Greetings, Anime World fans! We apologize for our radio silence these last few months, but there has been a lot going on behind the scenes, and we didn’t want to make any official announcements until all details were finalized.
First, the bad news: Despite numerous requests to return to the Chicago area for 2016, we have been unable to find an available venue to host our convention. Chicagoland hosts a lot of events, and most of the hotels big enough to accommodate our space needs are booked out two to three years in advance. We would love to return to our first convention home, and we’ll do our best to get back there when we can!
However, there is good news: Since we’re not mounting our Chicago convention this year, we’re dedicating our energy to bring more anime and cosplay right to our second convention home, Indianapolis! (Chicago folks, that’s only a three hour drive, or an easy bus/train ride away!)
For 2016, we have partnered with popular culture convention Indy Pop Con in Indianapolis. In conjunction with PopCon, June 17-19, 2016, Anime World will bring you more of the anime programming you love – including voice actor guests, a three-day cosplay workshop track, manga and comic art workshops, interactive programming, anime and Japanese culture panels, and more! Anime World will also be operating the costume contest, which is open to anime and pop culture sources and features a whopping $1,500 in cash prizes.
Since this is a cooperative production with PopCon, one ticket will get you access to all basic programming! However, if you want a truly exclusive experience, you can purchase an Anime VIP pass that will grant you special access to events, guaranteed guest autographs, and more. All the details are available on the PopCon website.
We look forward to bringing a fantastic anime experience to PopCon attendees, and we hope you’ll join us there! Meanwhile, we’ll keep working on finding a venue for 2017.