Anthrocon 2024 Mega-Blog

Hello! I initially planned on doing a bit Experience Japan-inspired travel/event vlog of Anthrocon 2024, but… I very quickly realized that stopping to record the moment, just slowed it down and ruined it! So instead I decided to dedicate myself to doing a massive write-up instead! I took notes on what I did so I wouldn’t forget anything. Be warned, this beast was 14 pages in google docs!

This may be boring, but I thought it’d be nice to fully write down my memories of what I did at the con, and to show what goes on at furry conventions beyond the photoshoots and highlight reels you see on social media!

Questions welcome, in general and in case of confusion as I’m sure I casually refer to things that are obvious to furries but completely unknown to the common person.

Thursday

I arrived in Pittsburgh before check-in and went straight to the hotel, the Doubletree. I asked them to hold my luggage until check-in, but to my surprise they took my card and handed us the key cards early! Fine by me! We went up to the room and set our bags down and took a moment to rest and prep.

Registration lines opened at noon and we left at around 12:30. I had heard murmurings that some had lined up early and that the line was already big, but this was the longest I’ve ever seen it. In fact, maybe 6 times as big as I’d ever seen it. It wrapped around the building.

It took 3 hours to get through the entire line, it was terrible. The main line was entirely outside in the baking sun! Once we got inside, there was a massive empty room that was utterly wasted. They changed things up and started filling people into the massive room after a while. You know, while sitting in a chair in that room because That’s how long it took, I noticed flashing lights outside and a person in a stretcher being brought to the water station. I wonder if that influenced any decisions.

After all that, we went straight back to the hotel to get stuff for wandering around having fun. I ended up waiting a Long time for my roommates, and I’m wondering if maybe next year if I could implement a “I’m going, you catch up” policy without sounding rude. But I guess I had to wait anyways, because the hotel was… Pretty unhelpful with the fridge.

So, one of the roommates has a food allergy. He usually just packs his own food, and a lot of food free from this allergen needs refrigerated when the normal stuff doesnt. I called the hotel twice ahead of time to make sure they had a fridge for allergen-free food in our room.

We get there and… It’s a wine cooler… That is stuck at 44F. That is not a good safe temperature. I go down and say so and they say they’ll send a fridge back up. They… Send another wine cooler. This new one won’t go lower than 65F.

We gave up on the food and felt thankful that we simply brought stuff from home. At least, if we had left it at home, it would have gone bad in all that time in our normal fridge anyways…

I wanted to attend Historic Preservation in the Furry Fandom but it had already started by the time we were back in the hotel.

Moving on from that, I help my boyfriend carry some of his fursuits to the art show. Check-in was pretty disorganized, and I know they’re all volunteers doing this out of the goodness of their hearts, but I still won’t pretend it was perfect because of that. No hate or blame at all, just stating facts here. Next year if all goes well I plan to volunteer for Thursday registration staffing because yeah it’s only gonna get messier and that is actually a sign that we as attendees are not doing enough.

After leaving BF to set up his art at the show, I tried to join the opening ceremonies. The room was utterly stuffed with people that were overflowing into the main room. I could kind of peer in to almost see the stage, but I couldn’t hear shit, so I gave up on attending that real quick.

I went to Happy Birthday Godzilla! A Kaiju Celebration at 6. It was a fun silly panel with talking about the appeal of strange giant monsters, “hug or shrug” games, fun facts, some fun videos, and a charity auction at the end. There was a gigantic Godzilla inflatable in the room also. It’s always funny to see people online act like finding kaiju and inflatables hot is weird and then to be sitting in a room IRL and watch someone in a fursuit go “DADDY!!!!” and go hug the giant godzilla pool toy in pure joy.

(gif is the same inflatable at a different event)

My BF joined towards the end of the Godzilla panel and together we decided to go to Queer Furry After Dark: Comic (18+) at 7:30. It was pretty cool, it was cool to see Braeburned after… Perusing… All the porn he’s created. Not much more to say though as it was more of a general questions for all the artists type of thing.

