The launch of the international Comic Con festival in South Africa was a big win for local geeks and gamers. But the event being hosted in Johannesburg meant that Capetonians had to dole out a lot of money to attend. You had to be a relentless fan to save up to get some face time with Travis Fimmel.
This weekend, Comic Con Cape Town was announced, quite unofficially. No information has been sent to the press regarding the event. Yet. We do know the date and venue, though, from various social media accounts that have popped up. The reveal was made at the annual Cape Town International Animation Festival (CTIAF). Which is… all we actually need to get hella excited.
Confirmed! Announced to festival attendees this morning. Check the press for more details! 😃🧙♀️🦹♀️🦸♂️ https://t.co/lTP5xQgrAu
— CTIAF (@CTanimationfest) March 9, 2019
You know nothing, Jon Snow
We don’t know much more than the info found on the Twitter account, but the event is slated for 1-3 May 2020. The problem here is that (if this turns out to be for-realzies) it will be hosted disturbingly close to Cape Town’s current geek event, called FanCon. Noticing a pattern? (*cough*rAge*cough*)
Comic Con Africa will see its second year in Johannesburg this year, and the event is already held dangerously close to NAG’s Rage Festival. It would be nice if people could decide to attend every geek festival on offer, but scheduling them this close together means fans need to make a difficult choice, or decide that they’ll go hungry for a month. Tough times are ahead.
The Comic Con Cape Town website is not live, which gives us even less to go on. The Twitter account says that the event will be hosted at the Cape Town Stadium on 1-3 May 2020. We’ll be keeping an eye open for more official sources of info, as they turn up.
UPDATE: The official confirmation for Comic Con Africa: Cape Town has come through and the details were… pretty much accurate. There is some extra info available, though. The Cape Town event will be more focused on films and series, due to the motion picture industry in the Mother City (and a partnership with the Cape Town International Animation Festival). So now there’s a reason to head to both. So much for only going to one expo.
The event MD, Carol Weaving said in a statement “With the unprecedented success of the 2018 Comic Con Africa it is the natural next step to bring this format to the city of Cape Town. While the style of this Comic Con will be slightly different to Comic Con Africa, we still expect the same level of entertainment focusing on our key pillars which include film, series, animation, cosplay, comic books and gaming. We are thrilled to be announcing the dates when we will be bringing the Comic Con magic to another South African city.”
Details about the event, and its celebrity attendees will be announced at a later stage. Expect both local and international representation, however.