01/16/2015
An Open Letter To The Attendees of BelleCON 2015
Over the past months, the staff and cast of BelleCON 2015 and I have been working hard to try to put forward the best event possible. Unfortunately, a multitude of circumstances have made our future somewhat uncertain.
Various factors, including guest cancellations, changes in staffing, and personal tragedies, have done significant damage to our ability to work on and properly promote this year’s convention, March 13th-15th. Rather than charge forward into an event that will financially run into the red and damage the integrity of our product, we have decided that it is in the best interests of everyone involved to postpone BelleCON at this time.
This is not a cancellation. BelleCON is not “over”, and we DO plan to move forward and select dates for another convention, though none have been chosen at this time.
I have never wanted to postpone or cancel BelleCON. I know how passionate our show casts are, how dedicated our staffers are, and how much love we receive from our community. If anything, to postpone BelleCON is an effort to preserve it. By “cutting our losses” and regrouping, we can refocus our efforts into giving you the convention that you deserve, and the convention I know my staff is dedicated and talented enough to put on.
In the meantime, the staff at our venue, the Herbert University Center at UNF, have been kind enough to work with us and allow us to run another Otaku-Ya! Anime Festival & Flea Market on Saturday, March 14th. Further details about Otaku-Ya! will be coming over the next few days.
I know there are going to be a lot of questions, especially from those of you who pre-registered for BelleCON 2015. When you purchase a ticket to a convention, you are not only paying money for a product, but you are giving a “vote of confidence” with your wallet. Florida has no shortage of conventions and anime-based entertainment, so by choosing to pre-register for BelleCON, you’re saying “I believe this convention is going to give me the best entertainment value for my money.” That is a confidence that I would never want to betray.
We are going to be accepting requests for refunds until February 28th. If you would like to receive your refund in full, please e-mail me at [email protected] with the information of the PayPal account you used to make your purchase.
However, if you would like to continue to treat your purchase as a “vote of confidence”, and you remain confident in BelleCON’s ability to recover, you instead have the option of allowing BelleCON to hold onto your pre-registration money as seed-money for future events. In exchange, all weekend passes currently purchased for BelleCON 2015 will receive free upgrades to VIP status. You will also receive free entrance to any and all Otaku-Ya! Anime Festival & Flea Market events held between now and the next BelleCON. I cannot make promises to you of when the next BelleCON event will be held, but I can promise you that I will make every effort to bring back the convention you love.
I want to thank everyone in our community, and my staff and cast, for hanging with BelleCON through this difficult time. Running an anime and Japanese culture convention that makes people happy has been my dream, and I hope that we can put on an event that makes you smile again.
~Ashley Clark
Chairman of BelleCON LLC
