Bubba Fest is one of a handful of conventions that decided to invite Vic Mignogna to this year’s event even in the face of all the negative media attention that the voice actor is receiving for the accusations flying around about his alleged misconduct. The move to invite Mignogna may have seemed risky, but it paid off in the end given that the organizers over the event noted that engagement was “way, way up” after inviting Mignogna to the convention.
During an April 2nd, 2019 livestream session with Minnesota lawyer, Nick Rekieta, the organizers of Bubba Fest, Randy and Chris, talked about the upcoming event as well as the response that they received from fans after announcing that Vic Mignogna would be a guest at the convention this August. Specifically, Chris mentioned that out of the 2,600 social media reactions they received in regards to the announcement, only 6% of them were negative. So 94% of fans were positive about Mignogna showing up to the event. You can see the full three hour stream below.
Chris went on to explain that everyone was happy and that ticket sales were “tremendous”, saying…
“Everyone’s happy. From my perspective the proof is in the pudding, right? The engagement is way, way up on our social media and on our website. We’ve had tremendous ticket sales ever since we announced Vic [as a guest]. Our sales have increased every single day. So people are coming to see him; and it’s just clear to us that from every piece of data we can look at that there are way more people that believe Vic, believe in him, and love ’em, than don’t.
“I don’t want anyone to feel like they’re unwelcome at our show. Anyone that wants to come and enjoy themselves and have a good time, and enjoy that sense of community that we’re building here, come on down. Doesn’t matter if you’ve never even been to an event before, which a lot of people haven’t. But you know, at the same time we’re going to provide a very safe, and secure, and enjoyable environment for everyone.”
Chris goes on to say that they’re proud to have Vic Mignogna coming to the show.
Later on in the stream, Randy mentioned that there was someone attempting to get other guests to not show up at the Bubbafest. At around the 1:02:18 mark, Chris dives a little bit into the situation, saying…
“You’ve mentioned people walking out [of conventions] and threatening to walk out, we’ve actually had someone reach out to a couple of our celebrities and hurl these accusations – ‘Vic is this’ and ‘Vic is that’ etcetera, etcetera – encouraging people to drop out, to bow out of the convention, which they’re not.”
This actually did happen to the Kameha Con event, where they re-invited Vic Mignogna as a guest, and then Monica Rial and other Dragon Ball Super voice actors pulled out of the show, along with several other panelists.
The problem is that many of the accusations being lobbed at Mignogna have either turned out to be fabricated or falsified. In fact, YouTuber TimeCode Mechanics found a video from Williany Amill, who expressed her disappointment and anguish at the news media for taking her photos and using them to craft a narrative in order to paint Mignogna has a predator.
TimeCode also puts Amill’s video in context and explains how Social Justice Warriors have crept their way into the various fandoms to subvert them with their own politics and use it to kick out the people that they don’t like.
So what we’re starting to see here is a turnabout for the Vic Mignogna situation.
More evidence is surfacing that many of these allegations were unsubstantiated, or falsified to push an agenda, and we’re also seeing that a lot of fans are coming out in support of Mignogna as conventions are re-inventing him to the events. This all taking place while the media’s narrative continues to crumble. It’s starting to look like the people who tried to kill and bury Mignogna’s career are ending up on the losing end of the fight.
If you’re going to be in the Knoxville, Tennessee area between August 23rd and August 25th, 2019, you can check out the Bubba Fest by purchasing tickets from over on the official website.
(Thanks for the news tips Iswear12 and Xerxez-aqw ign)