Warhammer Fest and other GW events now also cancelled

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**BrookM**

If already posted elsewhere, I'll lock, but for now.. Link: https://www.warhammer-community.com/2020/03/16/warhammer-events-cancelledfw-homepage-post-1gw-homepage-post-1/

We value the health and safety of each of you, our wonderful community and the wellbeing of our staff above all else. It is with that in mind, and with a heavy heart, we announce today that Warhammer Fest 2020 and all scheduled events at Warhammer World and the Warhammer Citadel Cafe are cancelled until further notice. The Warhammer New Hobbyist Expo will also be postponed.

If you’ve already booked your ticket for any of these events, you’ll get a full refund very soon.

As COVID-19 continues to spread around the world, we’ve also had to temporarily close a number of Warhammer and Games Workshop stores. Those that are still open may be operating unusual or reduced hours. If you’re planning a visit to your local store, we’d suggest you give them a call first or check out their Facebook page to make sure that they’re open.

Now for some good news.

As with AdeptiCon, we had some exciting previews scheduled for Warhammer Fest and a whole host of extra goodies for you to get your hands on. We still want to share all of this exciting news with you all, so keep an eye out for a series of Warhammer Previews online. These promise to be jam-packed with awesome Warhammer news and will be held right here on warhammer-community.com so that nobody misses out!

A lot of you have reached out to ask us about the event exclusive miniatures you would have been picking up at these events. Well, we’re also looking at how we can give you the chance to get your hands on them. More news on this when we have it.

Also, if you do find yourself stuck indoors or far from an open store – you’ll still be able to get all your Warhammer essentials with free shipping on games-workshop.com for all orders over £40 (or local equivalents, for those of you around the world).

Finally, we know it’s going to be a tough month or so for many of you with a high likelihood of time indoors. We’ll be doing our best to keep you entertained with some brand-new ‘online events’. We’ll also bring some of our most popular Twitch shows over here to warhammer-community.com so that you can enjoy them for free, including not one, but two Hang Out and Paints per week!

**GoatboyBeta**

A shame but not unexpected given the situation. I wouldn't be surprised if Covid-19 has more disruptions in store for our hobby beyond events being cancelled.

**BrianDavion**

I suspect it'll be more then a month before the situation regularizes though, proably be fall before it does I fear :(

**auticus**

along with the economy.

**Yodhrin**

On the plus side, maybe this will force GW to finally grasp that it's moronic to be restricting their seminars to attendees only when they could be livestreaming them to a huge audience online as well.

Especially as their given excuse(muh data protection) is circumvented as easily as telling people "the morning seminar will be broadcast online and recorded, by attending it you consent to participating, if you don't want to be recorded go to the afternoon one".

**Overread**

Yodhrin wrote:
On the plus side, maybe this will force GW to finally grasp that it's moronic to be restricting their seminars to attendees only when they could be livestreaming them to a huge audience online as well.

Especially as their given excuse(muh data protection) is circumvented as easily as telling people "the morning seminar will be broadcast online and recorded, by attending it you consent to participating, if you don't want to be recorded go to the afternoon one".

I think its more that GW is protecting interest and attendance to those events, especially for those who have paid out money to attend the event and thus the seminar. It's like convention goodie-bags, sure everything in them could be commercially sold online, however if that were done there's reduced interest in people actually attending the event.

Plus GW DOES release all the info about 5 mins after the seminar ends any way. So its hardly like the online/rest of the world is left in the dark for an inconsiderate amount of time.

**tneva82**

Yeah. I wouldn't expect them to just live stream. How many visitors they would lose? Well unless it's paid live stream....30£ for ticket to online stream.

As we get official article with good photos so aren't restricted to bad quality phone photos from back ranks and "I think they said this" from people in seminar this is good enough as it is.

**Yodhrin**

Overread wrote:
Yodhrin wrote:
On the plus side, maybe this will force GW to finally grasp that it's moronic to be restricting their seminars to attendees only when they could be livestreaming them to a huge audience online as well.

Especially as their given excuse(muh data protection) is circumvented as easily as telling people "the morning seminar will be broadcast online and recorded, by attending it you consent to participating, if you don't want to be recorded go to the afternoon one".

