Covid-19 and Fandom

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on the daily lives of much of the world's population. In an effort to prevent the spread of the virus many people self-isolated in line with their country or state's guidelines. These self-isolation measures also had an impact on fandom and fan activities.
In 2020 and 2021, many large gatherings of fans at conventions had to be cancelled, with some events going online and holding virtual cons. At the same time, many professional media suspended production, and there was a noticeable increase in fans accessing fan created content. Fan creators also responded to the crisis with works dealing explicitly with Covid-19, social distancing and related topics.
Covid-19 also resulted in the deaths of many fans, several of whom were well known figures in fandom, including Bast and Anne Elizabeth Zeek.
==Disruption in Canon Creation==
One of the first forms of social distancing implemented in many places was limiting the number of people who could gather together in one place. Since many forms of professional entertainment (and things that inspire fandoms) require large numbers of people, it resulted in cancelled events and production hiatuses.
In terms of American network television, most shows were unable to finish filming the last few episodes of the season before the production hiatus was implemented. For shows in their final season, such as Supernatural's season 15, it left the question of whether there would ever be a proper ending. For shows in their first season, it severely complicated the idea of renewal.
Not just existing shows were affected. New shows were unable to film a pilot, essentially stalling the creation of new fandoms. For months, therefore, the entire idea of the 2020-21 TV season was in question.
Music RPF fandoms were also affected, as popular bands and solo acts cancelled or postponed their tours. For example, at least some of the tourdates for My Chemical Romance's long-awaited reunion tour, scheduled to begin in March, were postponed.Wikipedia:My Chemical Romance Reunion Tour (accessed 3 May 2020) BTS's 2020 tour was also postponed.Wikipedia:Map_of_the_Soul_Tour (accessed 3 May 2020)
Sports RPF fans were similarly affected, as various team sports cancelled their seasons.
All Broadway productions stopped performances on March 12, so Theater fans could no longer attend performances, and some shows ended up closing and not planning on reopening.
==Increased Demand for Fanfiction==
March 2020 saw a surge in people reading fanfiction, as schools and colleges closed and many people were self-isolating at home. The fanfiction archive Ao3 put emergency measures in place to help the site cope with its increased traffic.
Fans reacted positively to the measures. Many encouraged logged out users to sign up for accounts, with Ao3 users on Tumblr offering to send invite links to logged out users. Readers were also encouraged to show their appreciation for creators through the use of comments and kudos, as hits might no longer be an accurate reflection of readership.
This was continuing a trend some were already noticing in fandom. Even before the Ao3 emergency measures were announced, some fans had been encouraging readers to leave comments as a show of gratitude to fanfic writers in this time of crisis. There definitely is evidence that fans were commenting more during the period. Comparing April 2020 to February 2020 numbers, traffic was up by 24% and kudos increased by 23%. At the same time, comments were up an impressive 42% on February's numbers.AO3 Statistics 2020: A Look Behind the Scenes, published May 9, 2020.
Others encouraged fans to donate to the OTW, the volunteer organization behind the Ao3 that relied entirely on donations.
From a 2022 discussion: 
==Trends in Fan Created Works==
===Fanfiction===
By mid March 2020, quarantine fics were appearing on Ao3. Some of these works were Canon AUs where the reason for the quarantine was not related to the current Covid-19 virus. Still other works were canon-divergent works or Modern AUs set during the virus outbreak, and featured characters self-isolating in line with Covid-19 measures. In some of these works, Character X gets corona virus can lead to sickfic scenarios.
In some cases, people who became well known during lockdown began to appear in fanworks, including fanart and RPF. This includes fics, widely reported in the UK, pairing P.E. teacher Joe Wicks x Reader.Joe Wicks fan fiction is the material to get you through lockdown, Evening Standard, April 2, 2020. Health Ministers and high-profile medical experts also began appearing in Political RPF fics on Ao3 throughout 2020 and 2021.
Fandom specific tropes & storylines
* In Good Omens fandom, Covid-19 is sometimes the work of Pestilence, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Pestilence may also have a hand in spreading misinformation about the virus and downplaying its seriousness. In some works Pestilence comes out of retirement for Covid-19, while in other works they have been spreading misinformation about vaccines for decades.
** For the 30th anniversary of the Good Omens novel, Amazon (who made the Good Omens (TV) series) released a short clip called Good Omens: Lockdown, providing a canon impetus for fic about Crowley and Aziraphale in lockdown.Good Omens gets official quarantine fanfiction for the book’s 30th anniversary (Accessed May 22, 2020)Good Omens Lockdown on Youtube user Terry Pratchett (accessed June 29, 2024)
* An article about fanfiction set in specific locations revealed the influence of current events. "In books and writing, you can put yourself in the place of a character, and, in [the fan fictions], I can put myself in a character who’s on campus when I personally can’t be on campus." Student compiles spreadsheet of Ithaca College fan fiction (Accessed September 26, 2020)
===Fanvids===
Fanvids made in response to the virus outbreak, sometimes drew parallels between post-apocalyptic source materials and current events. Some of these vids use actual news footage and reporting on the virus outbreak, inter-cut with scenes and audio from fictional source materials.
