Official Press Release

SAN DIEGO Comic-Con International: San Diego 2000 broke existing attendance records for their 2000 show. With over 45,000 attendees and over 3,500 exhibitors. The total attendance for the show is a staggering 48,500.

"We knew our numbers were up from our onsite tallys," says David Glanzer, spokesperson for the non-profit event, "but we didn't have specific numbers until this week."

Already the largest comic book and pop culture convention of its kind in the world, Comic-Con International features displays by nearly every comic book publisher in the nation as well as displays by top film studios, game companies and card and toy manufacturers.

Figures for the 2000 show include over 917 10 x 10 booths, over 110 dealers tables, 51 small press tables and over 100 artist alley tables to max out the 250,000 square foot exhibit hall. Comic-Con features over 600 exhibitors from a variety of popular arts mediums as well as over 6,000 professional guests from all aspects of the pop culture industries.

To accommodate the massive crowds, Comic-Con must come up with a variety of ways to assure a smooth running event. To that extent, the event features three 20' aisles which run the length of the exhibit floor and two 20' aisles which run the width of the floor. This is, of course, is in addition to the standard 10' aisles which run throughout the rest of the hall.

Additionally Comic-Con packs numerous meeting rooms on the two floors above the exhibit hall. At any given time, there are over 3,000 people attending a variety of programs, seminars and workshops, and on Saturday that number far exceeded 5,000 people.

Comic-Con attracts a diverse group of attendees including fans of comics and film, professionals from a variety of comic book and movie industries, as well as gaming and interactive multimedia professionals. Each membership badge purchased counts for one person. So even though one person may have purchased a four day badge and attended the event each day, they are still counted as only one person. This marks a total increase in attendance of approximately 8% from last year.

Dates for Comic-Con International: 2001 are July 19-22, 2001 and will be, once again, held at the San Diego Convention center in downtown San Diego.

COMIC-CON INTERNATIONAL is a nonprofit educational corporation dedicated to creating awareness of and appreciation for comics and related popular art forms, primarily through the presentation of conventions and events that celebrate the historic and ongoing contribution of comics to art and culture.