the case. There’s uncertainty about the delta variant, unvaccinated people, breakthrough cases for people who have gotten the shot, and even how many shots people should receive (not to mention the concerns about the vaccine’s availability outside of the US).
