News
Melbourne Anime Festival Shuts Down
posted on by Jon Hayward
Artwork from Manifest
deviantart gallery
The post goes on to state that the growth of conventions in Australia has led to Manifest's demise as fans are not spending money at fan-run conventions like they have done in the past. Reading through the comments on facebook President Cari-Ann Moffat confirmed the reasons in the facebook group "Save Manifest" with the following comment;
"MAFI is broke and understaffed. In order to run Manifest 2014, we would have needed around $15000 within 3 weeks and around another $70000 by February to make the initial *deposits* for venue and other equipment. The final amount needed is about 3 times that amount. We'd also need 20-50 competent, experienced committee members plus about 200 on-the-day volunteers. We just don't have the resources anymore."
Committee member Amy Tomoe confirmed that crowd funding was not a solution and that shutting down MAFi was to ensure that organisation ended correctly rather than being forced to shut by the government, Amy also added that;
"The depth of the situation became clear during the last month and measures were taken to deal with it, but those measures were only able to cover MAFi's costs for a few weeks. The decision was made to close up on MAFi's own terms now rather then go into debt and have the government shut MAFi down on their terms."
Fans of Manifest were encouraged to share their memories of Manifest using the #manimemories hashtag on Twitter and facebook.
History of Manifest
Artwork from Manifest deviantart gallery
In February 2004 due to the ongoing complexity of organising the event and more committee members not being involved with the anime clubs, Melbourne Anime Festival Inc (MAFi) was registered. The event continued to run for several years at the University of Melbourne, adding a small one day event known as Minifest in 2005 as a thank-you for volunteers (that later became @con) and a cosplay ball in 2008 known as Amaranth. Then in 2009 having outgrown the university, Manifest moved to the Melbourne Showgrounds where it has remained to this year adding several guests and the 24 hour session known as Mani-Midnight.
A Final Word
Considering that Manifest was where ANNAU was first brought together, we've sat down and brought together every Manifest report we have ever written on ANNAU for your #manimemories. What's now known as the Melbourne Mecha Workshop is personally responsible for this editor's addiction to Zoids and Gunpla and many of the ANNAU writers have been a part of or met at Manifest over the years. And of course we have to mention that Manifest has helped to influence the very landscape of anime in Australia through the hordes of attendees, events and conventions created from Manifest (including Wai-Con and AiCon) and the fans it has fostered.
Peppa goodbye sketch
by Knoxious Designs
on Tumblr.
- Manifest Blog - Day 0
- Manifest Blog - Day 1
- Manifest Report - Day 2 + Summary
- Manifest Sketchbook
- Manifest 2007 Full Report
- Manifest 2007 - Anime Industry Panel
- Manifest 2008 Report
- Manifest 2009 - Full Report
- Pre-Convention interview with the Convener
- Amaranth Report
- Photo Gallery
- Manifest 2012 Report
- Manifest 2013 Report
Manifest 2006
Manifest 2007
Manifest 2008
Manifest 2009
Manifest 2012
Manifest 2013
If you would like further updates on Manifest (if they write them) they will be found on Manifest's Facebook Page and website.
References
- Wikipedia: Manifest (convention). (retrieved on the 2nd of December 2013)
- Manifest Website: About Manifest. (retrieved on the 2nd of December 2013)
- ABN Lookup: Melbourne Anime Festival. (retrieved on the 2nd of December 2013)
this article has been modified since it was originally posted; see change history