FA+
Shop
FurtherConfusion Dance schedules **DJS ANNOUNCED**
14 years ago
PS 20 : nameicon : limit is LAME.
The biggest challenge to any Furry Convention dance, in my opinion is: programming. I am in no way suggesting that the AV sound/lighting crew do any less than the programming. They are intrinsic to the entire event and are often times some of the hardest working people at the convetions, sacrificing running around with their friends to man the event. But, the lighting and sound stays static no matter what type of music is on, it gets set up once, and torn down once, and typically needs 1-3 skilled people (depending on duration) to run it during the event.
At an event like FC, programming becomes a huge factor. Not only are there 5 nights, but two of them have 2 rooms, so we have 7 total dances.
Now factor in that the furry fandom is comprised of SO many people from so many different walks of life and such a wide variety of music tastes that a huge challenge is to appeal to everyone.
Now I've only been in the fandom for about 6 months now, but FC will be the second convention I have had the honor and privilage of booking djs and programing dances for, and for both of them (RainFurrest 2010 & FurtherConfusion 2011) there has been heavy emphasis on ensuring that the more mainstream genres of music (pop/hiphop/disco/funk/rock/etc) have a more impactful pressence at the dances. However, there is also a significant portion of the fandom that does like electronic music from dancable remix house (most common) to some of the harder styles (more niche).
Most DJs, myself included, are very heavy into electronic music and rightly so. Electronic music is designed for DJs to mix. As such its a bit more difficult to find DJs who can cater to that mainstream crowd. A few djs have stepped up and offered to play a mainstream set.
Another limiting factor for me has been a more personal one, that being a lack of network. Being new to the fandom, I simply don't know all of the DJs and what they play yet. To date I've met everyone through friends of friends or through my post in the FC forums.
The next challenge is deciding on a format for each of the rooms each night. 3 of the nights we only have 1 room. Which means that other than room parties, furs have only one option for music/dancing those nights. In an effort to appeal to the MOST people possible (cause lets face it, we'll NEVER make EVERYONE completely happy) at any given time, those nights have to be a bit more mainstream, well with the exception of the Dead Dog as that's just... well whoever's still around. With the remaining 2 nights (Saturday & Sunday) having 2 rooms each, I figured I should alternate styles that way if someone wasnt feeling one room, they'd have an option in the other room. Being as though Saturday night is the bigger of the two nights, I decided to push a more mainstream sound Saturday night in the Imperial Ballroom with some harder music in Club Regent, then flipping and going a bit harder in the main room Sunday night with a more chilled out danceable vibe in Club regent the next. Once the general format of the nights was hashed out, I was then able to name the dances.
Special thanks to
zato_dragon 
thumper for naming a few of the dances, and MANY more thanks to thumper for helping me hash out the formmating.
Special promotional thanks go to
ratherdashing1121 for spreading the word and introducing me to so many rad furs and fur djs.
After the formatting stage was done, now comes the REALLY fun part. ACTUALLY scheduling the djs in their timeslots.
First one must figure out which djs will fit together on which nights. As a promoter AND a DJ myself the way I plan time slots, is the same I would plan out a mix. I plan for the music to progress through out the night, and have a sense of continuity which means I wont be dropping a House DJ followed by a Hardcore DJ followed by a breaks DJ. Slower BPM genres will typically be scheduled earlier in the night with faster genres towards the end/closing. It just makes sense and provides a a natural eb and flow to the night which should please the audience.
Next take into account that A) there will only be 1 set of CD turntables and 1 set of vinyl turntables at the convention, ergo I have to make sure that the CDJs or the vinyl turntables are scheduled in both rooms at the same time. Fortunately in this instance, a lot of djs in the fandom play off of laptops. Still a conflict arose that I had to deal with that I had to change around things to make the equipment work in each room.
Now take consider that most people are traveling to come out and are at the mercy of their flights and are on limited availability, and those who are local likely have to work on a few of the days. Due to that, some people are more, or less, available than others and in order to get everyone involved some concessions have to be made to allow those with limited availability to play when they can, and a reliance on those with greater availability to play more than one set.
Then another factor that also must be considered is draw. That is, the level of recognition djs have and whether or not people will be drawn to the dance to see them. A balance must be found here to incorporate both established DJs in the fandom to draw people in and more inexperienced DJs to give them more exposure.
Also keep in mind that Club Regent MUST close at 2am. However, I have been informed by the powers that be that if we still retain a dance floor in the Imperial Ballroom to that point it can remain open. How late? That wasn't mentioned but my goal is to maintain a dancefloor as long as possible and keep it open until Con staff or the hotel forces us to stop.
