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New York Comic Con, Anime Expo Partner to Debut 'Anime Fest @ NYCC x Anime Expo' Event (Updated)

ReedPOP and The Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation (SPJA) announced on Saturday that New York Comic Con (NYCC) and Anime Expo are partnering to launch the "Anime Fest @ NYCC x Anime Expo" event. The event is taking place at Pier 94 in New York on October 4-7, the same days as New York Comic Con.

The event will feature artists, Japanese guests, and "other New York Otaku," and will also have autograph signings, an Artist Alley, live music, and Japanese pop culture classes. Tickets to the event go on sale on Sunday during the NYCC General On-Sale.

Tickets will be available to "fans with Fan Verification accounts" at a discounted rate when they purchase NYCC badges (or if they already have purchased NYCC badges), and also to fans who are not attending NYCC.

Tickets sale prices are:

• Tickets for Thursday, October 4 cost US$20 (US$15 for those who have NYCC tickets already)
• Tickets for Friday, October 5 cost US$20 (US$15 for those who have NYCC tickets already)
• Tickets for Saturday, October 6 cost US$25 (US$20 for those who have NYCC tickets already)
• Tickets for Sunday, October 7 cost US$25 (US$20 for those who have NYCC tickets already)
• Tickets for "Sunday Kids" cost US$10

The organizations will reveal more details at a later date.

The now-defunct New York Anime Festival (NYAF) event launched as a standalone event in December 2007, and it eventually began sharing the same weekend and location — Jacob K. Javits Center in midtown Manhattan — with NYCC in 2010. In 2012, Reed Exhibitions, the organizer of both events, folded NYAF into NYCC.

Sources: Anime Expo, New York Comic Con

Update: Peter Tatara, event director at the Anime NYC convention that first launched last year, commented on Facebook on July 16 that "Anime Fest @ NYCC x Anime Expo" will not affect the operations of Anime NYC.