SALT LAKE CITY — San Diego Comic-Con announced Friday that it would not host its annual event in 2020, skipping the convention until 2021. So will the same happen to Fan X Salt Lake Comic Convention?
FanX founder and president Dan Farr told the Deseret News in an interview last week that he does not expect to postpone or cancel the FanX convention in 2020. He said the convention is still expecting host the event this fall Sept. 17-19.
“We’re still moving ahead, planning for the event, anticipating that things will be more back to normal. I’m sure it’s not going to be perfect by then,” Farr said.
“We are just planning for the event to happen. Of course, if it’s recommended that we not do it from the government, from the governor’s office or from the mayor’s office then we’re not going to push ahead with it.”
FanX will look at “mitigation efforts” for its convention, but it has not determined what those are yet, Farr said.
Washing hands, having hand sanitizer, wearing masks will likely be recommended, he said.
“We have a lot of ideas. We’re just trying to determine which ones we’re going to implement,” he said.
He added, “There’ll be a lot of stuff that’s just, you know, the more obvious stuff, but then we’re also looking at some alternative options as well.”
Farr did not mention what those alternative options were.
FanX is still in the process of locking down celebrities to attend events. The convention has announced Ashley Eckstein (voice of Ahsoka in “Star Wars: The Clone Wars), Jaleel White (Steve Urkel from “Family Matters”) and others.
Canceled spring and summer shows will create “pent-up demand,” Farr said, which means there will be a lot of celebrities “that are gonna be hoping to get into some shows in the fall. And so we’re anticipating that.”
In fact, Farr is expecting a better event than in years past because so many of the other conventions are getting shut down. For example, Comic-Cons in Phoenix and Indiana have been rescheduled due to the outbreak. Emerald City Comic Con was postponed as well.
The lack of conventions may give Salt Lake’s a boost, Farr said.
“We’re still anxiously awaiting the September event. With fingers crossed, all intentions to the positive direction it’s going to go on without a hitch and, you know, potentially could be our best event ever because I think that there’s a hunger for people to want to get together. Just right now, we can’t, but we all miss it.
“Having an opportunity to do that, I think it’s gonna be something that people are going to jump on if they feel safe. That’s gonna be the factor. We’re gonna do what we can to help create a safe as possible environment.”
Nobody knows what’s going to happen with the coronavirus, though, Farr said. Of course, the coronavirus could continue to spread into the fall.
FanX will adjust if needed.
“I would put the probability at a higher probability that the event goes through than not,” Farr said.
FanX did not comment on San Diego Comic-Con’s cancellation after a request today.