===Fests and Community===
Lock Down Fest ran from March 20–30, 2020 and was a "non-anon, self-posting, multi-ship and multi-fandom mini fest that is designed to bring comfort to everyone staying indoors under quarantine restrictions at the moment and to all of us experiencing fear because of the pandemic" that was hosted on AO3. All works posted as part of the fest had to follow one of two themes, either "Getting Stuck In/Isolated Together (which doesn’t need to involve the virus in any way whatsoever)" or "Quarantine-inspired, if it occurs during the current pandemic". Accessed 9 April 2020. 179 works in 110 fandoms were posted to the collection.
Fic Journal of the Plague Year is an ongoing fic collection on AO3. The profile states: "All fics in this open collection should be: (1) written during the period of the coronavirus situation and (2) include commentary in the end note explaining how the fic and/or writing process were affected by the global crisis. The fics don't necessarily have to be about illness, isolation, or the effects of the pandemic; instead, the feelings, thoughts, and experiences the writer is going through during this situation should have influenced the fics in some way." Accessed 9 April 2020.
Starting with issue #221, released on March 27, 2020, the weekly newsletter The Rec Center began including a new section titled "lockdown stuff", described as "any fandom-oriented online community events, fests, virtual cons, etc". posted 27 March 2020.
The Isolated Johnlock Collection on AO3 collects fanworks for the Sherlock (TV series) (and related fandoms) that are thematically related to the pandemic. Specifically, works where "John and Sherlock are isolated at 221B or somewhere else (abroad, an island) due to CORVID19 or any other type of apocalypse (aliens/zombies). One of them can be isolated while the other is an essential worker. John and Sherlock can be characters in the background while your main otp takes the lead." As of August 2020, the collection has 60 fanworks.Isolated Johnlock Collection, Archive capture from August 13, 2020
===Memes===
People have responded to Covid-19 with a wave of related memes in and out of fannish circles. One popular trend is photoshop manipulated images of fictional characters wearing masks or edits of fictional characters with captions related to Covid-19 safety. Some fans have found screencaps of characters standing far apart and added jokes about social distancing.
Another trend includes creating a list of fictional characters (or outside of fandom, celebrities or politicians) divided into houses and having commentators choose a house to lockdown in.
At the end of 2020, there were many fandom-specific 2020 Calendars - with creators using gifs from a particular source material to represent the months of 2020. March often extended for several months, while several other months merged into one month.2020:A New Girl Calendar by lovelovecaliforniadreams, December 28, 2020. Some Calendars also included Destiel, as an event occurring between November and December, a reference to November 5, 2020.2020: A Witcher Calendar by redbelles, Dec 20 2020. A very early text post by Tumblr user gracelessstars may have been the inspiration for these 2020 Calendars; posted on December 2, 2020, several 2020 Calendars link to this post as their inspiration.2020 has been like post by gracelessstars, December 2, 2020.
In mid - 2021, the My Fall Plans / The Delta Variant meme arose on Twitter and spread to other social media sites and Tumblr.My Fall Plans/The Delta Variant at Know Your Meme The meme usually consists of two pictures, often from the same source material, one labeled "My Fall Plans," and the other labeled "Delta Variant". The implication been that the Delta variant is turning up to ruin people's 2021 plans.
==Cancelled and Reorganized Events==
* 221B Con cancelled their April 3–6, 2020 con. The unofficial "221B-Consolation Fest" tumblr account ran a fest the same weekend.
* Bitchin Party aka Pacificon, originally scheduled for April 3–5, 2020, is postponed until November 13–15, 2020., posted to dreamwidth, 10 March 2020.
* Concentric Eastercon 2020, cancelled.Important Announcement from the Chairs of Concentric Eastercon, March 22, 2020.
* CONfabulation rescheduled their 2020 convention for October 21–24, 2021. (Accessed 4 April 2020.) They are holding an online convention in 2020 on November 7 and 8.
* CON.TXT, scheduled for July 24–26, 2020, was postponed until July 9–11, 2021., updated 26 March 2020. They will be hosting a free, one-day virtual con on July 25, 2020. posted 8 April 2020.
* CoNZealand, the 78th World Science Fiction Convention, has announced plans to hold a virtual convention.CoNZealand is going virutal, blog post March 25, 2020.CoNZealand: Special Announcement, March 25, 2020
* Emerald City Comic Con was rescheduled from March to August., 6 March 2020.
