Hey Fannibals, It Looks Like You’re Getting A North American Convention

January 24, 2017 Khai

fannibalfest hannibal convention

Have you been staring morosely at your laptop, trying to find a way to get to Heathrow for Red Dragon 3 next month? Well, if you act soon there might just be a closer Hannibal convention for the North American fans. A group of fans are running a Kickstarter to bring members of the cast to Toronto in November.

I know what you’re thinking: “Yeah, yeah, another fan convention Kickstarter. I’m not holding my breath.” I would be thinking that too – except these people have put in the legwork to set up as much as they can before the campaign launches. Betsy Craig, the committee chair, consulted with other successful fan convention organizers and has already had preliminary talks with talent and vendors. They know what their budget needs to be and how to run it. That’s a major step towards a convention that will actually happen if enough fans get behind it.

Interestingly, the group is setting up FannibalFest as a non-profit. That means the organizers aren’t getting a paycheck out of this. Here’s what they have to say about why they’re going this route:

The decision to incorporate as a non-profit, was simply because we are able to legally solicit backing from individuals where the expectation is a “social return” on investment.

As a group of Fannibals with jobs and private lives, we do this in our free time not looking for a paycheck.  Nor do we want the daily grind running a for-profit company requires.  Our focus IS that “social return” of being a champion for Hannibal Artists in an official capacity.  As well as, the “social return” of producing a North American-based HANNIBAL CON “On Our Side of the Pond”.

That sounds promising. Some of the biggest killers of fan conventions are bad budgets and unreasonable profit expectations, and it seems like the FannibalFest organizers have those under control.

So what exactly can we expect from this convention as far as activities? There isn’t a set schedule yet, but the organizers have suggested the following events:

Hannibal Fan Fiction Panel Discussion
Hannibal Cosplay Contest
Cast Q&A Panels
Episode Screenings and Discussion
Artist Awards (voted by membership)
Academic Panel – Hannibal TV Show Social/Psychological Themes Discussion
Cast Meet and Greet Cocktail Party
DIY Flower Crown Workshop
Hannibal Scene Shoot Site Bus Tour
Vendor/Exhibit Hall

The Kickstarter launches in three days, on the 28th. If successful, the tentative date for the con is November 2-5, 2017.

What do you guys think? Would you go to a Toronto Hannibal convention?

*Edit: Betsy Craig has let us know the Kickstarter now goes live the 31st.*

 

Author: Khai

Khai is a writer, anthropologist, and games enthusiast. She is co-editor (alongside Alex DeCampi) of and contributor to “True War Stories”, a comic anthology published by Z2 Comics. When she’s not writing or creating games, Khai likes to run more tabletop RPGs than one person should reasonably juggle.

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25 thoughts on “Hey Fannibals, It Looks Like You’re Getting A North American Convention”

  1. That Kickstarter probably isn’t going live until the 31st of January…not the 28th. There was a last minute change.

  2. That FannibalFest Kickstarter probably isn’t going live until the 31st of January…not the 28th. There was a last minute change.

  3. This is going to fail as hard as dashcon because there are way less people interested in this than you people seem to realize. That’s the entire reason it’s not getting a season 4. Not enough people to generate views to make it profitable. Either way I’ll gladly attend to see how pitiful it is, I just won’t back a kickstarter. Especially because I don’t believe any of this is non-profit for anyone. Fannibals are pretty much well known scam artists by now.

    1. hey i’m not affiliated with any of this, but i have been very involved in many conventions and live in the greater toronto area. as long as you’re not in the down town core, a fan convention can get off the ground with only a couple hundred attendees with a few thousand dollar budget. now, getting actors will put you in the 10000+ range. now if you have a kickstarter to cover the actors cost, and then have the money already set aside before the con, why do you assume it will fail?

      Dashcon didn’t have contracts signed with their guests and booked a convention space for 5000 attendees, that’s why they failed.

      1. There’s not enough people interested in this. What part of “the show was cancelled and won’t be renewed due to low ratings ego not a lot of people watch it to even go to a convention” don’t you get? Also how long can you run a con specifically for a show that has been cancelled, only has 36 episodes, and the creator doesn’t even have intent to continue other than lying and saying he has intent to continue? If this was a larger general convention it may stand a chance. This is a convention for a small minority of 99% females 1% males. Good luck getting 10k with only a few hundred interested people. The twitter only has 144 followers and barely gets retweets. You really think this has hope? You’re just as deluded as the fans who think there will seriously be a season 4.

        1. They probably only have 144 followers because (a) their twitter hasn’t been around very long and (b) this is the first public announcement about Fannibal Fest.

          Perhaps you’re right in regards to there not being enough interest to make this an annual event but the success of Red Dragon in the UK kind of proves otherwise in regards to Hannibal not having enough fans to support a convention.

          Also for God’s sake can people like you stop comparing every new convention to DashCon? That was almost three years ago. There have been TONS of successful new conventions since then, both large and small. DashCon was the exception, NOT the rule.

          1. No they’ve been reported to the IRS at this point so if they aren’t doing anything wrong and can detail every last penny to the IRS (which won’t at all be a pain in the ass) well I guess good for them, oh and they still have a very small amount of followers. Oh and I’m STILL going to show up at their convention to film it.

