Winnipeg comic convention cancelled indefinitely

Central Canada Comic Con (Facebook):

it is with a heavy heart and great sadness that we have to announce that C4 will not be happening this year.

It has been tough running it the last few years with rental fees and costs going up, as well as the lack of local support from businesses and the City of Winnipeg. And now with the RBC Convention Center not having space on the dates we need. With all of these things put together it makes it impossible for us to organize a convention of C4’s size this October.

I’ve been attending C4 for 15 years.

I’ve waited a week or so to post my thoughts on this because I didn’t want to rush to judgement on the matter. That said, my initial opinion hasn't changed much. Thinking back, the writing’s been on the wall for something like this to happen and I’m surprised it took this long for the whole thing to implode.

Years ago, C4 had a publicly visible group on Facebook that allowed the volunteers and organizers to discuss the event. Reading through, It was not uncommon to see volunteers discussing how poorly treated they were during the event only to be harassed by the organizers and their loyal supporters for speaking up. Needless to say, I can’t imagine this is how volunteers at most other events are treated.

In 2010, news broke that Wizard World had bought the convention and would be adding it to their roster of shows — even announcing some of the guests that would be attending the newly minted Wizard World Central Canada Comic Con.

Fast forward a few months, it was announced that the deal had fallen through and the original organizers would be once again running the show. The rumours around the cause of this all seemed to be that the original owner was inflating numbers and Wizard World caught on. I’d like to stress I have no direct proof of this, but several people with inside knowledge of the situation reached out to me and said this was the case.

However, the story the public got was that the original organizers had swooped in and saved the day after Wizard bailed for reasons that remained unknown to seemingly everyone.

You get the idea. This is hardly news anymore. Everyone has a horror story about the event (here’s mine), and some have made their way into the mainstream comic media. I hope this means the existing group will get their act together or someone like FanExpo will come in and deliver the world-class event we’ve been waiting years to see.