News
New Jersey's AnimeNEXT 2024 Event Canceled
posted on by Alex Mateo
The staff of New Jersey-based anime convention AnimeNEXT announced on Friday that it is canceling this year's event. Universal Animation, Inc., the convention's parent company, "recently faced circumstances" that halted the staff's planning for the 2024 event. As a result, the staff concluded that it would not be able to execute an "event of the quality that everyone has come to expect" or "incorporate the feedback that came out of" the 2023 event. The staff stated that it was "not at liberty to discuss the nature of the matter."
In related news, Media Blasters' AnimeNJ++ event is experiencing difficulties as its Hilton Woodcliff Lake venue is "being taken down." The staff is "in the middle of looking into new locations and new dates."
AnimeNEXT 2023 took place in June 2023 at the NJ Convention and Exposition Center in Edison, New Jersey, and the Hyatt Regency in New Brunswick, New Jersey, both of which were different from its usual venue of the Atlantic City Convention Center.
The AnimeNEXT staff called off all public-facing attractions of AnimeNEXT 2022, which included the in-person convention. The staff canceled the event because of issues with the Atlantic City Convention Center, which the convention had been using since 2016. The staff stated at the time that the convention center raised all prices that the event pays by 40-70% because AnimeNEXT had not taken place at the center in two years, amid other reasons.
The last in-person AnimeNEXT event before the pandemic was held at Atlantic City Convention Center in Atlantic City, New Jersey in June 2019. The convention was canceled in 2020 due to COVID-19, and there was an online event in 2021.
Source: AnimeNEXT's Twitter account via Evan Minto
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