Then at 8:30 I gave in and joined my friends at Atha Fox - Keep My Muzzle On: Album live performance. I was told this was a concert and knowing furries I assume it’s going to be some overstimulating electronic music being blared with a mosh pit, and I think that’s what my companions thought as well. Instead, we were greeted with a live acoustic performance that I really, really enjoyed. Listen to (and then buy) the album here!

I got a sticker of the album art, but I may cut it down around the character as I only put stickers on my water bottle and it’s just too big.

Oh yeah, Thursday was the 4th of July. It was kinda rainy, so I abandoned my initial plan of watching fireworks on the roof of the convention center. I saw some from my hotel room, but I didn’t really care for them. I don’t support US patriotism and fireworks are terrible for the local animals, but I can appreciate them in a nuanced way when I’m near them and can feel them reverberate through my chest. But in the hotel room, I felt nothin’.

I unfortunately had more hotel troubles after this. The AC was broken! We thought maybe it’d be fine since it was stuck at 68F, but it sure as fuck did not keep the room at 68, we were cooking. I stayed in an almost-asleep stupor for hours until someone decided to go down to the front desk and tell them about it and brought back up a box fan. I had no idea this even happened, all I remembered was I was struggling to sleep, and every time I shifted my legs to a part of the bed that my body heat hadn’t seeped into felt like pure Heaven, and then there were a bunch of noises and I growled at it, and then I was asleep.

Friday

I thought waking up at 10 am would be too early for a furry con but nah I actually consistently woke up at around 8 am the entire time. But yeah, at 10 I went to Trans Umbrella Furs! This panel was utterly packed and everyone was confused on why we got such a teeny tiny room. The room was so small that after the panelists introduced the meet and greet, we all dispersed into the hallway to actually have room to chat and mingle. There were free binders and a giveaway of some trans pin or something but I needn’t either so I just sat and talked. Mostly chatted with people I knew, but a few new people plopped down and joined out group which I greatly appreciated.

At 11 am I left the trans group early to attend What are Furry Visual Novels and How to Make Them. This panel was exceptional in how well thought-out and organized it was. While I’ll always enjoy some silly casual fun, this truly was super insightful and full of good information on furry visnovs as well as stuffed with recommendations.

I was expecting the “how” part to go into programs and coding but the advice was more like “You really shouldn’t learn and do it all on your own, you plan things out and commission artists writers and coders where needed.” instead. But that’s fine too!

Afterwards I went to the dealer’s den and browsed a bit. I hit the mature dealer’s section first because I was dying of curiosity as to what could be inside, and don’t worry, I’ll tell all!

It was very small, maybe like 10 vendors. There was:
- A vendor for leather collars, leashes, and other bondage gear.

- Lots and lots of NSFW prints and dakimuras with many a penis and pussy and boobs
- 14werewolves, notable for having a giant inflatable otter with a hole in the back, plush fursuit penises, jockstraps with images of furry sheaths on the front, inflatable tails, and even more dakis
- A vendor who sold super beautiful soft high quality shibari rope. I was very tempted, but I decided that that wasn’t something to impulse buy since I’m only half of the equation when it comes to using such things XD

There were no sex toys, aside from 14werewolves’ penetratable inflatables. Not a single dildo to be seen! I wonder if there could be some in the future?

Interestingly, there was actually NSFW feral prints and dakis at 1 vendor's stand. As I walked past, I was very surprised. And the people around me were too. There were some surprised and disapproving murmurs as people skipped over the stand. I didn’t think Anthrocon allowed such stuff, and it didn’t sound like the attendees wanted it too bad either.

Then I went off to the rest of the den and had a lot of fun browsing around a quarter of the space. I came in knowing I’d definitely buy the waterways shirt from Motel777. And that I did! I got the shirt, as well as a B-grade pin.

I like the shirt because it’s very aesthetic of course but I also really like the message. Obviously I don’t expect people dumping into rivers to look at this shirt and snap their fingers swiper no swiping style and change their ways, but maybe it’s just a bit thought provoking to make something think twice about not cleaning up after their picnic. Especially because I’ll definitely be wearing this while litter picking, maybe I can guilt some motherfuckers out of entitlement.

Then of course the snake in the boot I LOVE cowboy boots and I brought my cowboy boots with me and wore them for most of the days I adore them so of course I needed the snake cowboy boot pin.

