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My NordicFuzzCon 2023 Experience
2 years ago
NordicFuzzCon 2020 was over and I remember thinking “This is the best furry convention in the world!” and my plans for coming back again next year for 3rd time were no questionable. But of course we could never predicted the situation of the upcoming years in the world. 2021 and 2022 physical editions were postponed. After 3 years of waiting I could go back to Sweden to enjoy this amazing event. But I ended up having so many inconveniences during my trip that changed many of my original plans.
As an overview: my hype for NFC was not underrated, I had a lot of fun and I definitely still consider it my personal favorite furry convention! They really put a lot of love to this convention and I got to see friends who I was missing so much. And this trip brought me lot of personal knowledge and lessons.
Houston, we have a problem
My trip didn’t start in a good way. My plan was arriving from Guadalajara, Mexico to Prague, Czechia. Having 2 layovers in between: to Houston, USA and Frankfurt, Germany.
But it is from my very first stop, in Houston, when the bad luck attacked me: my flight was slightly delayed, not on a worrying way, despite knowing I had a connection, but I tried to get out from the plane as quick as possible and I run to be one of the firsts ones in my plane to get in line for US customs, and I’m very sure I was! The problem was at arriving to customs and seeing this 3 kilometers zigzag queue, and I only had 1 hour 20 minutes before the boarding gate of my next flight opened. I was thinking to talk with a guard to tell him my situation, but just when I was approaching to one of them, another group in front of me told them they had exactly the same situation than me, but even worse to them because their flight was in 30 minutes, but the guard told them that they had to do the queue as the same of the people there, I remember he yelled: “France, China, Germany… everyone here has connections, too!”
I can’t lie, many of the problems I got to live in this trip that I will tell on this journal were very manageable, I’m kind of proud how patient I am and how easy would have been for many people to get stressed for any of the situations but I was not. But…those were the 2 most stressful hours on this trip! Not being able to do much, just standig up in an endless queue, surrounded by more stressed people, and watching the time running. To add even more stress, I received a notification on my phone “The boarding for your next flight is open!” and I could count 10 more turns to that zigzag. When I finally was in front of the customs agent, it was 15 minutes before my flight departed, I explained him the situation but he started asking me so many questions about why I was going to Europe. “I’m just going to be 15 minutes here in the United States!! Let me in and catch my next flight!!” Of course I didn’t tell the agent that, and spoiler: I ended up not staying just 15 minutes.
I even had checked how the map of the Houston airport was, and where exactly my boarding gate was, so I could run to it. But when I was finally officially in, and I was running, I was stopped two times by officers that didn’t seem to like people running. The second time I was stopped they started asking me questions, but they let me go when they knew my situation. But when I thought I could make it, I realized I had to cross a security check yet, that took me other 5 minutes, and then… that the area where I customs are was separated from the terminal I was heading by a skytrain, so I had to wait more minutes for the train to arrive. And at the time I arrived to my terminal, I needed to run to the gate C14, and of course from the entrance it started on consecutive numbers from C1, so I had to run the distance of 14 gates, just for realizing the gate for my flight from Houston to Frankfurt had already closed, the airplane had started moving already, I even could see it leaving out the gate; they had removed my luggage out the plane, and they couldn’t do anything else to let me get that flight, I had to go to the airline’s desk to request taking the next flight.
At the airline’s desk I received the help by a lady who, at first sight, I thought she was going to be rude, I think they tend to receive many complains about anything (of course, I don’t think there are many people who go to the airline’s desks to give compliments), so I decided to act respectful and avoiding to be rude, even smiling to her, those simple acts helped to change her attitude to be kind and helpful with me, which was very nice because it existed another problem she let me know: of course there were no more flights that day to Frankfurt, I really was expecting that, but what I was not expecting is that there were no more flights until two days later, that meant to stay in Houston for two nights and arriving to Prague until three days later than what I was expecting. I asked her if there was no other option I could take to get to Prague even if it was not by Frankfurt, but any other destination, but all the possible options she found were completely fully booked. We even tried checking not arriving to Prague but to any other city in Europe where I could take easily a train or a bus, but the only option she gave was London. I have no idea how I would have I needed to do to get from London to Prague, but I really considered that option. But since the lady was really wanting to help me, which is something I was very grateful with her, she found a very crazy alternative that would make me arrive only one day later: Houston - Chicago - Paris - Prague, and there were seats available, so I took it! Fortunately they didn’t charge me more for that change, but of course I had to spend one night in Houson on a very cheap hotel I found on internet that was very close to the airport and with shuttle bus available.
