A hugely disappointing announcement from UK PonyCon earlier today: owing to continuing problems with international travel, guest of honour Kelly Sheridan can no longer attend. She was originally hoping to come to UKPC 2020, but that was cancelled for obvious reasons, so everyone was delighted when she was announced this time – she was (in 2020, and still now) the first show guest UK PonyCon had ever announced.
The official statement is pretty terse, so we don't know exactly what "disruption" refers to. Canada has generally maintained a harder line on Covid restrictions than most of Europe, so that could be an issue; or it could be related to the more general problems that have hit airports like Heathrow. There's little point in speculating further, since it's not really any of our business beyond the simple fact of a big-name guest not attending.
UK PonyCon's statement does say the con is "exploring alternative special guests", and I'm sure they'll do their very best as they've always worked extremely hard to put on a great convention (and succeeded in that). Still, Kelly Sheridan having to cancel barely 11 weeks from the con is not something I can sugar-coat as anything but a major disappointment. Here's hoping the next time I write about UKPC it will be to report some much more pleasant news!
Edit: I have been reminded that Anneli Heed, aka "Swedish Spitfire" (although she's done plenty more) is still coming as far as any of us know. So that's definitely something to look forward to. :)
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