I think around this point was also when I got a Natani pin from TwoKinds? I don’t have it written down and I forget when I did it, but I did! I felt freakin’ starstruck, it was kinda amusing to me how nervous I was approaching and purchasing from this furry comic artist.

I got the last pin of Natani sticking his tongue out, like, to the point where Tom had to take out the display copy and hand that to me. Does anyone else think Natani is like, unironically the best trans man representation in media? Like not fucking kidding at all because he’s the only trans guy that isn’t a transmedicalist or a kawaii softboi?

I was getting pretty damn hungry at this point though so I returned to the hotel alone and ate. I ended up just spending around two hours on my own as I rested and recharged, it honestly felt really good. I type it out flippantly but the stresses of Thursday are not to be understated, I really needed a moment of privacy and I’m glad I gave it to myself.

Eventually I went back out and met up with my BF at the art show and browsed a bit. Then, we went back to the dealer’s den but turns out there was only like 15 minutes left before it closed! We speedwalked around, trying to browse what we missed earlier before we had to leave. It was much less busy and we were able to view more until we were around ⅘ through the show.

We then went to a transformation panel, but I swear I can’t find the one we attended on Sched. It wasn’t the history one, it was one sort of just discussing transformation and how it ties to furries, therians, and the horror fan community. It was really fun though! I didn’t realize how much I enjoyed TF until the panel made me realize “Oh, wait, this wasn’t a universal feeling?”

After the TF panel my BF and I wandered around a bit and then we met Finn the Panther, which was really cool! I told him about how I appreciate that his videos are good intro to furry stuff, but also good on being a functional adult who’s also a furry, and also that he’s the reason why I had a credit card this convention because I’d been trying to get a card for awhile and I kept getting rejected and didn’t fully understand what I was doing and then his video helped me a lot and one of his recommendations worked for me!

Then, I split off alone again and went to Young at Heart: The Inner-Child Furs (18+). This one’s gonna be big, so big that it could easily be taken and reposted as its own essay. This is the last thing I did on Friday, so you can just skip all the way to the Saturday heading if need be.

To preface and give context: This is basically Anthrocon’s babyfur meet-up. Babyfurs are a highly controversial group of furries who may be known to age regress and draw their characters as babies in diapers. Many people allege that babyfurs are creepy, weird, and child predators. I heard accusations that Anthrocon is harboring and encouraging predators by allowing babyfurs to have these panels.

So, you’re saying these horrible things are happening right under your nose, and you’re too chickenshit to go look for youself to see if anything bad is actually happening?

Couldn’t be me.

So I attended. I had no idea what to expect. Could there be adults in diapers? Would people be crawling around on all fours going googoo gaga? Would they be sucking on pacifiers as I awkwardly wondered what led me there? Only one way to know. It was extremely strictly 18+ yet also extremely strictly nonsexual and SFW. The line was surprisingly massive. I wasn’t sure if that many people could even fit into the room. I got in line and quite quickly it grew so much behind me that I couldn’t see the end. For a moment, I considered jumping ship and leaving and finding my friend group, but I knew that this was something that I had wanted to do for a long time, I had to do it, I had to for myself and myself only.

Note that I’m going to avoid using exact quotes because I do not remember the exact wording used. This is all filtered through my own mind and interpretations and could be a bit off.

The line starts moving and I show my badge (the badges are color-coded, adults have green and minors have orange badges with MINOR in big print in front.) and file in. It was quite filled already, but I found a table with a few empty spots. I ask if I can sit there, was told yes, and so I did. I people watched a bit as everyone filled in, but no one was really doing anything yet as the doors were still opened and we all got into the room. It seemed my table was all friends already so  they stuck to themselves or stayed quiet.

Eventually another person came up and asked to sit next to me, as that was one of the few chairs left. I said yes and they sat down. They asked me a few questions, like what’s my name and how I’m doing. At one point I mentioned liking cats and said that I grew up with cats and would love to own one now as an adult, and they said something like, I wouldn’t say you’re an adult considering where you are now, or something like that. Which flabbergasted me because I had no way to respond without sounding super defensive. I kept trying to mention that I was an outsider observing but they didn’t quite get it yet.

