Hey everyone! We know you are full of questions about Royal Vegas Retreat 2021. This week, we are going to explain a few important things about the event, what is changing for 2021, and what to look out for next.
Why RVR is different from your local anime convention
As anime conventions start to gear up to put their show on in person, you may be wondering what all of the fuss is about, and why we are treading so cautiously as we begin planning. For one thing, Lolita fashion galas and conventions are smaller than anime cons by an order of magnitude. Even the largest J-fashion events tend to have 100s of attendees, rather than 1000s. This is good news for our event, as it means the potential blast radius is much smaller, right?
However, most of our attendees are traveling to Vegas from out of state. RVR was designed as a tourist-first event to bring Lolitas and J-Fashionistas from the west coast, the US, North America, and beyond together in one opulent setting. That’s why our location on the strip is so important to us. But this means that we expect people to travel by plane, train, or other mass transit to get here, and vaccine rollout is in different stages around the world.
We’re telling you this to frame some of the changes we are making to our event right off the bat. Please understand that more things may change as we get closer to time, including walking back some of the more restrictive changes if they are no longer necessary, or even postponing our event again and putting on Royal Vegas Online in 2021.
All attendees must be fully vaccinated
Fully vaccinated means it has been 2 weeks since you received the final dose of your vaccine. You must show your vaccination card at registration to receive your badge. If you have any questions or concerns about this new restriction, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us directly at info@prettyprincess.club.
All attendees must wear a mask, face covering, or face shield
This is the venue’s requirement and aligns with local guidance as well. We understand that not all masks are comfortable or necessarily accessible, so we encourage you to experiment and use the face covering option that works best for you. The MGM Grand will have disposable masks available for those who don’t have their own, have lost theirs, or who just need a new one. We ask that you use discretion when pulling your mask down to eat or drink. We are working with the venue to determine a safe way forward for our Sunday afternoon tea party.
Plan to distance 3’ between parties
This is another requirement from the venue that aligns with the local guidance. We are working with the venue to create safe and comfortable floor plans for the event.
Lower attendance cap
In order to facilitate floor plans that allow all of us to move about freely, distance as needed, and feel comfortable, we are keeping our attendee cap low for the time being. We may choose to increase it if we feel it is safe to do so. If you are interested in buying a ticket, please stay tuned for our announcement regarding ticket dates and plan to mark your calendar. Given the interest that is developing, we expect to sell out of VIP tickets and GA tickets.
Ticket reservations
Rather than having attendees who have not yet bought a ticket pay full price for a ticket, we are asking attendees to pay part of the cost of the ticket to reserve, and then once we have more certainty around our event, we will ask attendees who reserved their tickets to pay the remaining costs. If we end up postponing again, we currently plan to refund the costs of reserved tickets while continuing to roll over tickets for those who paid full price in 2020, pending information from our survey.
No more Sunday-only tickets
We added a special ticket type last year to accommodate Sin City Anime’s dates, which coincidentally are the same weekend as Royal Vegas Retreat. Given the considerations above, we can no longer offer a Sunday-only ticket for locals who want to attend both cons.
Fewer coord contests
Fewer attendees means fewer coord contest entrants. In order to ensure our contests are engaging for viewers and challenging for entrants, we are reducing down to just 2 coord contests: 1 for all genres of Lolita fashion and related styles (Ouji, EGA, and fusion with other J-Fashion styles), and 1 for handmade coords (where all clothing items are handmade by the entrant).
Hybrid virtual/in-person content
We are working on a plan to broadcast our main stage content live via Twitch to allow those who cannot attend in person to enjoy our event.
Safer content
We are brainstorming ways to make all of our content as safe as possible, and we are planning lower-risk alternatives when needed throughout the event.
MGM Grand’s Safety Plan
Please see the MGM Grand’s 7 Point Safety Plan to understand the venue’s protections for all of their guests.
What’s next?
There is still uncertainty as we move forward to plan our event, but we are trying to strike the right balance. If you have feedback on how we can improve our messaging, please email us directly at info@prettyprincess.club. If you have not yet done so, please fill out our survey: https://forms.gle/8gsihrSsBjC9jiTW8. Regardless of whether you have specific concerns, we want to understand your preferences and plans so we can determine the right safety precautions.
Next week we will be announcing our ticket sale dates and the process for reserving your ticket. If you’re not already subscribed to our list, make sure to do so! Email list subscribers (free and paid) get all of our latest announcements directly to their inbox before they hit Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. In addition, we are working on a gift for paid email list subscribers that you will receive at our in-person event. All of our content is free for everyone to view in our archives or receive via email.
Call to action: the world’s attention is on the ongoing genocide in Palestine and specifically the active colonization of Sheikh Jarrah. If you have not already done so, educate yourself with Palestinian-made resources, tap in to the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, pay attention to the ongoing censorship that social media platforms are perpetrating, and understand how Palestinian liberation is tied to every other movement for justice, like climate justice and Black and Indigenous liberation in the US. Listen to anti-zionist Jewish folks and understand that anti-zionism is not the same as anti-Semitism, and call out so-called leftists who use this moment to spread anti-Semitic hate.
Thank you all for reading! Catch us next week for ticket sale dates and more. As always, you can learn more about us and our events at prettyprincess.club.