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GalaxyCon blames the US government shutdown in affecting its con business, starting with cancelling its first Milwaukee show less than two weeks ahead of the show

GalaxyCon Milwaukee has been postponed until 2026 due to the "massive challenge" posed by the government shutdown less than two weeks before the event was due to take place

News by Jules Chin Greene, Staff Writer

Published on Mon Oct 27 2025

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GalaxyCon is the company behind conventions including GalaxyCon Richmond, GalaxyCon Raleigh, and GalaxyCon San Jose (as I'm sure you're seeing a pattern here), with the organization set to expand with a new show in Milwaukee next week. However, a new Facebook post from GalaxyCon Milwaukee confirmed that the show's maiden voyage has been postponed until 2026, with the company specifically stating that the last-minute decision was made because of the current government shutdown.

An announcement made on the GalaxyCon Milwaukee Facebook page read in part, "Due to circumstances beyond our control, we have decided to postpone our debut in Milwaukee for our 2025 tour. The recent government shutdown has resulted in a massive challenge for our planned inaugural event in Wisconsin. Between additional costs, transportation delays, and economic uncertainty for attendees and vendors who are themselves federal employees, the current climate has resulted in some creative adjustments to our events that we feel have not reflected the kind of showing we wish to present to our attendees in these new markets."

GalaxyCon Milwaukee revealed that new dates for the show will be Friday, October 30, through Saturday, November 1 2026. Organizers are currently "renegotiating" with all of their guests who were planned for the 2025 event to appear next year, and promised to "announce additional guests with more details for the event as it draws near."

Image credit: GalaxyCon

The current government shutdown began October 1, 2025 after the U.S. Congress failed to pass appropriations legislation for fiscal year 2026. Roughly 900,000 federal employees were immediately furloughed, and close to two million additional employees continuing to work without pay; federal agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes for Health were immediately impacted with many non-essential programs put on pause, while the Treasury Department and Department of Education faced immediate layoffs as President Trump threatened to cut agencies that he considered "Democrat-oriented." No end to the shutdown, which is already the longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history, is in sight at time of writing.

Additionally, the shutdown has severely impacted air travel, with U.S. federal employees such as air traffic controllers and Transport Security Administration (TSA) agents missing paychecks as a result of the shutdown, leading to no-shows and staff shortages, which delay or derail travel plans entirely . As you might imagine, these delays could wreak havoc on a convention like GalaxyCon Milwaukee, as well as future conventions.

The Galaxycon organizers noted that they pride themselves "for never canceling an event and this was not a choice [they] made lightly." (Technically, the company cancelled GalaxyCon Raleigh in 2020 due to the COVID pandemic; it was initially rescheduled from July 2020 to December 2020, and then again from December 2020 until July 2021.)

It feels worth pointing out that the organizers write "with the current climate impacted our resources so heavily," suggesting that perhaps the pressure being felt extends beyond simply GalaxyCon Milkwaukee. Further support for that theory can be found when the statement reads, "the current climate has resulted in some creative adjustments to our events," plural, as opposed to one singular event.

For now, consider this not only a disappointment to fans in Milkwaukee, but potentially the start of a larger story down the line.

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Jules Chin Greene: Jules Chin Greene is a journalist and Jack Kirby enthusiast. He has written about comics, video games, movies, and television for sites such as Nerdist, AIPT, and Multiverse of Color.