Wonder Festival 2021 [Winter] Will Go Digital in February

The Wonder Festival executive committee announced that it will hold Web Wonder Festival 2021 [Winter] on February 7, 2021. It will replace the physical event, which was originally going to be held on the same day, but was ultimately canceled due to the COVID-19-related state of emergency declared in Japan. [Thanks, Hobby Watch!]

Web Wonder Festival 2021 [Winter] will be held on a single day from 10:00 to 17:00 JST. In place of a physical venue, the digital event will happen on “a dedicated Web Wonder Festival site, along with everyone’s websites and their social media accounts.”

Everybody will be able to attend for free. They only need to follow links on the dedicated portal to exhibitor websites and check for social media posts with the #WebWF hashtags. Cosplayers who would regularly attend the physical shows are also encouraged to post their photos with the hashtag.

Two physical Wonder Festivals were canceled back-to-back prior to this announcement. Other than the 2021 [Winter] event, the 2020 [Autumn] show—initially rescheduled from the usual Summer window to make way for the Tokyo Olympics—was also canceled due to the pandemic. The organizers are currently hoping to hold Wonder Festival 2021 [Autumn] physically on September 20, 2021, as the Olympics was also postponed to Summer 2021.