IQA World Cup 2023 Location Announced
The International Quidditch Association (IQA) recently announced the new location for the most important event in the Muggle quidditch community. IQA World Cup 2023 will be held in Richmond, Virginia.
It’s not the first time that this event should have been held there. IQA World Cup 2020 was intended to be held in Richmond before it was postponed to summer 2021 and later postponed again.
In June 2020, questions were raised about whether or not Richmond would be the right place for the event. Jamie Lafrance wrote an open letter to the IQA in which he asked the organization to relocate the IQA World Cup because of safety concerns for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, people of color) people associated with the organization and in attendance.
The IQA later created its own BIPOC Committee. This committee evaluated all possible locations for IQA-hosted events with regard to safety, accessibility, and inclusivity.
After considering all the data and having a conversation with Richmond Regional Tourism, the IQA BIPOC Committee has come to the conclusion that Richmond, Virginia, and more specifically Henrico County, is an acceptable event site for IQA-hosted events. The committee believes that Richmond, Virginia, not only displayed the necessary minimum criteria for a quidditch event of an international scale but [also] sets a model that other event locations should look to meet in their presentation of event bids.
With this announcement, the IQA not only shared the news about the location but also confirmed that the IQA World Cup will take place in 2023. The last news about an IQA-hosted event was about the IQA Continental Games. It should have been organized next month, but it was canceled in February.
Since then, it was clear that another IQA event would be held in 2022, but it wasn’t clear which one. There were suggestions that the IQA Continental Games would be held in 2022 and the IQA World Cup would be held in 2023. Now, it’s confirmed.
The choice to host the event in 2023 was made primarily due to the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the safety and athletic preparation of national teams, as well as travel restrictions for our members. With this decision, we also want to give our national governing bodies sufficient time to return to play safely and plan to attend the event.