Right after that the panel officially begins anyways. The speakers go over their rules and the plan for the evening. The rules were strict, keep it safe for work, and no fucking cameras. No phones at all. If you have to go to the bathroom, there’s gonna be a volunteer at the door who will crack the door to let you out then do so again to let you back in. Doors will stay utterly sealed to prevent troublemakers and minors from peering in and seeing what’s inside. They talked to us like we were children, too, of course.

Eventually the speakers asked that if you’ve been here before, raise your hand. Most raised their hand. I didn’t. The person I was with asked about it and how recent my interest in littling was and I was like no seriously I mean it I am a complete outsider and to be honest I keep hearing bad things about you guys so I wanted to come here and observe out of good faith curiosity. That’s when they started explaining a bit of their own personal motivation and feelings regarding age regression.

They were saying, with all the stresses of adult life, it’s good to be a kid again. To grab their plush toys and cuddle with them and talk to them. Interestingly, they had an issue where they couldn’t fully reach littlespace because they still have this voice in the back of their mind telling them that it’s humiliating and they look like an idiot. And I was like, I’d probably feel the same way, I don’t know if I could break through the shame like that. It was also like, if you had a bad childhood, you could reclaim it and relive it the way you wanted to.

Now, I was really feeling the energy in the room. I know my text comes across as flat, but I was feeling really emotional at this point. I was like, god, that must be really beautiful and cathartic, then. I said, as a trans man, I never got to be a boy. I had a shitty childhood no matter what and I was forcefully raised as the wrong gender. I almost teared up as I said I couldn’t imagine how healing it could feel to be able to go back and be a boy. Then, they said something like, you have to be a boy before you can be a man. And like. Yeah dude. Fuck.

The panelists handed out goodie bags to newcomers and prioritized those with physical disabilities who couldn’t walk up to retrieve their own bag, which was nice. I did not request a bag, I was curious as to its contents but I wanted people who wanted them to get them. I tried to peek at others and I think it contained extra crayons and stickers.

Some people were in little mode around us. They kinda babytalked, more like, kidtalked? Maybe at the level of a 5 year old? They colored with crayons and an example conversation would be “Oh, Bluey! I’m gonna get the Bingo sticker! …Hey, do you like Bluey? What’s your favorite episode? Mine’s the one with the magic asparagus!!”

They also handed out wristbands for everyone. The “crinkle” is in reference to the sound diapers make. I thought it was amusing to wear it myself. I’m doing it as a show of solidarity and safety to these people I realize are innocent victims of misunderstanding and hatred, plus, I think it’s funny that it implies I piss and/or shit my pants.

We try to find a way to stay in contact after this because they’ll need to leave early and we struggle because we can’t use our phones. But then, some of the age regressors at the table, who’d been talking simply like children and coloring and talking about Bluey, they push an empty sticker sheet and black crayon to us. I was surprised at how they could have overheard and idly followed the adult conversation and then responded to our needs like that. Perhaps I’m too used to petplay where being in puppymode means they don’t even talk, just act like a full-on dog. The new friend  wrote down one of their socials and gave me the sheet. 

Eventually my companion spotted on of their friends and decided to go sit with them, and invited me to come with, and I did. My new friend and this new person chatted a bit, and the new friend ended up asking some questions that I ought to have been asking instead, like what got the new person into the scene, etc. This new person mentioned going to other babyfur panels and despite the crowding having a great fun time.

The panel runners get our attention again and begin to read a Sesame Street children’s book about love. It was honestly super fun and amusing to be in a room of people getting hyped as fuck over Elmo saying love comes in all shapes and sizes.

But during this book reading, the new friend, who has mentioned a lot that they’re very cuddly, and they ask for consent to cuddle up with me. I say yes, though I say I probably won’t be able to reciprocate. They say something like, that’s okay, just accepting it and staying comfortable is what matters. Something like that.

