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Roswell Galacticon Cancellation 2020

Release – May 7, 2020 – Elaine Davies Mayfield

 

Talk about ‘going where no man has gone before…’

 

The Roswell Galacticon Executive Committee met on May 2nd to discuss the 2020 event.  Options were considered and after thorough discussion the Committee unanimously voted to cancel the Roswell Galacticon originally scheduled for July 3-5, 2020.  

 

It was decided, however, to hold the Roswell Galacticon Sci-Fi Film Fest digitally since it lends itself to being highly successful over the internet.  We are moving forward to throwing our efforts into this endeavor.

 

Discussion:

We went over the restrictions, the guidelines and the orders of the President and the National Committee, the CDC (Center for Disease Control), the New Mexico Department of Health, the Governor of New Mexico and the nationwide Sci-Fi and Comic Con Communities.  We compared their orders, guidelines and predictions.  We went over the lengthy list of Cons and festivals throughout the country – large and small – that have made the decision to cancel, postpone, reschedule or were still operating in limbo waiting to make the decision.

 

In the end, we realized our decision would be based on the following major points:

  • The health of our citizens and visitors is of the utmost importance.  If people contracted Covid-19 as a result of attending it would be tragic.

  • According to the published State of New Mexico Reopening Plan, Mass Gatherings of over 100 people are prohibited through early July and beyond to an unknown date.  

  • Our attendees would be better served by promoting the Roswell Galacticon for 2021 that will be safe, open to all and bigger and better than ever.  Note: The Sci-Fi Film Fest portion can proceed online.

  • We have 8 weeks until opening day of the Galacticon on Friday, July 3rd – we have only 6 weeks from the Governor’s Stay Home Orders latest target date of May 15th.  The last two months of restrictions have seriously hurt our ability to present an event of the quality and scope that we have had for the last ten years.

 

Decision:

The following decisions were made:

  • The Roswell Galacticon will cancel the 2020 event scheduled to be held at the Roswell Convention & Civic Center.  The event will not be rescheduled or postponed with the 2021 Roswell Galacticon to be held July 2-4, 2021.

  • The Roswell SciFi Film Fest will be held digitally.  The winning films will be shown on our website during the original dates of July 3-5 and we are seeking permission to repeat showings throughout the month of July 2020.  We could also see a big increase in visits to our websites and FaceBook page resulting in higher attendance in 2021 to both the Film Fest and the Con.

  • The Roswell Con with vendor hall, gaming, virtual reality, Steampunk Ball and Star Child Space Station would move to planning the best ever Galacticon on July 2-4, 2021.

  • We have outlined a plan to have small local events over the next year to strengthen our outreach and bring the SciFi Con culture to the region, for example, Sci-Fi movie nights at a local theater, a winter Steampunk Ball, a gaming tournament, etc.  We also want to work with the UFO Festival Committee and MainStreet Roswell on their promotional events over the next year.

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