Like many of you, we have been following the news and developments over the past few months. We have been in constant communication with the Sharonville Convention Center, local health agencies, media, and state and municipal authorities.

With the latest information being advised, for the safety and well-being for our fans and the general public, a consensus was reached to cancel this year and focus our energies onto a fresh event for next year. This extra time will be used for guidance and improvements in health and safety measures that need to be in place with the venue and our attendees.

Over the last several weeks, since mid-March, we started creating numerous plans to prepare for and respond to the COVID and its potential impact on Anime Ohio. We had plans ranging anywhere from no changes, through various levels of changes, and all the way to full on cancellation.

As Ohio began the reopening process, we were hopeful that the event would go as planned with safety and healthy changes made inside the venue. The venue was updating us with those potential changes, and we were developing our plan to release to all of you. However, the state is simply not ready to address mass gathering events such as Anime Ohio and we have made the difficult decision to cancel. Eventually, Ohio will address events on the scale of Anime Ohio and provide further guidance on restrictions, policies, social distancing, crowd capacity, and mask-wearing requirements that will be required for events. However, until they set these guidelines, we cannot execute our event.

So, what does this mean for you?

At this time, we are having discussions with our announced guests (and those we had not announced yet) about returning for the new dates. Once those arrangements are made, we will post them here and on the website.

If you registered a panel/programming session for the June 2020 event, we will be asking you to submit those again at a future date. All the current submissions will be deleted. We anticipate opening panel and workshop applications early next year.

All ticket purchases and exhibitor registrations will automatically be rolled over to the 2021 date. You do not have to do anything else. If you are unable to attend or make it to the next one, then your unused ticket/booth/table will still be held for the 2022 or 2023 Anime Ohio events. If your ticket is unused next year, then it will be automatically rolled over for an equal admission ticket for the next event after. If you are unable to attend that one, then it will rollover to the next one and so on, until Anime Ohio 2023. If ticket prices go up or increase, your ticket is still valid at no additional charge for Saturday admission to the next Anime Ohio. All tickets must be used by 2023 or the admission is forfeited.

All artists and vendors that registered as exhibitors will have their registration rolled over to the 2021 date. If you are an exhibitor unable to attend the next show, then please contact Paul at vendors@cincinnaticomicexpo.com.

In the meantime, we want you all to be safe out there and act responsibly. Your support throughout this process means a lot to us. This has been a challenging time for us and we look forward to seeing all your smiling faces on June 19, 2021, at Anime Ohio.