I didn’t expect the intensity of the cuddles. Most furries say they’re cuddly, but really they mean they’re touch-starved and think they’re insane for wanting to hug someone once a day. But this person was genuinely a cuddler. Hugging me, resting their head on my shoulder, scritching my back. They referred to me as a cat and a catboy, which I did like, kinda gender affirming not gonna lie. But the touch was a lot, and so I got a bit nervous at this point, but I always get nervous when I’m touched by someone for the first time. Like, listen I’m fucked up, it took months for me to cuddle with my own boyfriend, and during that I felt like my entire body went numb, so do note that there’s a reason why I powered through it, because I know I just react really weirdly to being touched. They also mentioned that there was a massive all-day every-day babyfur room party somewhere, and that I’m invited to come with them, and it’s like, shit, how massive is this silent community?

The new friend asks what I’m doing after this and when I said I plan on going to sleep after this panel they respond with disappointment and say they would’ve wanted to cuddle with me more after. And y’know this is where I start to side eye. They scritch my back a bit lower, NOT on my lower back, but on my middle back, and I start to get freaked out more. I start panicking thinking I’m leading them on, that I’ve dumbly walked into a situation where I’m pseudo-cheating on my BF and when they mention hanging out and cuddling again I start being like “Hey, in regards to intimacy…” to give some boundaries on touch and then they’re like oh wait no no stop I keep that and this fully separate, completely different things, miles apart, no offense but I don’t know you at all. And then I’m like, oh shit yeah no I was gonna say I have a BF and I’m monogamous thank god! I feel a lot better at this point after communicating that.

They have to leave to go to another panel and we say goodbye and then I turn my attention to the rest of my motley crew that we’ve assembled, from friends of friends meeting up then the original friend leaving resulting in a group of strangers chatting with each other just because that’s where we’re at. The people I’m with, we’re all adultmode talking as adults, about how we’ve all made our fursuits, edits we wanna make, how we named and designed our characters, etc.

This was towards the end of the panel anyways. As stated earlier in the evening, the panlists were gonna read some adult parodies of children’s books. At the time, I had no clue what this meant. But it turns out it was just shit like Brenda’s Beaver Needs A Barber. I believe a few more were read after that, but I left at this point. It was funny, but everyone else was leaving, and I was still residually freaked out and needed to write down my thoughts. I got back to my hotel room, made a 15 minute voice memo about the day's events (which was used to write this) and then conked out.

Saturday

Back to the den to finish browsing all the aisles. I spotted a shirt that said “I passed the Harkness Test” and I got a strong impulse to buy it, though I tried to ignore it. I walked out of the dealer’s den and then as we stopped to chat I was like, nah, be right back guys, I gotta go get it.

It’s just so cheeky and funny, sorry! It’s like, haha, what if I was the fuckable monster? Plus, it’s subtle. You need to know a bit about monsterfucking to know what the harkness test is, really.

I ran back out to my friends and my BF and I split off to get food. We went to Sushi Kim 2, which was way farther away from the convention center than we initially thought. But still, we finished out trek and walked in. I got freaked out because I saw that they had no public restrooms, and the thing is, sorry, TMI, but I got bathroom problems. I am most calm when I have easy access to a bathroom. Things turn into a stressful countdown til we leave otherwise. But, thankfully, this was a very nice quiet place with super fast service. I got a california roll, for sushi taste without the raw fish anxiety. There’s only 2 sushi places that I trust raw fish from, and it took a lot of dine-ins and anxiety to gain that trust for those places. The roll was delicious, and even had some roe (fish eggs) on it! It was nice to get a real meal after eating my packed snacks this whole time. I have a lot of food anxiety, related to the bathroom problems, so I prefer my own trusted foods, but this was lovely.

After we returned to the convention center we lined up for the fursuit parade at 1:15. It was pretty overwhelming, and I took an anxiety pill over it. Thankfully, we were towards the front of the line, so we got to go around 40 minutes into the parade. Others had to wait like 3 hours.

Man, I dunno how people can do so much running and fun and crowdwork during the parade. I feel like just walking requires so much focus. Gotta keep track of the people in front of you since someone will inevitably stop in front of you and you dont wanna trip on them, plus watching both sides of the crowd to be sure you engage with everyone, because sometimes there’s spots that get ignored.

Here’s some timestamped embeds of my BF (black red and gold boar-dragon) and I (red and blue kangaroo) in the parade.