Chicago, Paris and Prague
My new re-booked trip had no apparent problems, that next day I went to Chicago, I had some extra hours that I could share a meal with a local friend who I know he lives very close to O’Hare, then I arrived to Paris with no problems and avoiding any jet lag. I wanted to check very briefly at least something on Paris because I’ve never been there, but those 5 hours I had between connections were no enough but only for crossing customs, waiting for the other airline’s desk to open, to be sure my luggage was on their system and it was going to Prague (this is important for later), and then I only had 2 more hours before the flight so I didn’t want to risk anything and I had lunch at the airport. I have an AirTag on my luggage so I could track it (That’s a pro tip! Very recommendable to do it whenever you travel, believe me!), I was relief that everything was working and I could track with the app that my luggage had actually arrived with me to Paris.
But when I finally arrived to Prague, I decided to check my AirTag app to realize my luggage didn’t make it with me, it was still at the Paris’ airport. I waited on the baggage claim band anyway just to be sure, I had some hopes my AirTags were not updating correctly and it was actually going to arrive, but no, it didn’t. It is the third time that my luggage doesn’t arrive with me (and the three times have been at European airports), so I already knew the procedure. The first time my luggage was missing it arrived to the next day, the second time it took longer: three days. So I was really not worrying so much about it, now I know that can happen and since then I pack smart: all the essentials (clothes, cables for devices..) with me on my carry-on and backpack, and non-essentials like books, fursuits, gifts… on my checked bag.
I had a really nice time on Prague, first time I visit that city, and the Czech Republic in general. They were telling me that I was visiting in the worst time of the year when it is almost the end of winter, there is no even snow, and everything just looks gray and depressive. But honestly I can find some kind of charm to that as well, since in Mexico we don’t have real winters and even that kind of weather is very rare for me to experience. Of course I’m sure it would be more beautiful in summer when everything is green and there are flowers on gardens, but I really enjoyed checking the city, being with local people, trying local food and even having some beer (despite I don’t drink that much, but it was really tasty, I just feel bad my taste is not that very well trained to tell what’s a good beer and a supreme beer, for me it was just a very tasty one), and local sodas (funny to say I’m more trained to taste sodas, hehe).
Days were going on while I was on Prague and I was not receiving useful updates of my luggage, despite I called them every day. They kept telling me they haven’t found my luggage, they were aware that I had an AirTag on my luggage which I could track exactly where in this planet my luggage was, I could see it was still at the Paris’ airport, inside a building that seemed to be a big warehouse from the map. I even asked them many times if I could send them by e-mail a screenshot of my AirTag so they knew exactly where to find it, but they kept saying “No, many people already put AirTags on their luggage and that information has not been useful for us”, but there was a day that I decided to send them a screenshot anyway, but I received no reply about it.
It was the day we have to leave from Prague to Malmö, Sweden, for NordicFuzzCon. So I had to call them to reroute my luggage to the NFC’s hotel when they found it, so they didn’t send it to Prague anymore.
Arriving to NordicFuzzCon
The part that the few of you who read this journal were probably more interested to read about, instead of all the shenanigans that I was living during my trip!!
And oh boy it was so good!!
At the moment I arrived and stepped in the Clarion Hotel, it couldn’t be more perfect who was one of the first fursuits I got to see and the first one I got to hug, it was
Mausie!!!
For those who doesn’t know Mausie (Which I doubt if you have seen my art galleries, I draw him a lot): Mausie is one of the two mascots of NordicFuzzCon, one of my favorite characters in the fandom, and definitely one of my favorite fursuiters in the world. I’m really a fan boy of that raus (he’s a rat / mouse hybrid), one of the main reasons why I wanted to attend NordicFuzzCon years ago. I was hyping for this convention to come back more than any other, and it was the best way to open for me the convention.
koidelcoyote took a video of that moment, which I’m so grateful, so I can revive that moment over and over again.
Something that I enjoy so much at attending NordicFuzzCon is that most of fursuiters are such characters, they take a lot of effort to push a good performance, they know who exactly are their personalities as the characters they’re playing, and it turns in a very spontaneous crazy event full of colorful living cartoons, and that is something it has inspired me a lot in many ways. At that first night I was reminded why I love this event so much, I was getting very excited despite the convention officially hadn’t started yet.
