Phoenix Fan Fest shuts down struggling event after four years

PHOENIX — Organizers of the annual Phoenix Fan Fest, a fall gathering for lovers of comic books and cartoons, have decided to hang up the festival’s cape.

The four-year-old festival won’t be back this year, parent group Square Egg Entertainment posted Thursday on Facebook. The fan fest “struggled over the years to find its own identity, audience, balance of price, size, and offerings. …

“In the best interest of the future of all our shows … we have decided not to host Phoenix Fan Fest 2018.”

The fan fest is an off-shoot of Phoenix Comic Fest, formerly known as Phoenix Comicon. Fan Fest debuted at the end of 2014 and spent two years at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale before moving to downtown Phoenix.

Valley-based Square Egg has been making noticeable changes over the past year.

After an armed man was able to get inside Comicon last year, security was tightened for the remainder of the weekend event. Police took the man into custody

Some policies were tweaked for this year’s festival, which ran Memorial Day weekend.

The festival has also tweaked its name again. Phoenix Fan Fusion was scheduled May 23-26, 2019.

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