 

 

 

This parade was kinda… Messy. Lots of gaps, which I don’t think were the fursuiters fault, it sure felt like they kept stopping and staggering the line on purpose for no reason, plus in a lot of these clips you can see film crews standing in the middle of the path straight up blocking some suiters.

But, aside from that, fun awesome parade! I realized my neck zipper was open but thankfully it isn't noticeable at all.

Right after this I went straight to the Inflatable Zoo! I made sure to get lots of pictures and videos because I like to post such things to objectum spaces because I like that they like these.

 

After getting my videos and pictures I decided to put my phone down and just… Play! I was too nervous to sit on or really mess with any of the inflatables but I browsed them and touched them a lot, it was fun! It’d be fun to have a pool toy of my own to ride and play with without fear of popping someone else’s possession.

Our time had to stay brief, however, as at 4 pm we went to the Unpawsed Podcast Panel, which is for the podcast hosted by my close real life friends. I’m incredibly happy and proud of how much engagement the panel got and how smoothly they handled it, it was amazing. What an incredible feeling it is to look around the crowd and see all of my local fur friends showing up to support a mutual friend of all of ours.

Fun fact, the Anthrocon panel was actually recorded live and uploaded as an episode that you can listen to here! I asked a question, so I can be heard somewhere in this recording…

The panel ended at the perfect time, as at 5:30 we were seated and watching Floor Wars. This is a group dance battle and is always a good time, and a great warm-up before the main competition the next day. Had a good time, chilling and watching the dancing. A friend who wasn’t originally planning on attending the convention showed up and vibed with us as we watched!

After floor wars, my BF and I split off to eat at the hotel. I split off from him and went to the 7/11 built into the hotel and got myself a treat, some cup noodles (in the microwavable paper cup) and a root beer. A massive thank you to the cashier who asked if I needed a fork, I genuinely would’ve had to drink my noodles or eat by hand if he hadn’t reminded me. We really do take eating utensils for granted, I hadn’t even fathomed that I couldn’t eat some of the foods I packed because they needed bowls and forks.

After fueling up, BF and I went to the puppyplay meet and greet. I always love people watching at these things. I always like to watch the pups play and toss toys back to them when they inevitably kick them out of the play area. Sometimes I cause chaos on purpose by taking a toy near the edge and tossing it in the middle of a circle of pups, guaranteeing them going nuts for it and causing a ruckus!

And by play area, I mean, you know those puzzle-piece like foam mats people put on floors? There was a big square of those, and a bunch of dog toys and balls in the middle, and if you took your shoes off you could crawl around and play on it.

Lots of friends here, but all were too nervous to play with the pups for too long. I ended up losing track of them because they left the play pile early while I was still eagerly watching the pups and tossing toys to them. When it comes to engaging with pups, I prefer to stay human and tend to them and watch them and soak up the vibes that way. I think going animalmode would be fun in a therian way, but I’m quite happy with what I do now.

There were periods of the panelists talking and taking questions, usually about where to get hoods, when its appropriate to be puppy mode in public (which got a nuanced answer I appreciate, that being “well dont fuck in front of somebody in a public bus but if you’re just walking down the street in your hood you’re fine and you’re also fine if you’re doing pup stuff in a big park where people aren’t around and if people do approach they’re totally free to keep walking, etc.”)

One of the panelists seemed familiar to me, and when she asked a pup for consent for a demonstration and started demonstrating certain touches on them, I realized… I’m pretty sure this was the person that did shibari on me last year. Last year, during a shibari watch and learn panel, she saw my group was struggling to get the ties right and came up and offered to tie me up and use me as an example, and made special notes on how to avoid pressure points and where to position the body. I felt a little shy after this realization.

But anyways, after my friends got shy and disengaged, I went and checked in on them and they decided they were gonna go do the dances as per usual. I, satisfied with my people-watching for the day, walked along with them until it was time to split and go to the hotel.

