The final official Star Trek convention for 2020 is not to be. The annual Star Trek Las Vegas Convention scheduled for December 9-13 (originally planned for August) has been cancelled “due to ongoing local, federal and international protocols” related to the COVID pandemic. In their announcement, Creation Entertainment also unveiled a new event for the summer of 2021, which will not be officially licensed by CBS.
55-Year Mission Tour for 2021
With Star Trek Las Vegas 2020 being canceled and Creation Entertainment ending its long-standing license with CBS, a decades-long institution of Creation official Star Trek conventions has come to an end, with STLV 2019 being the final event, at least for now. However, Creation is still in the business of putting on Star Trek-themed conventions, and announced a brand new one for August 11-15, 2021 at the Rio All-Suites Resort Hotel and Casino, which has been home to STLV for the last decade.
The new convention is titled “Creation Entertainment Presents The 55-Year Mission Tour.” They are promising over 100 celebrity guests, including William Shatner. There will be multiple stages of nonstop programming, contests, music, cosplay, and more. This all sounds much like Star Trek Las Vegas but without the name. In 2021, Creation will also be celebrating Gene Roddenberry’s 100th birthday with a special tribute.
Fans who hold Gold and Captain’s chair seats for STLV 2020 will be able to transfer them to the new event, and Creation is also offering prizes for those that do. If you choose not to attend the 2021 event you can get a refund.
More details can be found at creation.com.
What’s next for official Star Trek cons?
There are still two official Star Trek convention lined up in Europe for 2021, run by Massive Events. And the official Star Trek Cruise is still set to return in 2022. As of now, there has been no new licensee announced for official Star Trek conventions in the USA, and while TrekMovie expects there to be an announcement soon, the pandemic has obviously made planning in-person events much more complicated, even into 2021. For example, in June, Disney announced their next Star Wars Celebration event (which is run by Reed Pop) will be in 2022.
Keep up with the Star Trek conventions and events news and reports here at TrekMovie.
No surprise here. I’d not be planning anything into the first six months of next year in the US, either.
More like years! (if trump gets re-elected)
I still miss the regional CreationCons of the late 80s and 90s.
Oddly enough, while I miss the in-person experience, I’m finding that the panels hosted by the unofficial virtual cons capture more of that than the highly scripted official panels.
CREATION went down hill by the end of the 20th Century. Their model worked – one Trek guest (always a good guest – and if someone had to cancel- they had Sirtis and Doohan on stand-by!), one Dr.Who guest (and later whatever the flavor of the month was), one media guest, a handful of comic guests, a tract of programing (including previews and material projected from 16mm film!), a video room, a decent (full of bootleggers!) dealers room.
One price for everything, including a free autograph and photo-op (with your own camera) with the guests.
Even when they started doing specialized cons focused on just one series, in the beginning, it was still basically the same model as the general shows – a guest or two from the particular series,etc.
Those were the good old days in the 80’s and 90’s. You actually could talk with the guests in the dealer rooms (or other rooms), take photos, get autographs, get autographed photos (for about $10 – $20) … now everything is ultra expensive and you have to pay for everything separately. Sigh …. maybe it’s just as well that it’s “over”. You need to be rich to go to them these days.
Those were awesome. There were 6-8 a year in Los Angeles in the late 80s early 90s.
Even though I’ve never been to a convention (I mean it’s right here in town) and don’t know that I would ever go to one, it’s refreshing whenever people actually take this damn bug seriously. I find that just doing everyday things… filing gas, shopping groceries, picking up my lunch… just keeps getting harder and harder as increasingly more people just don’t give you your six feet.
Wow….we’re all on new journeys in 2020. This really is the end of the huge Trek conventions. Hopefully virtual conventions can become attended by large audiences to compensate. Possibly the whole idea of what a convention is must be redefined.
Huge conventions may become the A380s of their industry, same as tentpole movies for cinema.
It’s a new era, guys!