And I was very happy to finally being able to meet in person
Thabo the Meerkat!
NFC: Wednesday
But the next morning, on Wednesday, I woke up and checked again where my luggage was, it was still stuck in Paris, I was calling again and they kept telling me they had no new information, and what pissed me off even more is when they told me “It is being searched at the Chicago’s airport as well, and they haven’t found it”, and I pointed at them again that I had an AirTag in it, I knew it was in Paris, and I knew where exactly in the globe it was, even coordinates, and I could provide that information easily, but they kept saying that information was not useful for them. So I felt incredibly sad that I was coming back to my favorite furry convention in the world after waiting three years for it, that I had decided not to work in the artist alley nor dealers den because I wanted to enjoy it fully, and even I had packed so many pairs of under armours and balaclavas because my plan was to be in fursuit almost the whole time. And I didn’t have my fursuit with me because it was stuck in Paris. So I had this crazy idea to take a flight at that moment to Paris and coming back the same day just to pick it up. But the cheapest option to do that was very expensive, it was going to be crazy just to do that, so I thought it was better to be patient, having faith it was going to arrive at some point of the convention.
I started telling my friends I was meeting at the convention my situation with my luggage, and they were many of them who offered me that I could use their fursuit any time I want during the convention. Which was very nice and kind, I took their words to many of them and I really performed on their characters, that is something I would be telling ahead, but I couldn’t be ALL of those that I was offered for more than I wanted.
On Wednesday I spent most of the time checking the convention around, and something I could notice, comparing other years, is that they actually decorated according the theme of the year (Which was “Toy Town”) but it was not THAT great as how they had done at previous editions. I personally dislike to compare or having specific expectations, especially when I’ve been part of the organization of an event like a furry convention, and knowing the mood after many years of having the world paused and trying to retake everything like if nothing had happened, and I wouldn’t like to complain about these little details, because the event was so much fun anyway. But for those who were attending previous NordicFuzzCon’s could notice easily the lack of many activities and how they were pushing so much to decorate the event to make it look amazing, and this year there were only few props of toys here and there. But mainly I was worried because I had recommended so much my friend Koidel this convention that I finally convinced him to come, since I had told him all the marvels about this Swedish convention and how many activities we could do and how beautiful they always decorate it, that for some moments I thought he may think I was exaggerating at not seeing many of the things I had told him this convention had. But now I know by his experience that he had the time of his life, and not sure how truth this is but he’s also saying that it turned into his favorite furry convention, so I guess I was just worrying for little details that other previous years had than this year there were not.
Because of course the nice people from all over the world, the cool fursuit performers, many amazing events, the maid cafè with fursuiters, the blip machines, the special fursuit badges with codes so you can “catch them” and collect them like if they were Pokémons, the fun charity events, the big arcade, the art jams at evening at the drawing room with lot of art materials… and so many things that make NordicFuzzCon really great…they were there! And Koidel could experience them for first time and I was so happy to see him that happy.
Even from Wednesday we went to be pretty late drawing at the drawing room with cool artists (And always happy to see again
henrieke and 
Karpour). A new silly activity from this year was the “Make your own pet rock” that was in that room, with many rocks and many materials like googly eyes, glue, markers… and we made many stupid rocks that we put on the little pet rock town.
NFC: Thursday: Doodles For Charity
Thursday of the convention was the day with most activities I had planned, and I don’t want to mention the lack of news about my luggage on this day because at this point I was already resigned that for this day it was not going to arrive. And the main activities I had planned for Thursday I was wanting to do them in fursuit: “Doodles for Charity” and “Blind Cute Fursuits Drawing”
My friend
steelius was offering me to lend me his fursuit for those activities, but since both of them were related to draw in fursuit, it was going to be very strange for people that this red panda fursuit had exactly my drawing style, or that on the spot of “Paco Panda” for the Doodles for Charity there was this other panda drawing instead. So he had this stupidly brilliant idea of making a fursuit cardboard mask with my character’s face, and a sign that said “Definitely Paco Panda”, and if anyone asked me why I was not wearing my fursuit, on the other side of that sign I was explaining very briefly the reason.