Speaking of returning to the hotel, can I just say I LOVE the shuttle service? Credit where credit is due, it’s amazing! There were MULTIPLE buses for all the different hotels, and each bus had a route of 2-3 hotels, so the circuit was only like 10 minutes with low traffic, I loved it. I took the shuttles to and from as often as I could, though sometimes I walked when I had energy and was impatient. The Doubletree isn’t far, but it sure as shit isn’t close either, so I really loved it.

Sunday

I didn’t have much planned for this day, so we lined up for the dance competition early ‘cause why not. While in line, we saw Telephone! Telephone is an absolutely classic popular furry, she was super active 10ish years ago in 2014 and such. She’s known for using a bird call to vocalize as her cute Dutch Angel Dragon character. I think she’s a master of character acting, a trait I greatly admire as someone who blanks and constantly flubs when performing in suit.

She is absolutely the reason why I became a furry, and it was amazing seeing the reason why I’m at a con… Right in front of me at the con! I chose not to bother her for a picture or anything, as she already had a crowd and I was satisfied just seeing her without talking or getting a picture.

While in the line, someone also came up and was handing out the acrylic fursuiter badges for this year. See, they have these badges every year and they’re free but it’s up to you to go fetch one for yourself, and I just never remembered to do so when I had the time to do it, so this was super great, I’m thankful I was able to get one for this year!

Eventually, we file in and get to the Dance Competition, we had amazing seats! Like, we could actually see the stage and the dancers! Normally we just have to view the giant screens streaming what the camera’s up front see, but not this time!

It was super fun, the dances were AMAZING this year. We’ve reached the point where every single contestant is an incredibly skilled dancer, and now the only thing that gives one and edge over the other is having juuuust a bit more polish and mastery of the craft. Watch the vid I linked for yourself!

After the dance I moved to the headless lounge (place full of fans and cold water with no cameras allowed, for fursuiters to sit down and rest and cool off in private) and chatted with friends. I informed them on what the Young at Heart panel was like. Then, we went up to the art show to check if any of my BF’s fursuits had gotten bids, and one did! They stayed in the auction line for a bit, but when I heard some con staff saying that they needed a wrangler to thin out the crowd of people lingering, I decided that was my sign to go off on my own for a bit since I didn’t need to be there during auction pick up.

I wandered the dealer’s den just a bit more, checking if there were any last purchases I wanted to make, but nah, I was quite satisfied. Then I went to the roof with some friends and vibed for a bit, ate some snacks, people watched even more. After some waiting, I met back up with my BF to help him carry his unsold fursuits back to the hotel. We decided that, since it was 5 as we walked out of the art show, that we should see if we can squeeze into the Closing Ceremonies. We’re forced to stand, but we squeeze in, suitcase full of fursuits and all. Exhausting!

Bomb Voyage entered later than us and there was a noticeable murmur of “oh no” and “uh oh”s all around, including from me. If you don’t know, this person is cosplaying the character Bomb Voyage and was in a massive controversy for taking a realistic prop gun and pointing it at crowds. That said, they caused no issues this time, and watched while miming looking through binoculars and a telescope, etc.

Anthrocon beat the world record yet again and 2024 is officially the biggest furry convention in the world at 17,639 attendees.

I was feeling really exhausted and ragged at this point, so after the closing ceremonies let out, BF and I sat in a hallway and people watched for what felt like maybe 30-40 minutes. It was nice to sit back and watch the fursuiters go by as the crowd streamed out. A lot of people leave after the closing ceremonies, because there’s nothing else to do after this! There’s a dance that’s open til midnight, but aside from that, the con is over!

To save him from yet another trip, I took the fursuit suitcase onto the shuttle and back to the hotel room myself. I kinda thought I’d maybe get in my fursuit one last time and just walk around the con center myself, but nah, I never regained my energy. I packed up our stuff and went to sleep.

Monday

I woke up feeling no better, in fact even worse, on Monday. It was clear I was physically exhausted and my immune system was trying and failing to fight something off with what little energy and nutrients I had in me. I couldn’t comfortably stand for very long, and even sitting upright felt like too much.

While in the hotel lobby preparing to check out, someone came up and handed my group tiny plastic balls filled with tiny plastic ducks.

