August 14, 2018
News for Izumicon 2018:
Izumicon Looks Like It's Cancelled...But They Haven't Said So
by Patrick Delahanty, FanCons.com Administrator
For more than 24 hours, rumors have been circulating about Izumicon which is scheduled for August 31st through September 2nd in Midwest City, Oklahoma. It has all the appearances of a cancelled convention without anyone from staff specifically saying if it has been cancelled or not.
Sometime in the last week, the convention's web site had been modified to make every page look like the home page. The convention's Eventbrite page was also modified to no longer sell tickets even though it had previously stated an August 31st deadline. Nothing has been posted on Izumicon's Twitter since August 6th and there have been no staff posts on their Facebook page since an August 7th post encouraging people to book their hotel rooms by August 10th.
On an unofficial Izumicon Facebook group, there are multiple screenshots claiming that all the convention's directors have resigned. In the day since these first appeared, there have been no posts by staff members to dispute these claims or to communicate anything at all.
Guests are cancelling. JÄd Saxton posted on Twitter that she would not be attending "because of some recent issues". Daman Mills had also tweeted he would have to cancel "due to some recent issues that are unfortunately out of my control". (Morgan Berry and J. Michael Tatum had previously cancelled, but were still listed on some pages of the Izumicon site.)
With no official word from staff yet, there is also no word on refunds if the convention is in fact cancelled. According to the Sheraton Midwest City Hotel's web site, cancellations of prepaid room reservations cannot be refunded but rooms that were not prepaid can be fully refunded if cancelled more than two days in advance.
Izumicon was founded in 2007. The convention name was sold to a new organizer for 2018. The previous organizers have no affiliation with the current convention.
We reached out to Izumicon staff for comment, but did not hear back. We will post an update if we do.
UPDATE (August 16): A statement has been posted to Facebook. The convention has officially been cancelled.