Steel is another fursuiter who I admire his performance a lot, and I love how he has developed his red panda character, it’s so much fun to see him around and it’s extremely amusing to interact with him or see him doing so many stupid stuff with a lot of energy. So I need to say I was very afraid to be offered to be him, because I was not completely sure if I could fit his character slightly good as he does. But definitely I didn’t want to miss the chance to be Steel, even when we were going to actually tell the people “It’s not Steel, it’s Paco” but even that way I was creating too much pressure on my mind for not disappointing.
At the moment I got to be at the convention as Steel “disguised” as Paco Panda, people immediately thought that was so hilarious, despite many were very skeptical about if that red panda was pretending as a joke to be me, or if it was really me. I was completely a mute red panda so many of them kept the doubt.
I took my spot for the Doodles for Charity, there were already people in a queue for it and some of them were also confuse if that was the real Paco or an impostor, some asked “Are you the real Paco Panda?” I kept just pointing to the sign that said “Definitely Paco Panda” as an answer. But they saw the wah drawing with my style and they knew it was me.
I extended a little bit my time of drawing for the charity because I didn’t want to say “No” to people who wanted a drawing by me, but it had to get a point where the person in charge of the event had to tell the people I had to stop.
NFC: Thursday: Blind Cute Fursuiters Drawing
I got to be around the convention as a wah for a little bit more before taking a break before the next panel hosted by Trax “Blind Cute Fursuiters Drawing”. That was a panel I had suggested to happen, but I ended up not planning it, since I was going to be one of the “victims”, I mean, the fursuit artists. It was about a drawing game we tended to play long ago among local artists, where we request blindfolded artists to draw something on a canvas, then to add more elements to that drawing to the point they have no idea where exactly the drew that item. For example: Draw a house, then draw a fox next to the house, draw a cloud on the sky, now draw a hat to the fox… and since the artists can’t see anything, they need to remember where in the canvas they drew the fox and ended up missing it and drawing a floating hat or drawing it over the fox. At some point I made a video on YouTube with this same activity but with fursuiters, which resulted in a very funny stupid video. So I suggested that could be a funny activity to make at a furry convention. Trax offered himself to host the event and even adding more things to do during the panel to make it more interactive with the audience, and I was requested not to help at organizing the activity since I was one of the artists and he preferred me to be surprised for what we were going to draw.
Oh wow I was surprised, but for how bad it went! Sorry Trax if you are reading this, I love you, you should be proud for NordicFuzzCon to be a great convention and the favorite one of many furries, and I know mostly it was for all the technical problems it had this panel, but it was a boring one!
The panel didn’t have boards where to draw at first, we were interacting at first with the audience and doing silly things while all the technical problems were trying to be solved, but it went a point when we had no idea what else to do, and I think it was Thabo who suggested to do fursuit charades instead, which indeed is always a fun thing to do, especially in fursuit. But it was the moment when the boards arrive, so the Blind Cute Fursuit Panel was officially started, and I never understood why they were not blindfolding our eyes and the requests of drawings was already starting, so we were just a bunch of fursuiters drawing in front of an audience. The audience was not really reacting so much so I was doubting if they were really having a fun time. When we were finally blindfolded and the real activity started, I was trying to do stupid stuff while blindfolded, like crashing over the audience, drawing on something else that was not the board, or waving and cheering to the other side where obviously the audience was not. But I never heard they were really reacting, laughing or doing a thing, so I was not sure if they were already very tired or what was happening. We only got to do one drawing (and as a collab) of a random chimera and that was it.
I’m sure the panel has potential, because I know this is an activity very funny to do and to watch, definitely having no technical issues on the room would work. And I personally understand very well how is to be staff at a convention, doing so many things before and during the event, and try to prepare and host a panel, it is so difficult!! So I can understand the possible problems that could have caused this panel. But also so many of us miss so much the Fursuit Charades, I think those were so much fun, not even adding new features, exactly how that panel was it was one of the best of the world!
NFC: Thursday: Bouncy Castle
After that panel, Baseball the bat and Steel disguised as Paco Panda went to the bouncy castle. And that was so much fun!!
Steel’s fursuit has a very beautiful partial body with a very long tail (I would say: absurdly long tail, but I got to see way longer tails at this NordicFuzzCon) and I had no issues about the tail after performing for hours…. Until the bouncy castle happened.
