Otakon, the anime and Asian pop culture focused convention, is requesting donations to keep the convention afloat for future events. In a newsletter, Otakorp President Brooke Zerrlaut stated that the staff is currently working on options for 2021, but they are in danger of needing to permanently end the show.

Otakorp is a non-profit organization run by volunteers that hosts the annual Otakon convention. They had to cancel the 2020 con due to the COVID-19 pandemic and as a result, they may not be financially able to produce future conventions.

In the newsletter, Zerrlaut stated that they use proceeds from each show to plan the next installment. As such the loss of expected income from the cancelled Otakon 2020, coupled with a lack of preregistrations for 2021 has put them in a difficult financial position.

The 2020 event had been scheduled for July 31 to August 2, but it was part of the nearly yearlong wave of cons that were cancelled because of the pandemic. When it was announced that the show was cancelled, Otakon gave preregistered ticketholders the option of rolling tickets over to 2021 or getting a refund. That refund option was not given by several other cancelled cons. They also hosted a virtual event on August 1.

The next Otakon is tentatively planned for August 6-8 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington DC. Given the COVID-19 vaccine is now available, they could have enough time to make that con happen, but there is still enough uncertainty to warrant extreme caution. Otakorp is evaluating whether they can continue planning Otakon 2021, if they are financially able.