I've sought in all of this to find a good balance of draw, flow and musical continuity while also working around availability and equipment scheduling.
Now I know that this isn't going to please everyone, and it may even piss some people off. But my goal isn't to come in and make friends or influence people, but to deliver the best musical experience any con dance has had. And I think, with the resources presented to me I have done the best possible.
A post-con evaluation of the nights as a whole, what worked and what didn't as well as reviewing each of the DJs will be solicited. First from all of you and then a questionnaire and poll will be put up online after the con to solicit feedback from the attendees as well.
The biggest challenge to any Furry Convention dance, in my opinion is: programming. I am in no way suggesting that the AV sound/lighting crew do any less than the programming. They are intrinsic to the entire event and are often times some of the hardest working people at the convetions, sacrificing running around with their friends to man the event. But, the lighting and sound stays static no matter what type of music is on, it gets set up once, and torn down once, and typically needs 1-3 skilled people (depending on duration) to run it during the event.
At an event like FC, programming becomes a huge factor. Not only are there 5 nights, but two of them have 2 rooms, so we have 7 total dances.
Now factor in that the furry fandom is comprised of SO many people from so many different walks of life and such a wide variety of music tastes that a huge challenge is to appeal to everyone.
Now I've only been in the fandom for about 6 months now, but FC will be the second convention I have had the honor and privilage of booking djs and programing dances for, and for both of them (RainFurrest 2010 & FurtherConfusion 2011) there has been heavy emphasis on ensuring that the more mainstream genres of music (pop/hiphop/disco/funk/rock/etc) have a more impactful pressence at the dances. However, there is also a significant portion of the fandom that does like electronic music from dancable remix house (most common) to some of the harder styles (more niche).
Most DJs, myself included, are very heavy into electronic music and rightly so. Electronic music is designed for DJs to mix. As such its a bit more difficult to find DJs who can cater to that mainstream crowd. A few djs have stepped up and offered to play a mainstream set.
Another limiting factor for me has been a more personal one, that being a lack of network. Being new to the fandom, I simply don't know all of the DJs and what they play yet. To date I've met everyone through friends of friends or through my post in the FC forums.
The next challenge is deciding on a format for each of the rooms each night. 3 of the nights we only have 1 room. Which means that other than room parties, furs have only one option for music/dancing those nights. In an effort to appeal to the MOST people possible (cause lets face it, we'll NEVER make EVERYONE completely happy) at any given time, those nights have to be a bit more mainstream, well with the exception of the Dead Dog as that's just... well whoever's still around. With the remaining 2 nights (Saturday & Sunday) having 2 rooms each, I figured I should alternate styles that way if someone wasnt feeling one room, they'd have an option in the other room. Being as though Saturday night is the bigger of the two nights, I decided to push a more mainstream sound Saturday night in the Imperial Ballroom with some harder music in Club Regent, then flipping and going a bit harder in the main room Sunday night with a more chilled out danceable vibe in Club regent the next. Once the general format of the nights was hashed out, I was then able to name the dances.
Special thanks to
zato_dragon 
thumper for naming a few of the dances, and MANY more thanks to thumper for helping me hash out the formmating.Special promotional thanks go to
ratherdashing1121 for spreading the word and introducing me to so many rad furs and fur djs.After the formatting stage was done, now comes the REALLY fun part. ACTUALLY scheduling the djs in their timeslots.
First one must figure out which djs will fit together on which nights. As a promoter AND a DJ myself the way I plan time slots, is the same I would plan out a mix. I plan for the music to progress through out the night, and have a sense of continuity which means I wont be dropping a House DJ followed by a Hardcore DJ followed by a breaks DJ. Slower BPM genres will typically be scheduled earlier in the night with faster genres towards the end/closing. It just makes sense and provides a a natural eb and flow to the night which should please the audience.
Next take into account that A) there will only be 1 set of CD turntables and 1 set of vinyl turntables at the convention, ergo I have to make sure that the CDJs or the vinyl turntables are scheduled in both rooms at the same time. Fortunately in this instance, a lot of djs in the fandom play off of laptops. Still a conflict arose that I had to deal with that I had to change around things to make the equipment work in each room.
Now take consider that most people are traveling to come out and are at the mercy of their flights and are on limited availability, and those who are local likely have to work on a few of the days. Due to that, some people are more, or less, available than others and in order to get everyone involved some concessions have to be made to allow those with limited availability to play when they can, and a reliance on those with greater availability to play more than one set.
