One of the things I know we all miss during the current insanity is being able to go back to the con floor. We’ve seen a number of events go virtual which has its own perks and drawbacks. A big perk is that “the show will go on” even if the con floor is virtual and sessions and panels are in Zoom or Teams breakout rooms. But that personal “in the mob” connection is still a flavor many are still craving.
PAX East was set to sate that craving this year in Boston, but due to safety and practicality, the decision was made to turn it into PAX Online 2021, which will take place July 15th through 18th. Here’s a statement from ReedPop’s PAX Event Director, Kyle Marsden-Kish:
In light of ongoing public health concerns, ReedPop and Penny Arcade will not hold PAX East this year. Given the United States’ progress towards addressing COVID-19 in recent months, we are cautiously optimistic PAX West and PAX Unplugged will proceed as planned with in-person festivities Sept. 3-6 and Dec. 10-12, respectively.Since we can’t wait until September to reconnect with the wonderful PAX community, PAX Online will return July 15-18. We hope to build on the success of last year’s record-breaking event and also engage with our community in new ways, such as the Indie Showcase that will take place between now and PAX Online. Expect to hear more about these exciting plans soon.While we hoped PAX East could safely take place, we remained realistic and did not sell any tickets or space to exhibitors to avoid significantly inconveniencing our friends and partners. As we have shown via our actions throughout the pandemic, our utmost concern is the safety of the PAX family — from attendees, exhibitors, and show staff to media and content creators — as well as the local communities that host our celebrations of all things gaming. We will only move forward with a live PAX once we are confident the show will be safe for everyone.ReedPop and Penny Arcade will continue to monitor the situation surrounding COVID-19, observe government guidelines and local laws, and defer to health officials and experts on what is deemed safe.We are grateful for the efforts everyone made to make PAX East happen in 2021, and we look forward to returning to Boston in 2022.
The plan is that PAX East 2022 will return to Boston, while they’re optimistic that PAX West and PAX Unplugged will still take place in person this year as planned on September 3-6 and December 10-12 respectively, as long as government guidelines and local law allows.
So this summer you can still count on your PAX coverage from Technical Fowl, it’s just going to be a little bit different.
Until then, stay safe, mask up, and take care of yourselves. The quicker we all get on board the quicker we’ll all be able to trip the light fan-PAX-tic again.
