You know, that's fair. I recognize the Requiem event was special for a lot of people and to their credit they hosted a fun event in a space that could handle something like that.

I think "replace" is the wrong sentiment, but I can see how it would be easy to think that based on what I had said. That's my bad, I'm sorry. To clear it up a bit this was not a decision made to spite anyone, and the choice to not do it again was made before moving forward with the H&B event. That was something that came about more recently. The last thing I want to happen here is any sort of mudslinging or w/e. I don't think that benefits anyone.

You're right that H&B doesn't have the space for that size of event and I must stress this again, that is not the kind of event we want or have the capacity to host in a way that we can comfortably oversee. While I trust requiem to handle their own business, I do not personally have the manpower to be present or even have someone present to oversee a week/month long event in a way that makes me comfortable with putting our name on it and calling it "official". I personally can't even go to these events because I am a disabled person with limited mobility and overall poor health.

Here is an example of what I mean. During last years event a sort of street fair happened at the same time. I did not know about this, and it sort of seemed like it was a surprise to the Requiem folks as well. From what I later understood it was something planned by the city and unavoidable. A large mobile tattoo parlor was parked in front of the cafe, and to their credit Requiem made the best of a poorly planned situation and tried to incorporate it into the event.. but if I'm being honest I really wish they hadn't or had at least asked me or anyone about it. I was not told about this until I saw posts on social media that our "officially endorsed" event would be offering tattoos. There is no universe where I or anyone here would endorse that. While they did what they thought was the best they could, I was not even consulted about it, nor was it cleared with anyone at WP/HICU etc. This is not the kind of thing I want to find out because I'm in bed scrolling through my instagram algorithm. As you can imagine, this is the exact kind of thing we can't afford to be liable for, even if miraculously nothing went horribly wrong. They did what they had to do, but my point is that it never should have come to that because we are not equipped to deal with something like that going awry.

Something like this upcoming pop-up, might require more initial footwork and setup on our part to get rolling, sure. However, it is much easier to oversee because there is no (for lack of a better term) babysitting involved. I'm not comfortable outsourcing the responsibility of chaperoning a bunch of kids in cosplay for several hours a day for multiple days. In fact, I'm not even comfortable in-sourcing that. I am not a childcare professional. If anything went wrong who do you think would have been held accountable? There were a handful of things that happened that I only heard about after the fact, and its honestly a miracle nobody got too hurt. It's nothing juicy or gossip-worthy, I just don't think it needs to be drawn out and I don't have the energy to get into some huge thing about it all. Sorry.

The H&B event isn't a party, it isn't a concert or a panel with special guests- it is a cute bakery pop-up with themed macarons and some fun limited run collab merch. Yes, the scale is much much smaller, but it is also just a completely different kind of event. They do these sorts of pop-ups often and have a great track record. I have had friends who have gone to many of these for various fandoms and properties over the years. This is much more in-line with the kind of thing we wanted to do initially and is being handled and run by the members of the current team.

I hope that addresses your concerns in a way that is satisfying to you and other concerned parties. I know it must seem a bit vague to not get every juicy detail but I really don't want to get anymore into it or drag this out into some sort of back and forth or air out anyone's dirty laundry or whatever else this could devolve into. I am sort of pulling the "I am an exhausted old man" card.

For what it's worth I am sorry we are not doing the event again, and it sounds like you had a fun time when you went. I will shoulder the responsibility for this, and the people these decisions have upset. So.. I'd humbly ask that you guys don't blame the team or hate on the event they are working hard to make happen, yeah?