Back to feeling shitty and standing in the hotel lobby, this sorry state ruined plans with friends, as due to very complicated reasons if I went home early then others did too, which meant one friend would be alone in the city for 6 hours until their bus came. After a long time of hashing of plans, we figured something out. I will not detail the plan, as it’s just a whole lot of public transit and getting picked up by people and dropped off here and there. Basically, I went to my MILs while everyone else vibed in the nearby shopping center. I laid in the guest bed for a few hours, then came back up to the shopping center to pick my BF up after he saw the friends off to the start of their public transit chain home. Then he drove us home, and thankfully, yeah, HOME!

I think we got home at around 4 or 5 pm. I laid right back down in bed and stayed there and then called off my Tuesday work shift when I realized I was not getting any better.

Tuesday

Today! Now that my body actually had the rest and nutrients it needed, I’m feeling way better. I’m pretty stuffy and generally malaise and my joint pain is flaring up, but that’s fine. Today is my rest day, and the perfect day to spend a few hours going through my notes and photos to write this beast of a fucking post up! Now, I masked up the entire time, and I was wearing a real N95, but still, yeah, damn, caught some sort of cold that was made horrific by lack of food and rest. It should also be noted that I have some sort of joint issues. I’m not in constant pain anymore due to purposefully doing lots of endurance and low-impact exercises, and despite how weak I sound for being exhausted by spending a few days walking, just know that this is actually a massive improvement for me! I can’t believe how much more fit I am than I was last year, what an incredible success!

Notes to self for next time, maybe notes for you too?

- Bring safety pins. We all needed safety pins. None of us had safety pins.
- I’m going to fasten my badges to my belt instead of using a lanyard, because man lanyards are kind of annoying. They’re always flopping around, it makes it harder to adjust my shirt collar and necklace, having the badges in front blocks the designs of my shirt, and also the badges are at the perfect height to flop into the sink when I’m washing my hands.
- Don’t trust hotels to provide fridges. If you need cold food, go out and buy it after seeing that they do indeed have a fridge and that that fridge is 40F.
- Bring nail clippers. My nails grow fast and I was very quickly embarrassed about my messy unkempt nails.
- Bring utensils and bowls, maybe? Or buy plastic ones when in town??
- Bring ear plugs for events like the dance competition, these things are a lot louder than I remember.
- If bringing luggage into convention center, put bright colored warning labels on them, because a fursuiter tripped on our black suitcase that we had to carry through the con center. After this, I tried to have someone standing behind the suitcase so it was like an oversized load escort, but yeah.
- More microwave food, if hotel has microwave. Packing quick meals is a lifesaver, but more quick meals that were HOT would’ve been amazing.
- I was a fucking genius for bringing one of those squirt bottles that have highly concentrated electrolyte drinks in them. It was so light and made a ton of electrolyte-drink for us to replenish fluids lost from fursuiting. Instead of packing and buying a full gase of Gatorades, just one squirt bottle was flawless.
- The water bottle is always the most cumbersome thing to bring along, I’m really wondering if there’s anything I can do to make it easier. Some days, the water bottle is the only reason why I had a backpack rather than my thigh bag.
- Please be braver. There were so many times I could’ve reached out and met someone new and I just ignored it.

But yeah, that’s about it. I had an amazing time, and I’m so happy that I’m finally breaking into the local furry scene and making some friends of my own. I’ve gone to a LOT of furry things for years, and it’s taken me all this time to finally find my group, and now that I’ve found it, I’m excited to see that I’m integrating into it. I wanted to go to at least one of the furry history panels, but I couldn't fit a single one into my schedule, and I wanted to buy some furry xenofiction books but they were all expensive as hell like I'm not paying $30 for a paperback, but aside from that, I'd say I hit my goals for the con, and in the end I didn't particularly have that many goals aside from talk to people and have fun, which I sure did!

 

Wednesday Edit: So it turns out the con crud was COVID-19, oopsie! Thank goodness I, 1. Was masked the entire time, 2. Sanitized my hands regularly, and 3. Only became sick towards the end. I am glad to know I didn't spread it nearly as far as I could have otherwise. I've alerted everyone I was around so, yeah, that's an update alright lmao

Originally written/posted on July 9, 2024 on Dreamwidth. Reposted to Neocities on July 15, 2024.

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