A few months ago, we told you that this year’s PAX East was cancelled thanks to the ongoing COVID-19 situation. The rest of the PAX events were still scheduled as planned, PAX West included, but there were doubts about whether some of them were going to be in-person or not. However, a recent official statement from the organizers has confirmed it.
For those who don’t know much about The Penny Arcade Expo, also known as just “PAX”, this event consists of a series of festivals that originated in 2004, at the Meydenbauer Center, in Bellevue, Washington. Since then, the event has not stopped growing in popularity: from 3,300 attendants to more than 70,000 by 2011’s edition.
The focus of these events is to talk about gaming culture, particularly tabletop, arcade and video games, with different activities for all of them, such as tournaments, panels, exhibition halls and more.
Thanks to the vaccination campaign in Seattle, PAX West 2021 will be an in-person event later this year. From September 3 to September 6, the event will make its return — the first since 2019 in the Washington State Convention Center. Tickets will be available in the following weeks, with no clear date yet. “I can't think of a better excuse to leave the house than PAX West," said Co-Founder Jerry Holkins.
Regarding safety precautions, organizer Reedpop announced that the event’s capacity will be reduced from previous editions and that the attendants’ health will be checked before entering the place.
On another topic, the rest of the PAX editions are still happening as planned. PAX Online will take place between July 15 to 18, and PAX Unplugged from December 10 to 12. The latter used to be also an in-person event, but there is still no confirmation about this year’s edition.
On the other hand, PAX West, PAX Unplugged and PAX Online are still scheduled to happen.