          1. Oh so telling the truth about a scam is breaking the rules now? I love how you people operate I bet it’s also against the rules to say that feminism is completely useless and wage gap doesn’t exist?

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  4. Awesome. Nice that someone is working so hard to pull this together. Maybe some props for taking action and, apparently on the right track to making this happen, rather than being discouraging, Freddie Lounds…or Miss Misanthropist…or Monica Edwards, etc. #stoptrolling

  5. If you can, please block/ignore “Freddie Lounds”, they’re a notorious troll in the fandom with nothing better to do than try to dampen Fannibal spirits. I think the Kickstarter will be a huge success, just look at how much money was raised for the Raw fanbook! And how successful the Feedinf Hannibal cookbook was! There’s tons of interest and enthusiasm for the show, and everyone wants there to be a s4. I think it’s great that this is being done and I’d love to offer my help and support in whatever way I can. 🙂

    1. Policy states we issue a warning before blocking. A warning has been issued.

      I am aware of this person’s reputation. Thanks for alerting us.

      1. What part are you aware of? Are you aware that several fannibals have sent me death threats, harassed my family, attempted to get me fired from my job, posted my phone number on craigslist? Forced me to move from my home, change my legal name, and file police reports? Are you aware that I’ve successfully filed a restraining order on at least one of the ones who was stalking me? Are you aware that someone threw a brick through my front window? Are you aware of all of that? Now, honey I would also like to ask you, kindly, what about my reputation do you think deserves that? Oh…right because I told the truth and had opinions. That’s it isn’t it? Well, darling if you would like to justify to me personally why you think all of that behavior is okay because I said something “naughty” please do, publicly because I’d like to hear it instead what you’ll actually do is delete this comment, make sure no one knows how psychotic your fandom is, and pretend that this entire convention isn’t a scam, if I come back and this comment is deleted (Oh and I’ll screenshot it as proof) I’ll know I’m right. Take care baby it must be fun living in delusional world let me know how I can join you.

        1. Thank you for reporting me to myself. I’m unclear how saying that I’m aware of your reputation constitutes “slander,” but I appreciate the report to me about me anyway.

          You were issues a warning for breaking website guidelines and you’ve continued to break them. The details have been outlined in the above post and in response to your email. Please do not return.

          -Angel
          Admin and Owner of The Geekiary

      2. Comment is now archived as something that went up on this page waiting for an explanation and predicting you’ll delete it to protect your horrible fandom instead of answering me directly. Toodles.

  8. I wonder if people truly realize the cost of putting together an event? The financial risks are extreme. So where fan events are wonderful, look into budgets, you should probably also not dig other events that have supported the show.

    I wish you success, either way.

    1. So true…the budget is a huge task and a constant “set of spectacles” we have to look through whenever we discuss any aspect of this event. What we WANT to do and what we CAN do are two very different things in this first year.

      Your comment “you should probably also not dig other events that have supported the show” has me wanting to go on record to say we at FannibalFest support any and all events that promote the show and it’s actors. Past Hannibal cast appearances at Walker Stalker, Comic Con (LA, NY and London), PaleyFest, Calgary Horror CON and StarFury’s Behold the Red Dragon CON 1 and 2 — among others — were happily and gratefully attended by FannibalFest committee members. In fact three of us are attending the upcoming RDC3 event in February. First and foremost, we are fans. We’re all for getting Hannibal back on the air, so ANY HANNIBAL event bringing fans together anywhere is a good thing.

      Wish us luck, visit our Kickstarter, drop us a line at fannibalfest.home@gmail.com with questions, suggestions or just to say hi.

      P.S. Our website will be up officially the same day as our Kickstarter – January 31, 2017.

  9. This whole thing is still a scam and has officially been reported to the IRS also when you cut out a man’s tongue you don’t prove him a liar you only prove you fear what he has to say.

  10. There is no clear signs of if tickets are even selling or how many. Which means one of two possibilities, they aren’t selling any, or they are selling just barely enough to keep their head afloat. They are also probably drowning in complaints and I wouldn’t be surprised if people were demanding a refund or two.

    Questions still unanswered:

    How did they intend to pay for Janice Poon when the +14 Grand was only to cover startup costs?
    Why did they plan their very first convention for 4 days instead of 1 or 2?
    Can they still get Janice even if they don’t sell that many tickets?
    What is a membership?
    How does one prove a “large body of work” to get a membership?
    Why did a logo from a group that calls itself an artist collective cost them $150?
    Why is $500 dollars of their domain name and webhosting fees unaccounted for?
    What exactly does the 4,500 for legal fees include besides filing for non-profit which would only cost them $400?
    Why file for non-profit at all when first time conventions barely make a profit in the first place?
    None of these questions are harassment, they are all general curiosity questions that convention runners should have the answer to. Instead, they refuse to offer any responses, insult people who ask, or straight up block them from asking. Is that not some indication that something is going horribly wrong?

    1. @Allison:

      Have you tried contacting Fannibal Fest directly? This is a news article about their Kickstarter that was published months ago, so expecting answers to your questions in our comments section isn’t likely to get you anywhere…we at The Geekiary do not have ‘intel’ like that on Fannibal Fest. However, I do know that their tickets just went on sale to the public last week. I’m sure that if you sent them these questions they would be more than happy to answer whichever ones they CAN answer, although they are not actually legally obligated to answer any of them.

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