We were bouncing together, it was a very dark place with night dances lights, so I barely could see a thing. This bouncy castle was exactly the same that they have taken in the past years: an inflatable big monster head with opened maw, which is a slider, and from time to time the mouth closes, making it look like it is eating all the people who are inside the mouth. So furry and so great, I love it!
Baseball and Steel were trying to climb into the mouth of the monster, but it was especially hard because that long tail was a little bit heavy for that, and suddenly the mouth of the monster was closing, so the red panda was being lifted inside the mouth, but not the tail. The tail was stuck somewhere so that made pull the panda out, making him roll over a pile of fursuiters on the bouncy area, making it really hard to stand up, and the tail was actually stuck in that fursuit pile, so there was no way to get out from there.
At the moment that was happening it was very scary for some reason, but now that I remember it was very funny. But also very tiring! Jumping in a bouncy castle in fursuit is so much fun but it always drains my energies quickly.
I had so much fun that day, I got to be one of my favorite characters in the fandom, I got to share those moments with special people to me, but at the same time I was worrying that Steel, who was handling me, he was missing all the fun, since I know how much he enjoys being in fursuit. But I’m very thankful with him for letting me have an experience that was very spontaneous, and for sure way different than if I would have had my fursuit with me. I can’t say if my experience that day would have been better, regular or kind of the same with my actual character, but for sure I had a very great time.
NFC: Friday: Live Fursuit Figure Drawing
I was requested since last time that NordicFuzzCon was supposed to happen before it was postponed two times was to host a panel. It was requested specifically to be a panel about drawing. I’m not so good at explaining, and especially I think my English is a little bit broken and I’m so nervous to speak in English in front of a lot of people. The first time I was requested to host a panel was for Megaplex 2018 when I was Guest of Honor and I remember needing to practice a lot before doing it for real, and even when I got to host it I felt so clumsy at trying to explain why I draw or why I paint like I do. So I stopped doing serious drawing panels, because I suck at that, and every time a convention requested me to host a panel about drawing I was doing a very silly funny activity that was “Creating Crazy Creatures”, which was totally a not serious panel where people were making collab arts, completing other’s art with no knowing how the other’s art look like and the result were very crazy creatures that I always loved to joke those were going to be their new fursonas. It was always a successful panel where everyone was laughing and they kept playing that game even when the panel was over.
So when NordicFuzzCon requested me to host a panel, I had no problems to accept it and I was thinking to host precisely THAT activity. But my big surprise was when they listed that panel as “Silver and Golden Sponsors Only”, that meant people needed to pay more for being able to attend my panel. That was something I was not expecting, and I’m not sure how much I liked that decision, because honestly I would rather want everyone who wants to be in a panel by me even regular attendees. I know I should have felt honored for that, but that also made me very nervous, because then I felt like I was going to scam people when they knew how silly and simple my panel was: “Aha! You paid more for this exclusive event where…you can draw something stupid by yourself, I won’t explain anything and actually you can do this activity whenever you want!”
So I needed to think in something that is actually worthy, something that allowed me to explain at least a little bit and share some of my knowledge, but that it didn’t so difficult for me, and get everyone an experience that they can only live in a furry convention, and not something that they can actually check on a tutorial video. And it was when I attended at MFF 2021 a panel about Live Anatomy Drawing but with fursuits when I got this idea in mind. At MFF the panel was very simple, fursuiters were doing poses for couple of minutes with no moving, the host was explaining very few things but mostly of the panel was everyone on the audience drawing them. But I could see how fursuiters were getting tired of kept a pose for so many minutes, and the audience laughed because one of the fursuiters decided to push one of those where posing.
I told a friend about this idea for the NordicFuzzCon panel, and he suggested that actually fursuiters should create a shenanigans because of course they don’t want to stay still, they are like big kids and you can’t tell a kid to stay in a same pose for so many minutes. So I decided to experiment this panel at Confuror and then at Anthro North West before taking it to NordicFuzzCon.
Something great at Confuror and Anthro North West is that I could have the mascots of the respective conventions at the panel (Yuri and Raucous at Confuror; Andy and Cove at ANW), and in both of them it was really successful event, where people were really laughing and loved interacting with the fursuiters, or they were mocking at me for not being able to make fursuiters to behave. So for sure I wanted to have Mausie and Iris, the NordicFuzzCon mascots, at my panel as well!! I also invited Steel, knowing how great he is performing, and also Koidel, who is also a really great one!
