January 12, 2021 – Via an announcement on Twitter, Origins 2021 sets event dates for September 30 – October 3, 2021. Origins Game Fair is an annual tabletop gaming convention held each year in June in Columbus, OH. Things can certainly change, but they are hopeful that by this timing things will be back to normal enough levels. Here is their announcement:
“Based on the hopeful news that COVID-19 vaccines are being distributed and reports from the CDC that community events and conventions should be able to resume later this year, we have made the decision to move this year’s Origins Game Fair from our usual June weekend to September 30 – October 3, 2021.”
They promise some of the pandemic safe amenities one has come to know including requiring face masks, social distancing, temperature checks and hand sanitizing stations. They are going to continue to provide updates as we get closer to the event. Exhibitor and sponsorship information will be available on February 16. Get more info at the Origins Game Fair 2021 website.
The gaming convention, like so many other things these days, has been affected by the pandemic. The last real in-person convention held in 2020 was SaltCon, Utah’s largest board game convention, on March 5th – 8th. The world came to a screeching halt after that. Cons vary dramatically in size be these babies will bring out anywhere from 15,000 all the way up to 200,000 people. The five biggest board game conventions are the UK Game Expo (May in Birmingham, UK), Origins Game Fair (June in Columbus, OH), PAX Unplugged (November in Philidelphia, PA), Gen Con (August in Indianapolis, ID) and Spiel (October in Essen, Germany). They have all bit the dust in the wake of the pandemic. Back in October, PAX canceled their full slate and then in December announced a hopeful 2021 schedule. Conventions have tried to go online but it wasn’t the same.
