Dragon Con has announced on Twitter that all attendees need to offer proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test before entering the convention. According to Dragon Con, the new health protocols were put in place to ensure the convention can still happen, even if a new pandemic wave slowly spread across the nation.
In the announcement tweet, Dragon Con said that they have “made changes to our COVID protocols including requiring all attendees who attend the live convention to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test before entering the convention.” In a full statement about the issue, the convention also underlined that the new protocols were put in place “to help reduce the spread of COVID while making the convention fun and memorable for all returning fans.”
As the number of cases rises worldwide, with a new Delta variant posing a danger even to fully vaccinated people, conventions, festivals, and even movie studios try to get ahead of the pandemic by changing their health protocols. Last July, Netflix became the first major studio to demand vaccination to all cast and crew of productions happening in the U.S., a move quickly followed by horror darling Blumhouse. Amazon Studios is also considering following the same path, and since Disney already adopted a similar measure, it shouldn’t take long for all major studios to enforce the same rules.
Dragon Con is hosted in Atlanta, Georgia, since 1987 and features panels, seminars, demonstrations, and workshops about gaming, comic books, medieval fantasy, and science-fiction. After a fully digital edition in 2020, Dragon Con is returning to a presential format this year. 2021’s Dragon Con will be held from September 2 to September 6.