The problem with this panel at NFC started when I noticed they had scheduled it on Main Stage. For context if you haven’t been at NFC on the 2020 or 2023 editions, that Main Stage is huge, it is actually a concert hall with lots of seats pointing at a stage. I was expecting a regular small room with tables making a circle where inside the circle could be the fursuits posing. Mainly so fursuiters could interact with the audience. But at Main Stage it was like presenting a show, I wanted personal interaction with them and the audience who were drawing. And also they scheduled a previous half an hour queue seating like if my panel was going to have that big audience. I don’t know if they were expecting me to have 500+ people attending that event, especially when it was listed only for Silver and Golden Sponsors (Spoiler: From the three times I’ve hosted this panel, this time was the time it has had the least audience).
For more I wanted them to change this panel in another room, they couldn’t.
Then, the second big problem I realized, and I noticed this problem during the convention, it was a day before the panel, when someone stopped me to say hi, and he told me “I was wanting to attend your panel!” I asked him if it was because he was not silver nor golden sponsor, and he showed me his badge “Oh, actually I’m Silver Sponsor, I could attend, but I don’t want to miss the fursuit parade”
That was like if someone had pulled the break suddenly. WHAT!? Is this at the SAME time than the Fursuit Parade!? An “exclusive” listed (for some reason) as important event, where I had requested the mascots of the convention to attend it and it had been previously approved… at the same time than one of the main events of the convention, where the mascots for sure are also requested (and for bigger reasons) and it’s for sure an event nobody wants to miss, that even they give a break to vendors so they don’t miss?
I had to go to request a change of schedule on my panel, but there was a big confusion about who could work on changing a panel of time. They couldn’t, so I was resigned to have zero attendees at my panel and very likely not having the mascots of the convention helping me, which was going to be a little bit of downgrade for my expectations.
But, it sounds so mean to say it, but… that day the weather helped on favor for my panel, which is of course so mean because of course it would have been great to see the parade they had prepared for this year, that was a different route and going to the center of Malmö, that would have been definitely beautiful! But that Friday it was raining and especially cold. Even if it stopped raining an hour before the time the fursuit parade was listed, it was going to be all wet so they cancelled it. So there was no reason anymore to move my panel and the mascots could be there.
Also the staff and volunteers on Main Stage were very helpful to arrange what I needed for my panel and even they had a great idea for how it would be a good arrangement for the activity, I’m very glad with them for their awesome work!! So they thought it was going to be a great idea to actually use the stage where the audience could be drawing on tables, arranged in the shape of a half circle, so the fursuiters could pose in that half circle, and people who wouldn’t want to be drawing on stage could still see and draw them on the regular seatings.
It was already so exciting for me to see Iris and Mausie arrive to the place, and Steel was doing already great at playing with them and doing super silly stuff around, even the event hasn’t started yet. Around 15 people were shown to the panel, which honestly were more than I thought, after all the problems of the fursuit parade thing I thought they were going to be like… 3. Also Koidel arrived just when the panel was about to start. Another two fursuiters showed up wanting to be part of the show, of course I encouraged them to be part of it.
I knew before hand that the combo Koidel + Steel + Mausie was going to be awesome, and it really surpassed my expectations, they were creating lot of chaos on stage. I was supposed to be on the role of the “grumpy teacher” who simply wants to explain the class while scolding the trouble makers, but they were doing so many stupid stuff together that I couldn’t help but laughing a lot. So yes, they were very great, they were doing better than what I thought they were going to be: bothering each other while they were trying to pose, going where the audience was supposed to be to draw instead, making me pose like if I were a fursuiter too. Steel stole a prop from the stage and Mausie was using it like if it was an iPad, writing on it “CheesePad Pro Max” and drawing a cheese on it. Steel turned one of the tables from the audience upside down. Mausie grabbed my script, crossed all my text and wrote “Cheese” on it, like if anything I’m explaining was not true and the only important thing was “Cheese”, and Steel also wrote on it “…and apples”.
BUT… something was making me a little bit nervous, despite the fursuiters were doing a great job, is that the audience was very quiet, not interacting that much as I expected with the fursuiters, they were barely giggling, and they seemed very focused on actually drawing them. Even those who got the table upside down they didn’t fix it and they just kept drawing floating. So I didn’t know if I was doing a terrible job according them for that panel, if maybe they were really attending it to actually learn something, because of course I wanted to be sure that the description of the panel said that it was going to be turned in a chaos due the fursuiters.
