As Animate Jamaica planned their largest Asian Pop Culture event to date, Animania 2.0, which was to span two days at the Montego Bay Convention Centre, Hurricane Beryl severely impacted its staging — knocking it down, but not out.

Sherroy Campbell and his Animate Jamaica team readjusted, hosting a smaller event recently.

“Unfortunately, Hurricane Beryl messed up some of our plans, but our fans, our patrons, still came out and I’m very grateful for that,” Campbell told the Jamaica Observer.

What was supposed to be a two-day event, with overseas guests the likes of Michaela Murphy, the voice actor behind Toph from the animated series
Avatar: The Last Airbender, and fellow voice actor Bryon Bugus, the impact of the hurricane and its lingering aftermath saw the whole production scaled back.

“A lot of our sponsors did pull out due to the hurricane, so we had to downsize; hence, the one-day versus the two-day,” said Campbell.

He added that convention centre availability also played a role in scheduling the smaller event.

Having been forced to a single day, ticket packages had to reflect the reduction. This further affected the number of vendors and activities on hand for patrons.

Regardless of the challenges, he billed Animania as a positive for Animate Jamaica.

“Based on turnout and sales, I would say I’m happy. Persons are very happy, and I haven’t received any complaints. In fact, they are saying it is bigger and better than last year, and they’re looking forward to 2025,” Campbell said.

Last year Animania took place at The University of the West Indies, Western Jamaica Campus, a much smaller and outdoor venue to the Montego Bay Convention Centre. With the extra space there was much more room for patrons to browse the vendors in attendance, enjoy VIP treatment, play various games, and enjoy the discussion panels catering to various issues and topics within the genre space.

“I’m very grateful for my sponsors, Red Bull, Ashley Furniture, NCB [National Commercial Bank], TEF [Tourism Enhancement Fund], and a few others, including our hotel sponsor Royalton, who played a big part in making this happen. We couldn’t have done it without them.”

Animate Jamaica hopes to replicate the success and importance of AnimeCom Fest on the western end of the island and has been fostering the growth of Asian pop culture in its vicinity.

“Compared to last year we have a lot more persons cosplaying. And we have more vendors coming out. More people are seeing the value in Animania and, just based on feedback, a lot more persons are aware that we’re here in Montego Bay,” he said.

Campbell is already making plans for next year, but has their annual Halloween event coming up as well.

Anime Yado honcho Ashley Smith — dressed as Tengen Uzui — in a show of support made the trek to Animania 2.0 to aid Asian pop culture development on the western end of the island. (Rory Daley)

Despite the date shift, the cosplayer count was higher than previous Animania events.