Source: Wizard World Comic Con
Northern California fans were getting ready for an epic weekend in Sacramento, October 5-7th, when everything came crashing down on September 19th. Wizard World released a statement to media companies and fans stating the following:
Wizard World announced today that its Sacramento convention, originally scheduled for October 5-7 at Cal Expo, will be postponed until September 20-22, 2019.
The updated timing will allow Wizard World to focus on its remaining 2018 shows in Austin this weekend and Madison, Nov. 30 – Dec. 2, and its first quarter 2019 events in New Orleans (Jan. 4-6), Portland (Feb. 22-24) and Cleveland (March 8-10).
Fans were completely disappointed considering they had just announced on Friday that Tom Felton, Mike Colter, Henry Winkler were all going to be attending. Most felt like it was a con to get people to finally buy the tickets and when nothing generated Wizard World canceled! To those who attended the same convention in 2017, this may not come as such as a surprise. In 2017, fans complained that there wasn’t much to do, vendors were scarce, and the celebrities well were lackluster, to say the least. I personally went that year and “saw everything” in just under 3 hours. There were a lot of tables empty and the venue barely had anyone in it. By hour four, I bought my godson a dragon fidget spinner and headed home. I didn’t even return for day two. I honestly didn’t think it was even worth my 3.5-hour drive from the Bay Area. The largest celebrity they had at the time was Micheal Rooker and they were headlining the Buffy The Vampire Slayer cast. Not saying those aren’t big-ticket people, but in time I was there I only saw 2 actors at their tables.
In my personal opinion, I feel like Wizard World only puts in effort into certain locations. The large city locations get a good variety of big named celebrities and the smaller cities get left in the dust. The location choosing is also very random. I’m really glad to see a convention reaching out to various locations where nerds may not have that many opportunities to go to Comic Cons, but seriously? They canceled Sacramento, California and kept Madison, Wisconson? (No offense to anyone in Wisconson! I love you @wisconsennach! 😉 ) It’s just clear to see that some of Wizard World stops are stronger than others. For example, Austin which is the weekend before Sacramento is packed with Doctor Who actors, Dragon Ball Z voice actors, and other celebrities. Madison, the show that was supposed to be after Sacramento, has two original Star Trek stars and two stars from Supernatural. That’s really it. Wizard World has yet to update any of their guest information since they announced the cancellation of Sacramento. So many fans are left wondering if that means that Madison will be the next to be canceled. That way Wizard World can really focus on 2019, but let’s be real honest, they said the same thing last year.
While NorCal fans are extremely disappointed that they have one less convention this year, there is Heroes and Villians Fan Fest & Walker Stalker Con as a combined event in San Jose the first weekend of December 2018. Tickets are still available to purchase and Stephen Amell just announced he will be there Saturday ONLY! From that point on, NorCal Fans will have to head north to Portland/Seattle or east to Vegas to get their convention fix in 2019. Silicon Valley Comic Con was moved back to August 2019 so Norcal Nerds will just have to wait!
