Monkey Paw Entertainment would like to take a few moments and update everyone on our plans for 2020 with the outbreak of COVID-19. We have several events that are still scheduled for this year and we know a lot of you are wondering if those events will still happen. We hope that the information we provide here will help you know more about our plans and also help answer some questions you may still have.


Our goal is to be as transparent with all of our attendees, guests, staff, and vendors as we can so that everyone knows what is going on during this entire process.


As of right now, all of our 2020 events are on schedule to happen as the states that they run in have not placed any mandates that would allow our venues to release us from our contracts under Force Majeure clauses. This means that the only way for us to cancel an event right now would be a breach of contract with our venues. This would incur cancellation penalties for any canceled show, which range from $20k for our smallest show to over $300k for our largest. This is something that we just can not do as we are not financially able to absorb that amount of expenses. Our goal is to work with each venue and state to see what the plans are for the next 6 months and hope that if social distancing rules are still in place during an event’s scheduled time the venue will work with us to either cancel or postpone our events. We will state that every venue we currently work with has been amazing to deal with during this time of concern and has been willing to discuss both options for each of our shows.


The goal right now is to wait until early May to see what each state’s government decides to do for social distancing and opening up of businesses over the next 6 months. This will help us forecast out whether we need to cancel or postpone an event in partnership with our venues.


To help with our planning for our shows, since all are still scheduled to happen, is to help us get a better understanding of peoples plans to attend as we are already expecting a decrease in attendance if we do have an event. We know money is tight right now for a lot of you, we are seeing much of the same issues/concerns ourselves, so while we do need revenue to help pay for costs leading into a show we are not going to ask you to buy a badge now if you can not afford it. What we are asking though, is that you still reserve your hotel rooms so that we can get a better understanding of what our anticipated attendance will be. We’ve worked with each venue to assure us that any reservations made can be canceled without any penalty up to right before the show. We will add, that if you can buy your badges early, please do as it will help us keep our employees paid as well as pay for our expenses leading into each show (flights, hotel payments, etc.)


Our #1 priority is to put on a safe event and that means working with each venue and state to get proper guidelines on how large gatherings should be managed and maintained. We will be sure to update everyone as these plans become more solid with more guidance.


Q&A (Questions we have received multiple times)


Q: What if an event is canceled or postponed, do we get a refund?

A: We do not offer refunds on any purchases, but we do offer you to have your purchase rolled to a future show. This includes any of our shows, not just the one you purchased the item for.


Q: Do you plan to announce guests during this time?

A: Yes, we already have guests under contract that we have not announced. We’ve been waiting on decisions from our state governments before we did so. As of this letter we will start announcing guests to help keep excitement alive all while realizing that COVID-19 is a real concern and that we hope it will be resolved either through medical means or by governmental means.


Q: Why are you not canceling your event, this just seems like you don’t care about our safety?

A: Please read the statements above, but the short answer is “We can not cancel an event unless our venue cancels us, doing so would incur cancellation expenses that we just can not afford”


Q: Why are you worried about expenses, you should have insurance for that right?

A: While each event does have cancellation and other insurances, none of our insurance covers COVID-19 for cancellation. This means that even if an event is canceled we will not receive any insurance coverage for it.


Q: As a vendor, we purchased a space based on your 2019 attendance. What concessions do you plan to do for us if your attendance is down?

A: We have plans to offer discounts for 2021 purchases if attendance is down dramatically for a specific show. We hope that this will help, in some way, recover costs.


Q: As a vendor, I just don’t think going to the show this year is realistic what can be done with my purchase even if you don’t cancel or postpone?

A: You are welcome to follow our current cancellation policy for this year (Which allows us to try and resell your space, if resold you would get back the majority of your purchase, minus any processing costs).