Dear Anime Central Community,
We want to thank you for your continued patience with us while we have been monitoring the spread of the coronavirus and what that means for the event and your safety. It is with heavy hearts that we have decided to cancel Anime Central 2021. Like many of you, we held on to hope that this would not be the case this May and that it would be safe to return and see all of our friends. With the current state of the pandemic in America and the speed of vaccine distribution it would be unsafe to hold an event of our size. Our Board of Directors and Anime Central Leaders did not come to this decision lightly, and carefully considered all the options available to us. Our 2022 convention will be held May 20-22, 2022.
Our staff has spent the year planning for either possibility of holding an in person or online event. We thank our volunteers for their great ideas, the hard work, laughs, camaraderie, and teamwork they bring to table every year that makes this convention a success. We thank our Guests, Panelists, Gatherings Hosts, and Performers for all of the work they’ve already put into their events for this year’s convention; we sincerely hope you’ll be back with us again for our 2022 event. We thank each and every one of our Industry Partners, Exhibitors, and Artists; we know this time is hitting most of you more than others, cancellation is not an easy thing to deal with, and our industry is hurting right now.
And we thank you, our fans, for standing by us and helping build the amazing community around this event. You’ve shown us time and time again how Anime Central is a part of your lives, favorite memories, and what the spirit of ACen means to you. There is a lot of heart poured into making Anime Central each year and we can’t wait to see you all again when it’s safer! We love our anime community here in the Midwest and for now, all we want is for everyone to remain healthy and safe. We will be back, and when we are, we will all come together again to make new memories, reunite with our friends, and have an amazing weekend together. We truly hope you’ll join us next year, May 20-22, for Anime Central 2022.
With Love,
Anime Central
Cancelation Details
Attendee Registrations
All attendees who pre-registered for 2020/21 memberships will be automatically rolled over for our 2022 convention. We’ve seen the community ask how they can support events that are cancelling due to the coronavirus. As a non-profit organization, this option would help us close out the remaining financial commitments open for 2021 and begin planning for 2022.
We do understand that not everyone may be able to attend our convention in 2022. Any attendee who would prefer to have a refund on their pre-registration must contact our Registration team by emailing registration@acen.org.
Refunds will be issued by check and the deadline to submit a refund request is March 15, 2021. Attendee refund requests should only be submitted by the person who purchased the membership(s) and need to include the following information:
- Attendee Name (include additional names if more than one membership was purchased).
- Order Number (include additional order numbers if applicable).
- Current Mailing Address.
As mentioned earlier, refunds will only be issued to the person who initiated the transaction. If you are not the person who paid for your membership (for example a parent or a group leader who paid by credit card), you will need to coordinate with them to submit a refund request.
Once you submit your email to our Registration team, a ticket will be created and we will work towards processing your request. We are expecting a large number of requests, and it will take us time to process them. Submitting multiple requests for the same refund will delay the processing of your request.
If a refund check is returned to us and marked as undeliverable, the effected memberships will be rolled over to 2022.
Retailers and Artists
Retailers and Artists who are registered for Anime Central 2021 will automatically be rolled over to our 2022 event. Any company who would prefer to have a refund on their booth placements must contact our Exhibition Services team. We are not offering partial refunds. If you request a refund we cannot hold your placement in our hall for 2022.
- Artists seeking refunds should email artistalley@acen.org.
- Retailers and Vendors seeking refunds should email exhibitspace@acen.org.
Refunds will be issued by check and the deadline to submit a refund request is March 15, 2021. Refund requests should include the following information:
- Company Name.
- Location Allotment.
- Current Mailing Address.
Hotels
Our hotels will be working to cancel hotel reservations made within our room blocks by Monday, February 15. If your hotel reservation isn’t cancelled automatically or you booked a hotel room not in any of our hotel blocks, please contact the hotel directly to cancel your reservation. Anime Central is unable to assist with these reservations.
Most of the hotels in our room blocks have not taken out the first night’s deposit. For those who have, please work with your hotel to cancel your reservation and have them refund your deposit.
Hotel reservations cannot be rolled over to the 2022 convention. Room blocks for Anime Central 2022 will open in September 2021.
