NY Anime Festival and Del Rey Manga announce NYAF pre-party
Norwalk, CT, September 1, 2009: The New York Anime Festival (NYAF) and Del Rey Manga today announced a party taking place from 5:30 to 7:30 PM on Thursday, September 24, 2009 at Dave and Buster's (234 West 42nd Street) in NYC's Times Square. Jointly produced by NYAF and Del Rey Manga, this special event held on the eve of the 2009 New York Anime Festival is both a celebration of this year's NYAF as well as a celebration of Del Rey Manga's Fifth Anniversary -- and to mark this special occasion, NYAF and Del Rey Manga invite fans and professionals to partake in food, drink, giveaways, and a cake crafted by Baltimore's famed Charm City Cakes specifically for the NYAF and Del Rey Manga party.
Free and open to the public, the NYAF and Del Rey Manga party welcomes NYAF attendees, anime fans, manga readers, industry professionals, and casual New Yorkers interested in the world of Japanese pop culture. The party will take place in two parts...
Manga and Anime Raffle (5:30-6:30 PM) - Typically you give the birthday boy or girl gifts; however, to mark the occasion of Del Rey Manga's fifth birthday, we're giving gifts to the party's attendees. Come during the party's first hour to be entered to win a selection of manga spanning Del Rey Manga's five years as well as DVDs from NYAF partners including Bandai Entertainment and FUNimation. Further, the Charm City Cakes Del Rey Manga birthday cake will be on public display during this time, so fans, press, and pros interested in taking pictures of the party centerpiece should do so before the raffle ends.
Charm City Cakes Cutting (6:30-7:30 PM) - Once the raffle ends, the real party begins as representatives from Del Rey Manga and the New York Anime Festival will cut into the Charm City Cakes Del Rey Manga birthday cake. Created by the talents of Food Network's Ace of Cakes TV show, the Del Rey Manga birthday cake will take the form of a towering stack of manga, showcasing some of Del Rey Manga's landmark books from 2004 to today.
At 7:30, following the formal end of the NYAF and Del Rey Manga party, attendees are free to stay and enjoy Dave & Buster's or attend a special one-night-only screening of Bandai Entertainment's Eureka Seven - good night, sleep tight, young lovers - animated motion picture, presented at the AMC Empire 24 theater neighboring Dave & Buster's.
"We're excited to offer fans and pros this party on the eve of the New York Anime Festival," NYAF Show Manager Lance Fensterman said. "And, even more so, we're excited to partner with our friends at Del Rey Manga to help them celebrate such a momentous milestone in their history!"
"We've been planning this party with NYAF for a long time," Del Rey Manga Marketing Manager Ali T. Kokmen said. "We're thrilled to see it now all come together, and we invite fans to come and celebrate five years of Del Rey Manga, three years of the New York Anime Festival, and one delicious cake!"
For more information on NYAF, please visit the show's official site (www.nyanimefestival.com). For the latest announcements, please visit NYAF's official blog (www.mediumatlarge.net) or follow NYAF on Twitter (www.twitter.com/NY_Anime_Fest). For additional details on Del Rey Manga, please visit their official site (www.delreymanga.com) and blog (www.suvudu.com). For fans interested in attending Bandai's Eureka Seven theatrical screening following the party, tickets are available here (http://www.ncm.com/Fathom/Anime/EurekaSeven.aspx).
ABOUT DEL REY MANGA:
Since its launch in 2004, Del Rey Manga has become a major force in the U.S. graphic novel field, publishing bestsellers such as Tsubasa, Negima and Fairy Tail. Current and upcoming projects include In Odd We Trust, by #1 New York Times bestselling author Dean Koontz and Queenie Chan; original manga starring Marvel characters in X-Men: Misfits and Wolverine: Prodigal Son; original manga based on hit Cartoon Network properties including Bakugan Battle Brawlers, Ben 10: Alien Force, and The Secret Saturdays; and projects based on Nickelodeon's popular Avatar: The Last Airbender series. Del Rey Manga is an imprint of Ballantine Books, a division of the Random House Publishing Group, which is a publishing group of Random House, Inc, the US publishing company of Random House, the trade book publishing division of Bertelsmann AG, one of the world's leading international media companies.
ABOUT THE NEW YORK ANIME FESTIVAL:
The New York Anime Festival takes place September 25-27, 2009 at the Jacob K. Javits Center in Midtown Manhattan and is organized by Reed Exhibitions, the creators of New York Comic Con. The New York Anime Festival showcases the best of anime pop culture, including the latest anime, manga, Japanese cinema, music, and games, and anime-influenced comics, animation, and films from around the world. The festival features exclusive and extensive screenings, a gala cosplay masquerade, sessions with the some of the biggest names in anime from Japan, Asia, and America, and explores the Japanese cultural experience with displays of both traditional and cutting-edge Japanese life. Further information can be found at newyorkanimefestival.com.
ABOUT REED EXHIBITIONS POP CULTURE GROUP:
The Pop Culture Group at Reed Exhibitions owns and operates the New York Comic Con (NYCC), the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo (C2E2), and the New York Anime Festival (NYAF). New York Comic Con was launched in 2006 and quickly became a dominant presence in the pop culture world of public events. In 2009, 452 companies exhibited at NYCC for a total of 84,000 square feet of paid exhibit space, and it has been ranked by Crain's New York Business as the second-largest annual event in NYC. C2E2, which will debut April 16 – 18 at Chicago's McCormick Place Convention Center, is modeled after NYCC and will provide fans the opportunity to meet and greet their favorite writers, creators, and artists, as well as to see, hear and learn about the latest and greatest in comics, graphic novels, anime, manga, video games, toys, movies, and television. The Pop Culture Group also operates the recently-launched UFC Fan Expo in partnership with the UFC – the world's leading professional mixed martial artss organization – and it formed a strategic partnership with Penny Arcade Expo (PAAX) in 2008 and will work closely with PAX on the launch of PAX East in Boston in 2010.
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