I think its more that GW is protecting interest and attendance to those events, especially for those who have paid out money to attend the event and thus the seminar. It's like convention goodie-bags, sure everything in them could be commercially sold online, however if that were done there's reduced interest in people actually attending the event.

Plus GW DOES release all the info about 5 mins after the seminar ends any way. So its hardly like the online/rest of the world is left in the dark for an inconsiderate amount of time.

That assumes that people are attending to watch the presentations specifically, as opposed to the opportunity to ask questions, have discussions with designers out at the main floor tables, enter the painting competitions, meet friends etc etc. The fact you could watch all the EVE Fanfest vids online for free didn't stop people going in-person. The fact you could pay to watch a livestream of Blizzcon didn't make people stop wanting to buy tickets to actually show up. The videogame industry has been doing this for years & years, and they never have issues selling out tickets. If GW are feeling Actiblizz levels of stingy, they could even make the streams subscriber-only on Twitch, thus "protecting" the sense of exclusivity for people who're actually juvenile enough to value an experience mostly because it is denied to others.

And they don't release *all* the info, they release the headline stuff relating to upcoming releases - a few pics, a paragraph of info about each item, for all the actual *meat* of the presentations(Q&A responses, little off-hand remarks made by the designers that give a lot more information than they seem to, longer explanations of when and how we can expect the previewed stuff to become available) we have to rely on second and third hand reporting from attendees, and we don't get any info from GW out of the more discussion/informational seminars at all.

GW, as usual, are still stuck in the past. When other entertainment and geek media industry stuff were doing written online recaps of events, GW were pretending the internet didn't exist. Now other industries have caught on to the fact that live events will sell out regardless and you can vastly expand the reach of your marketing with full livestreaming, GW have managed to crawl their way up to the point everyone else was at ten years ago. It's absolutely bizarre to me that people continue to try and explain away their daft behaviour. GW are not unique super-duper-special snowflakes, the result for them would be the same as it was for everybody.

**terry**

GoatboyBeta wrote:
A shame but not unexpected given the situation. I wouldn't be surprised if Covid-19 has more disruptions in store for our hobby beyond events being cancelled.

it already has, no more gaming in store here in Rotterdam and adjusted opening times

**BrookM**

Same with the Amersfoort store, closed four days now, only open from Thursday to Saturday, which will be interesting with regards to mail orders and new releases, these are always delivered to the store on Wednesdays.

**tneva82**

French and german have non essential stores closed. Wonder can thev do mail deliveries? And if airplanes are grounded can gw supply outside uk?

**Kid_Kyoto**

My goodness, I may have to open the closet of shame!

Or the other closet of shame!

Or even the big cardboard box of shame!

**Overread**

tneva82 wrote:
French and german have non essential stores closed. Wonder can thev do mail deliveries? And if airplanes are grounded can gw supply outside uk?

That might depend on how the airlines and transport network balance things out. If I recall right a lot of mail gets put into regular flights with passengers as well (?) so with passenger flights reducing at a dramatic rate and also being shut down; that might in turn shut down postal networks. Polish Post has already closed exporting of post and much of that went by air.

It might be delivery companies can setup land and ship transport links for the short term. Even though they'd be slower it would at least let them clear backlogs of parcels. Closing acceptance of new parcels would then let them essentially "clean house" in anticipation of heavy use whenever services restart.

**queen_annes_revenge**

I have a good few miniatures to work through, and am buying a bunch of stuff to work on a diorama. UK post seems to be fine at the minute, so I'm taking advantage while I can to get bits in.

**Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl**

Kid_Kyoto wrote:
My goodness, I may have to open the closet of shame!

Or the other closet of shame!

Or even the big cardboard box of shame!

The bad thing is, when you open the closet of shame and realize you are missing glue/paint/brushes and OH NO I CANNOT OPEN THE CLOSET OF SHAME

.

**Ghaz**

From Facebook:

The Warhammer World Exhibition Centre, Bugman’s Bar and Gaming Hall will be closed to the public from 18 March until further notice. The Warhammer World store is still open as usual, in case you need any essential hobby supplies, though we would ask that you call ahead to confirm before venturing out.

The safety of our staff and you, our customers, is our highest priority, so we will be watching the situation closely and will fully comply with any local, best-practice health advice.