OC comic book nerds can breathe a little easier this week with the announcement that WonderCon has decided to stay in Anaheim for 2013. The event is scheduled for March 29-31.Despite over a year of vacillating over the issue, convention organizers announced on Monday that they would not be returning to its native San Francisco. The show ran a statement about the switch. Apparently, the convention was waiting on dates from S.F.'s Moscone Center for ages and were finally granted some dates through the fall.
]
“However, those dates coincide with another very large city wide event, and this has resulted in some unavoidable conflicts,” the statement says. “Among them hotel room blocks we explored near, and not so near, the Moscone Center started at $300 per night.”
“This, along with the expected difficulty of exhibitors and attendees in securing airfare for those outside of driving distance of San Francisco for that weekend, has resulted in us not being able to secure San Francisco as a location for WonderCon in 2013.
However, because we knew there was a possibility of not being able to return to San Francisco, we have scheduled WonderCon: Anaheim to be held March 29-31, 2013. Hopefully we will be able to return WonderCon to San Francisco sometime soon.”
Damn, WonderCon getting the shaft in its hometown? What's that about?
Questions about the future of the show started swirling immediately last year when the event was forced to relocate to Anaheim Convention Center and became a runaway success.
According to Comic Book Resources, Dan Glanzer– Comic-Con's director of marketing and public relations says “The plan was always to return to San Francisco. WonderCon was born in the Bay Area and we'd like to keep it there. I will say, however, that we haven't received 2013 dates yet. Hopefully our Anaheim version will be such a success that San Francisco will be a bit more embracing of us.”
You gotta love your nerds, San Francisco– they will love you back. Last year, the plan was to keep an Anaheim date in March and let it be its own brand, while continuing to let S.F.'s show continue its iconic stature. Expanding to four shows this quickly would by super stressful. Whether this news makes you joyful or pissed, what you think about the WonderCon move to OC?
Follow us on Twitter @OCWeeklyMusic and like us on Facebook at Heard Mentality.