But when the panel was over, most of attendees approached to me to show me their results, they congratulated me for such a funny panel, that it was so hilarious for them, and even I saw comments online where they were saying they enjoyed it a really lot.
So my thought is that… I was very used how people in USA and Mexico were reacting with that panel, for sure we Americans tend to be more noisy, we exaggerate our expressions even when we shouldn’t, and I was expecting precisely that. So, different cultures, and actually made me very happy to know those 15+- who attended that panel actually enjoyed it that much as they said, because for me, having all those guys being such trouble makers together was the best in the world and I was very happy how that panel turned in.
NFC: The rest of Friday
Having success on that panel cheered my day up. That day I got to be another character by another friend, which was sneakily secret that it was me instead. (Despite many ended up knowing). That was always fun.
I was already having so much fun at the convention that for a moment I forgot about my luggage, but when I checked again I had received an e-mail. Remember that they denied me to send them screenshots of the AirTag location and that they ignored my e-mail where I had attached a screenshot of it so they could find it easily? On this new e-mail they told me, after many apologies: “You mentioned us you have an AirTag in your luggage. Can you please provide us with a screen shot from the app to facilitate the restorement of your luggage?”
Of course I provided it, and guess what? Around three hours later they replied an e-mail “Thank you for your response, we were able to find your luggage thanks to your screenshot! We’re delivering your luggage on the next route we find to Copenhagen and our agents can deliver it to Malmö”
I slapped my face. No more comments, I didn’t want to be thinking “I told them” “They should have accepted my screenshot since the very beginning”, because of course that didn’t solve anything, it was completely out of my control, and actually I was having a great time at the convention.
That evening we stayed up very late at the art jam room making very fun collabs among Flacko, Yamavu, Koidel, Henrieke, Karpour and me. We ended up doing a bunch of collab drawings, and each drawing we finished we were signing them with combined names like Packour (Paco + Karpour), Karpavu (Karpour + Paco + Yamavu) and such.
NFC: Saturday
Comment “Meow” if you are really reading this to this point!
It’s curious how usually, at furry conventions on my side of the world, Saturdays are the half day of the convention. But for NordicFuzzCon it is the last complete day, and the last day of many attendees.
It was also a fun day, I got to hang out with friends, to go with them to some panels they wanted to go, I took Koidel to see how the song contest at NFC is taken so seriously and they make a great show around it.
Also I got to be a friend’s character for the group photo that happened that day, and we made a silly activity for charity in fursuit.
But there was something that for a moment took my mood a little bit down. When I knew they had finally found my luggage a day before, I thought I was going to receive it at some point of that Saturday and I was going to actually be in my panda character at least a little bit at the convention, but they called me to tell me I was going to receive it to Malmö around Sunday evening. For those who are very familiar with European furry conventions, the events end on Sunday noon after closing ceremonies, it is not like at American conventions that on Sundays there is still a full day of event and the closing ceremony is until evening. Many people leaves on Sunday, so receiving it on Sunday evening when everybody was gone it was going to be actually very depressing for me, not only useless and dumb, but depressing. And I was having an unexpected great time despite not having my fursuit with me, so I really didn’t want to see that luggage in Malmö just when the convention was over, it was going to be like those nightmares that I know many of us tend to have just before conventions, that we forgot our fursuit (those who have fursuit) or that you arrive just when everything is over. So I had to tell them that I was leaving on Sunday (lies, I was leaving on Monday) and that they should reroute it back home then. They apologized so much and of course the compensation by the airline is on procedure, I just consider is kind of boring to go deeper to those paperwork details on this journal, but for those who are wondering if I’m asking a compensation for this big issue: Yes, I’m on it!
So it seems my fursuit had its own vacation without me, he should write his own journal, my fursuit traveled to Houston, Chicago, Paris, Prague and Madrid.
So… I went for a coffee because that always cheers me up, put myself very in mind that I was not bringing my fursuit for NordicFuzzCon, that despite that I was having the time of my life once again at a furry event.
