Me,
Kabier: &
Bleaksteadtler drove up north this weekend to have our first furry camp experience courtesy of
Camp Feral! For it's 20th anniversary they had 3 Guests Of Honor, one of which was Kabs!
It was our first time attending so the experience was very new. The best way I could describe it is taking many of the elements you may enjoy from standard furry cons, seamlessly mashed with a get-away vacation. Everything is payed for in the price of admission, which is super refreshing when regular cons can quickly add up in the hundreds when accounting for hotel bills, restaurants and utilities in-between. You get 4 generous buffet style meals a day with as many servings as you can muster, and all activities are open pretty much all day with no time limit on how long you can enjoy them.
There were plenty of fun scheduled events occurring every day and all announcements occur during food time so you never need to exert yourself to stay informed. We found it was way easier socializing in a camp setting as games heavily encourage verbal participation, whereas in a normal con there are far less ice-breakers. This was also apparently the first year that the whole camp grounds had cell reception so you can still check twitter and do all that millennial shit we depend on these days. We didn't lose our GPS even while driving 20 minutes into the forest so getting there was pretty easy.
The only real downside I could mention is this year was a bit chilly and most of the standard cabins don't have heating, so prepare to bring a thick extra thicc blanket/sleeping bag. We were privileged to get a fancy cabin being the GOH that had it's own privacy, heating, shower and bathroom. We let
Bleaksteadtler sleep on the floor as he registered late, getting paired with the snoring group lol. You can request a cabin with friends or with less people to avoid that issue. Overall the experience was very visually stunning and the social atmosphere was warming and welcoming to all. We're not 100% sure yet if we'll attend next year, but it's definitely something we want to attend anytime we get that itch to do some archery, jump in a river and pull up a seat for some tabletop games without distraction.
I have too many shoutouts to make without getting obnoxious, so I'd just like to thank all staff and everyone we had the pleasure of meeting over the course of weekend. If you attended and either didn't get the chance to come chat with ur or simply would like to stay in contact,
Hit me up on Twitter! You can also check out some tweets by others on the
Official Camp Feral Twitter.