Emerald City Comic Con postponed to summer 2020 due to coronavirus

Emerald City Comic Con announced Friday that its 2020 event will be postponed until summer, with more details and exact dates to be announced soon.

Live updates on the coronavirus response in Washington state

After many hours of conversation internally & consultation with local government officials and the tourism bureau, we have decided to move next week’s Emerald City Comic Con to Summer 2020 with date & detail announcement forthcoming. Read more at https://t.co/ahL1TOmHLF #ECCC2020 pic.twitter.com/qq3ZnDPXWb

— Emerald City Comic Con (@emeraldcitycon) March 6, 2020

Earlier this week, ECCC had said that the popular con would proceed as planned, following guidlines from the public health department. The event was originally scheduled to take place March 12-15 at the Washington State Convention Center in downtown Seattle.

ECCC brings tens of thousands of attendees to Seattle every year from all over the world, with nearly 98,000 attendees in 2019.

Event organizers had previously announced that the con would be working closely with health officials to follow any guidelines and implement “enhanced cleaning and sanitization across the show.”

As coronavirus concerns continued to change in the Seattle area throughout the week, ECCC announced Wednesday that it would offer refunds.

“If you wish to forgo attending this year’s edition of Emerald City Comic Con, we absolutely respect your wishes and will refund your ticket purchase.”

News of guests, artists, and groups backing out of this year’s con started to surface on Twitter, as well as a large number of people who were still committed to attend and looking forward to the event.

Friday’s announcement that the event has been postponed comes just six days before ECCC was scheduled to start.

“Our hearts go out to the entire Seattle community, everyone impacted by the COVID-19 virus, and all of you, the nearly 100,000 amazing human beings who look forward to this event each year,” says a statement from the organizers at Reedpop. “Our team was incredibly excited to see you at Emerald City Comic Con next week, however, fans, artists, exhibitors and the rest of the community are what make Reedpop events so special and it is our duty to make sure that your safety comes first.

For more updates, ECCC tells fans to stay tuned to its website and social media channels.