Then another factor that also must be considered is draw. That is, the level of recognition djs have and whether or not people will be drawn to the dance to see them. A balance must be found here to incorporate both established DJs in the fandom to draw people in and more inexperienced DJs to give them more exposure.
Also keep in mind that Club Regent MUST close at 2am. However, I have been informed by the powers that be that if we still retain a dance floor in the Imperial Ballroom to that point it can remain open. How late? That wasn't mentioned but my goal is to maintain a dancefloor as long as possible and keep it open until Con staff or the hotel forces us to stop.
I've sought in all of this to find a good balance of draw, flow and musical continuity while also working around availability and equipment scheduling.
Now I know that this isn't going to please everyone, and it may even piss some people off. But my goal isn't to come in and make friends or influence people, but to deliver the best musical experience any con dance has had. And I think, with the resources presented to me I have done the best possible.
A post-con evaluation of the nights as a whole, what worked and what didn't as well as reviewing each of the DJs will be solicited. First from all of you and then a questionnaire and poll will be put up online after the con to solicit feedback from the attendees as well.
THURSDAY NIGHT
The Meow Mixer (Opening Night Dance) CLUB REGENT 9-2
Get your groove on immediately after opening ceremonies! Reconnect with old friends while making some new ones on the dance floor! MIX IT UP!
DJs:
Ikkuma
Akonite
AudioDile
Jango
Freefox
FRIDAY NIGHT
Suit & Shred (The Fursuit Dance Competition) - IMPERIAL BALLROOM 8-9
Our annual Fursuit Dance competition finally has a name! Show us what you've got!! Suit up and shred that dancefloor!
**CONTESTANTS SHOULD BRING A SONG OF THEIR CHOICE ON CD, IPOD OR USB STICK, IF ITS ON IPOD OR USB SHOW UP EARLY**
Suit & Strut - IMPERIAL BALLROOM 9-2
Keeping the night going after our in-suit dance competition Suit & Shred, the Suit & Strut dance is for everyone regardless of your competitive dancing nature. Come shake your tail to a mix of 70s,80s,90s & 2000s disco/funk/pop/hip hop & rock for most of the night, migrating i8nto house music late night.
DJs:
Razor
&
Crouching Tiger Kicking Rabbit
DJ Firr
Recca
(electro house debut set)
CATURDAY NIGHT
Animal House - IMPERIAL BALLROOM 10-2
Saturday night comes at you with finest DJs the Furry Fandom has to offer playing the best in house, progressive, and trance music! Suit if you want, just come and rock out if you dont. The beat, the lights, the bass... come celebrate the power of the music!
DJs:
AudioDile
EarVelvet
NeonBunny
Electrofuzz - CLUB REGENT 10-2
Need your electronic fix? Try to keep your fur on until you make it through the door! 4 full hours of Dubstep, DnB and Electronic goodness!
DJs:
My Pet Rhino
Mr. Rush
TekFox
DJ Mixer
SUNDAY NIGHT
Fur the Record - IMPERIAL BALLROOM 10-2
Back again, some of the fandom's best DJs taking you on a journey from the hottest in todays electro house, dubstep on up through hard dance and hardstyle, into Drum and Bass. Raverfurs, get your fix of 140 BPM beats here. Fursuiters welcomed but cautioned: dancing to elevated tempos can cause overheating. Practice Safe Suiting, STAY COOL and hydrated.
DJs:
Akonite
Shiranui
Tigon
DJ Kahyote
Hoppy Hour - CLUB REGENT 10-2
Burning electronic not your thing? If the main theater doesn’t collapse into the Club Regent, join in an evening of popular dance, house, progressive and easy trance to sway and swing your weekend away.
DJs:
TheFunkyqwhilla
Crowley
Freefox
Ikkuma
MONDAY NIGHT
Dead Dog Dance - CLUB REGENT 7-MIDNIGHT
Thy end is near, but the music doesn’t stop until midnight! Expect anything, and you will get all that you expect as a cadre of Furry DJ’s keep the volume at 11 until midnight!
DJs:
Razor
Crowley
Jango
Shiranui
and/or... whoever is still standing and able to mix.
I can't see the 15 comments D:
Anyhow, I love the level of detail and communication you present here, the links to DJ's pages from right in the schedule is great, and the plan for switching up the styles between the rooms each weekend night sound like it'll give people some good variety. It seems like you've put a lot of thought and dedication into giving this con a killer set of dances! Meow mixer rofl... Can't wait till the 13th.