* Europodfriends, scheduled for October 16–18, will be online-only. posted by frecklebombfic in the dreamwidth community, 28 April 2020.
* FanWorks Con rescheduled from August 8-9th, 2020 to March 19–21, 2021, with plans to hold a virtual con during the original con weekend in August 2020., posted to dreamwidth, 16 March 2020.
* Gamescom 2020, Europe's largest Video gaming convention, scheduled to run August 25–29, will be held as a digital event
* San Diego Comic Con 2020, slated for July 23–26, will return to the San Diego Convention Center July 22–25, 2021.
* Shrekfest Wisconsin 2020 was cancelled.
* VidUKon, scheduled for June 12–14, 2020, cancelled the physical con and will instead run as a virtual con during the same dates. posted 30 March 2020.
* Wiscon 44, scheduled for May 2020, was cancelled., 24 March 2020. An online convention is planned., posted 31 March 2020.
* Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund - Orange Mike Lowrey, the 2020 TAFF winner, was originally scheduled to attend the 2020 Swecon and Eastercon; those trips were cancelled, and as of September 2021 he has announced plans to take the 2020 trip in spring of 2022, attending the Eurocon and Eastercon in April.
* The three Final Fantasy XIV fan festivals meant to take place in 2021 were cancelled and consolidated into one single online festival.
* Enchanted 3 was delayed from its original date in June 2020 to April 2021, before being moved again to October of the same year.
* Ithacon 2020 was cancelled.
A "Con-Solation Vidshow" was organized by seekingferret for vidders to showcase premiering vids for cancelled cons.
==Example Fanworks==
===Fanfiction===
* Good Omens: Ask and It Shall Be Given You (But You Have to Ask) by BuggreAlleThis. Crowley and Aziraphale, under lockdown.
* Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Quarantined in Space by antevasin—This fic features a quarantine for a fictional illness that requires the same measures as Covid-19 lockdowns.
===Fanart===
* BBC Sherlock: , Sherlock/Molly fanart by thisisartbylexie on tumblr
* MCU: by Tumblr user ovvca, inspired by an unlinked photo manip
* RPF: , fanart of Ireland's Chief Medical Officer, post by reddit u/DirkPower (May 12, 2020)
* As N Approaches Infinity: ANAI COVID-19 PSA posters by goldefantasia in the style of Sailor Moon Says.
===Fanvids===
* 12 Monkeys | Plague by Margarita Life, Mar 13, 2020. A 12 Monkeys vid created to highlight the parallels between that story and current events.
* The Last Of Us - the ultimate corona weapon by T7pro, Mar 24, 2020. A The Last of Us vid that parodies the importance of toilet paper.
===Other===
Memes:
* , a collection of memes about Batfamily characters, created by mybatfamshit (Mar 2020)
Reclists:
* Emotions During COVID-19 Quarantine Expressed Through 5 Heartfelt Fanfics and 5 Covid-19 Fanfiction Stories to Read While Continuing Your State of Quarantine by Ashley Marie on fanfictionrecommendations.com (April 2020)
Podcasts:
* Episode 150 of Fansplaining is focused on the COVID-19 pandemic and is titled Post-Pandemic Fandom. (May 2021)
Collections:
* . The description reads, "As people all over the world deal with the coronavirus and its fallout, fic writing can be a place to process our feelings and provide a document of how fic and fic communities are helping us through this very weird time. All fics in this open collection should be: (1) written during the period of the coronavirus situation and (2) include commentary in the end note explaining how the fic and/or writing process were affected by the global crisis. The fics don't necessarily have to be about illness, isolation, or the effects of the pandemic; instead, the feelings, thoughts, and experiences the writer is going through during this situation should have influenced the fics in some way."
===Gallery===
File:My immortal hand washing meme.png|A hand washing meme that circulated in early 2020 due to Covid, with the opening lines to My Immortal written in place of the descriptions for each step.
==Further reading==
* Coronavirus is starting to show up in fan fiction, placing iconic characters in quarantine by Palmer Haasch (Mar 17 2020)
* Quarantine love stories are becoming a romance trope by Aja (Mar 25 2020)
* ‘I Love Cosplay, But I Also Like Living’: Cosplayers in the Age of COVID-19 by Audrey Cleo Yap (July 23, 2020)
*do u think omegaverse acknowledges covid-19 - Tumblr post
==Fannish Links==
AO3 fanwork tags:
*COVID-19
*COVID-19 Lockdown
*Created During COVID-19 Lockdown
*Alternate Universe - No COVID-19
*quarantine fic
*Quarantine
==References==
Category:2020 Events