Convention Closures Causes Chaos

Coronavirus is wreaking havoc everywhere, it seems that every day another event is being postponed or cancelled.

I know it sucks for concerts to be cancelled but outside of being annoying to fans, these cancellations are having a devastating impact on a certain group.

Artists and vendors.

At the time of writing major UK conventions, namely MCM Birmingham have been postponed until further notice. Even smaller events like Rai Con in my hometown have had to cancel. This has put a lot of artists in a terrible position.

I didn’t want to talk over those effected so I reached out to Elizabeth, better known online as Zombie Octopus to explain just how bad this truly is.

Commision of Autumn by Zombie Octopus

For artists and small Businesses, this severely affects their income and way of life. This is also true of many others. For artists a lot of them are full-time freelance and conventions are the equivalent of a month or two’s paycheck. A fair few artists also have chronic health issues wherein freelancing is the only way they are able to make money. Imagine not being paid for two or three months, that is what a lot of people are facing.

I actually think the convention organisers are handling the situation well. While it is frustrating to hear about a cancellation/postponed event a week before it’s obvious the organisers are trying to make conventions work right up until the last minute.

While frustrated (like many people) I am fully for the actions that are being taken. At the end of the day, we are talking about people’s health and safety. While I may be a healthy person, in general, I know a lot of my fellow artists and friends are in vulnerable positions or are in contact with people who are.

Elizabeth also has some words of encouragement and advice to give to fellow artists in her position.

Take advantage of anyone doing sharing threads on social media, there are also a few people who are running Virtual Artist Alley’s that compile stores of all those that were supposed to be at conventions and event. Share your work, ask for help.

MCM Birmingham Artist Alley and Virtual Artist Alley are two of these sites, please check them out!

 

In times like these, we should look after each other, artists are in a tight spot at the moment so we need to support them. Elizabeth explains how.

Please share your favourite artists work, sales posts and maybe even support them by buying items from their shops, donating to their Ko-Fi if they have one or supporting them on Patreon (if they have them).

These are people from our communities, so I believe we all have to help as much as we can. I myself can’t afford too much but I have bought little trinkets from several artists to try and help. If you have the means to, please consider treating yourself and buying from one of these artists.