Taking place September 23rd – 30th in Austin, TX, Fantastic Fest 2021 is still happening, but it will operate a bit differently this year to keep festival-goers and staff safe.
Details from the official website:
“The dates for the 2021 festival remain the same, September 23rd -30th. We plan to host festival screenings this year across multiple venues in Austin – most will be at Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar, but we expect to also utilize Alamo Drafthouse’s other Austin locations as well.
Each screening will be ticketed individually, with reserved seating – thus allowing for contact tracing. We will also have at least one buffer seat placed between groups. There will be no indoor parties or mixers.
Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar will also host our signature events Fantastic Feud and 100 Best Kills. Details on the complete schedule will be posted to the Fantastic Fest website prior to the event.
As noted above, this year’s event will not use badges. Furthermore, we know that this model is not the festival that anyone signed up for, so we’re offering refunds for any badgeholders who need them. However, we encourage badgeholders to roll them over to 2022, because we are committed to returning in 2022 with the classic Fantastic Fest that our community expects and deserves.
Finally, we have modified our Fantastic Fest public health policy as far as we can within the confines of Texas law. As before, proof of vaccination is required for attendance, but by state order we will now also accept a negative COVID test from a state-approved test provider taken within 24 hours of each day’s screenings. However, we strongly prefer proof of vaccination.
The virtual portion of Fantastic Fest, FF@HOME, will still take place 9/30-10/11 on Alamo On Demand. ALTER is the lead sponsor of FF@HOME. Rev.com will be sponsoring our new accessibility initiative.
“The first step to creating access was offering a virtual option with an affordable badge price,” says Ahbra Perry, Head of Alamo On Demand. “We are grateful to ALTER for generously underwriting FF@HOME, including a soon-to-be-legendary virtual party. And with help from our friends at Rev.com. we’re going to be able to provide Closed Captions for the films and shorts playing virtually that can’t provide their own. That is a big step in the right direction and hopefully just the beginning.”
Over 30 films from the current festival lineup will be available virtually, including brand new shorts blocks. FF@Home Badge holders will have access to films for 48-hour windows. We are also excited to include a special curation of Fantastic Fest films from years past, many of them hard to find, that will be available for the full duration of the virtual festival.
There’s a great deal more to say, and the Fantastic Fest team is hard at work. In addition to the complete schedule, we will communicate details on rollovers, refunds, and the new ticketing process very soon.”
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