Pandemics end. I very much doubt it’s the end of huge conventions on any subject, although I suspect they may really start again only in early 2022; I wouldn’t count on August. And I don’t think it’s the end of Trek conventions over the licensing issue. If there’s ultimately money to be made, the parties will strike a deal.
Yes, pandemics end, but there were lingering market impacts of polio in the 1950s.
Certainly, kids were back in crowded places within a year or two after the vaccine was rolled out.
However, some of the places that they went to were affected. Things didn’t revert to the way they were before the pandemic.
More, the segregation of children’s activities from group activities with extended family and adults became more prominent.
So, my take is that big events will come back down the line, but the industry that survives may look quite different.
Possibly but I don’t think that is how things will pan out. Within 2 years it’s very likely we will be doing things the way we were in 2019.
I agree. It’s not the end of huge conventions for the simple fact that fans want huge conventions. They want one place they can go to see all the people they want to see.
If someone wants a signed ENT cast poster, generally, they can rely on going to Vegas and getting everyone in the cast, and a lot of the secondary characters in one shot. Bakula doesn’t do them annually, but you can get most everyone.
Then, with other Trek running, they have reason to come back to Vegas year after year anyway…until Bakula shows up.
Most fans can’t afford to go to Atlanta for three guests, then Orlando for three or four more.
Large cons will still be a thing.
So Creation after 30 years is no longer in bed with Paramount/CBS/Viacom whatever-they-call-themselves-this-week? Remember, they first started with licensing products first in the early 1990’s.
…and don’t forget CREATION started as Comic Book Cons, and then they jumped on the TREK bandwagon, and then the Dr.Who Craze, then Trek came back with TNG! :)
Good point.
I just wish the local comic-cons of today had as much going on on the margins.
The one near us get tens of thousands of people, many with kids, but hasn’t much variation in merchandise.
Its hard to say what exactly happened with the name “change” but there has been subspace chatter for years that CBS-Paramount will not renew licences with retailers, etc as they want to keep in in house and this includes the management of conventions.
I recall speaking with people in Vegas last year CBS wants to set up “Star Trek” cons on their own. They certainly have the resources for it and the props, star access, clout to bring this about. The question is: Where will they be set up? Hollywood? New York? Orlando? Las Vegas? One city or all of these and more? In speaking with some (not all) of the stars we see in the casino at the Rio, they really enjoy coming to Vegas the most. There are other things to do in town for them and a few love to gamble so… but this is all speculation at this point.
We have to see what Paramount and or CBS put out on this as its their call. I am quite sure they do have (big) plans as the fans will not only demand it, CBS will want to keep the momentum going for the various new series in development and the ones we have already. Conventions are the best way to reach all the fans and hype the series. Just as they did with Disco and Picard at the Las Vegas conventions before they came out.
Build up that anticipation with the fans showing off the props, costumes and photos and we will be there.
I doubt they’ll announce anything anytime soon. I mean, what’s the point until there’s a real handle on the pandemic?
That said, CBS really seems to like putting its foot forward at NYCC, so, maybe New York?
Not really surprising. And the article makes it sounds like they may have gone ahead with it had there not been so many restrictions laid out. Which is understandable. I’m not a fan of wearing a mask for things. I do it of course, but can’t wait for when we don’t need to.
I’ve been chomping at the bit to get out of town for a weekend thing with the Mrs but everything we think of seems to have mask requirements. And that’s a turn off for us both. We’d rather just stay home. We have finally decided to head up to the mountains and do some hiking. We don’t plan to wear masks but will keep one in our pockets on the rare chance one of the few people we meet on a trail whines to us about it.
Masks or no, putting hundreds of people in any venue when infection rates are so high just seems like an obvious nonstarter.
That said, one might think that many more large venues may begin to consider the value of invisible things like air handling and filters over glitzy interiors.
Creation is ending their license with CBS? When did that happen?
Hopefully Viacom/CBS will do a traveling convention circuit. I remember when creation con would do conventions in Washington DC. Saw Walter Koenig and Jim Starlin at the same convention in 1983.