Casino Nights Zone - June 26th and 27th 2015, Las Vegas, Nevada

[Tani Coyote]

Dates: June 26th and June 27th, 2015

Location: To be announced

You can buy tickets to attend here!

You can donate to the fundraiser and receive rewards here!

This event is not affiliated with SEGA and is run on a non-profit basis.

Sonic Revolution 2014 is not even upon us yet, and already there’s another Sonic the Hedgehog convention in the works!

Casino Nights Zone is a TWO-day convention for fans of the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, though gamers of all ages and interests, as well as their families, are more than welcome to attend. The event is to be held in Las Vegas on June 26th and 27th, 2015. Casino Nights is being organized with the same ideas as Sonic Boom, Summer of Sonic, Sonic Revolution and Weston Super Sonic: a place where all Sonic fans can gather and have hours (or days, in our case) of fun about their favorite blue hedgehog!

Event Details

The event is being formally sponsored by Dreamerch, a small video game merchandise retailer, but the event itself is run on a not-for-profit basis; any proceeds from the event will be going towards increasing the amount of activities available to attendees. The event is divided into two Acts, each representing a day and dedicated to heroes or villains. Contests and activities shall be held on both days and will be tailored to these themes: for example, the costume contest for one day would be themed around villains and the other day around heroes.

A 20-hour event is going to require lots of funding to ensure that there's lots for attendees to do; every ticket purchased from us will make this possible. Money raised from tickets will go towards paying for the event space as well as all the activities we have planned. Activities available at the venue will include:

• Contests (Trivia, Costume, Art and more);

• Musical performances by various talented musicians;

• Panels with various special guests (such as Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog writer Ian Flynn or Sonic comic artists Matt Herms and Evan Stanley) who have contributed to the Sonic franchise in one form or another, such as voice work, artwork, animation, game design, writing, or more;

• Raffles for various prizes

• Gaming tournaments, ranging from Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed to Super Smash Bros. Brawl;

• A fangame area where the most promising fangames will be available to view and play;

• Tables to have your merchandise signed by various creative talents who have worked on Sonic the Hedgehog;

• Fanmade animations and videos related to Sonic the Hedgehog will be showcased throughout the day;

• Vendor booths and artist alley tables where all sorts of merchandise will be for sale;

• A fanmade Sonic mascot costume as well as other options for photo opportunities;

• All this will be to the tune of Sonic music playing in the background all day long;

And more! Special guests will be announced as they are confirmed to be attending.

Several talented individuals who have contributed to Sonic media over the years have voiced interest (none of these guests are confirmed, just as a note; guests will be confirmed as we make arrangements later on)! Of course, these are only the guests who have announced interest publicly...

To help pay for the costs (which will come to around 16,000 dollars) of this event, a small ticket fee is charged; a one-day pass costs 20 dollars, and a two-day pass costs 35 dollars. Las Vegas and EventBee charge some fees as well, and these are levied on top of the ticket price; after service fees and taxes, a one day pass is 24 dollars, and the two day pass is 40.50.

We hope you will join us in Las Vegas for the world's first formal two-day Sonic convention! This event is not sponsored by or affiliated with SEGA or any of its subsidiaries and is an independent undertaking. Every person who buys a ticket or otherwise contributes makes this event possible, and we encourage all contributors and attendees to take pride in this fact.

Myself and all the other Casino Nights staff hope you will join us at Casino Nights next year in fabulous Las Vegas!

[Tani Coyote]

In the event one is unable to make it to the event, one can still donate (and receive rewards) to our Fundraiser! Rewards range a fundraiser-exclusive Poker Chip to VIP status at the event. Naturally, even those who ARE attending are still welcome to contribute. One dollar donations will result in your name being written inside a Sonic emblem on a giant piece of paper. This paper will quite likely be hung at the event.

 

Now, some more developments:

 

 

Check out our new logo design by graphic designer Callum Steel! He was generous enough to make it for the event for free; do give his work a look if you'd ever want a logo of your own!

 

This logo is going to be used for T-Shirts, posters as well as one of the poker chip variants we have planned. Yes, you read that right - there are going to be two different kinds of poker chips, one for attendees and one for the fundraiser. Gotta grab 'em all!

 

The venue we are looking at is an attractive 600 capacity community center not too far from Fremont Street. I hope to have it reserved within the month.

[Tani Coyote]

We are confirmed for June 26th and 27th (a Friday and a Saturday) for next year.

A lot of things affected the inconsistent date. Originally we wanted a Monday and Tuesday to be around the time of the LVL Up Expo, but then we decided to move to Summer. Then we tried Wednesday and Thursday... but then decided a weekend date would be well worth the extra expense to ensure more attendees could come.

The exact venue will be announced as soon as we have a contract signed.

[Tani Coyote]

Just a quick bump to be courteous to anyone who planned to go.

I had the perfect venue, but unfortunately, all weekends were booked. While I did debate going with a weekday event and doing lots of local promotion to make up for the hit to distant attendees... I decided it was better to stop flipflopping and put the event on indefinite hiatus.

In addition, this will allow me to really build up my business and brandname so that when I do host an event, it's far more spectacular. I still remain adamant about hosting some sort of event someday, don't worry... I just think I probably went into this a bit too soon.

I hope to see everyone at some other event in the meantime. Thanks to all who gave their support!