I was offered again to be a friend’s character, one that I had never been and I always wanted to. This was for the inflatable panel and oh boy I had a great time there, it was such an experience! So, this friend’s character tend to speak and socialize with others, so it was not a surprise that people approached to “me” when they expected to talk with “him”, and he speaks languages that I don’t, so that was challenging, I had to run, play fool, making stupid sounds that didn’t mean anything, not even a Yes nor a No, simply…Nothing. And I got to play with other fursuiters who were such great characters, I’m sure it is going to be one of the times fursuiting who I will never forget, that I will have every single silly thing I was doing that evening very printed in my memories.
It was kind of late when we ended up fursuiting and even that way, after taking showers we went down again to the convention but as humans to see what was happening, and before continuing describing what happened that evening, I have mentioned this at previous journals about my conventions: I tend to be very solitary at furry conventions, so many people stops me to say hi, of course it feel so good that many recognizes me, that they get excited to see who is the artist behind those silly cute drawings, that they want to be with me; but despite that when people invites me to hang out with them I think I’m kind of awkward because I don’t speak that much for more that I try, and at conventions I make my own plans and I attend panels alone, but nothing of this is “sad” for me, so I don’t say it like trying to push the idea about me of “oh poor Paco, how lonely he is”, because honestly many times I feel like that’s exactly what I’m looking forward, I enjoy doing my own plans. Or at least that’s what I’ve been thinking for many years. Something has changed after the 2020 break because the difference I’m about to talk about I could also notice it on myself at American conventions.
I’m trying to improve and be more talkative, less shy, because I think that’s very annoying for someone who tries to be with me, to have a very quiet inexpressive person just next to them, and it’s really difficult because I don’t want to force myself to be someone else just to fit or just to have something to talk, the challenge is “Keep being exactly how you are, but don’t be shy and actually say things you think!”.. and I think it has been working, little by little, because I’m finally getting that group of people who I feel comfortable to hang out with.
At NordicFuzzCon, since the first edition I attended, I enjoyed so much that I got a group of artists who I always hanged out with them, but only at evenings; the last two editions I was as same solitary during the day but at evenings I had who to hang out with. But this edition I got someone who I was wanting so badly to meet and actually hang out with, and I remember that evening of Saturday night after fursuiting I spent it with him and another friend, and we couldn’t stop laughing for stupid things, we really didn’t do too much but wandering around the convention area, playing with the rocks and doing quick drawings. He was decided to make a drawing of my fursona, despite he says he doesn’t draw, and yeah, it was not a great drawing but it was not awful either, it was a very good drawing for someone who considers himself an amateur, but I wanted to keep that drawing as part of a memory, despite he really didn’t want it because according him it was an awful drawing. It was not, and for me it meant a really lot.
NFC: Sunday
Sunday is what Monday is for most of American furry conventions, the day of saying goodbye to people. So many are already leaving. And really long ago I hadn’t felt so badly this PCD, nor crying for saying goodbye to people who are leaving. But also the day of attending Closing Ceremonies. That usually opening and ceremonies at NordicFuzzCon are so great. This year’s were not the greatest but I think expectations now are really high comparing other years’, but since I don’t want to be comparing: honestly they really put a lot of effort on their ceremonies, no matter if they did them better or not as good as previous editions, they make them special. And it’s always exciting to see how they will introduce next year’s theme.
Since it was Koidel’s first time in Sweden, he didn’t want to miss the chance to take a tour to Malmö, and I get him very well, I wouldn’t want to go to a city on a country I had never been before, and just to know their convention center. And good thing he has a local friend who took us to a walking tour around the town, which was very pretty (despite I had already been there and actually made a tour before the convention on 2020, I got to see places I was not last time) but it was very cold, I was freezing. But it turned in a perfect day, with a clear sky, a beautiful golden hour that inspired to take many pictures, and I always enjoy walking.
Something weird that happened that time, we went out for burgers in a burger place called Surf Shack (very recommendable, way better than Max Burgers), and we took a seat on a big table and we were only a group of 3 people, so after some minutes, a couple sit down next to us on the same table. We were talking about various topics, and something that I noticed is that the couple were not talking a little bit, it was like they were paying attention to our conversation, they received their food after us and things started being weird when they don’t even touch their food, they remained in silent, very likely just listening at us. But it was way more strange when we were done with our food, we took our traces, stand up from the table, and they did the same just after us, and they threw their food without even touching it. And they left the place after us, but on the opposite direction. But they never talked each other, not even talked with us, it was just like they were there just to listen our conversation, they didn’t even look like furries, and we were not even talking about anything serious or something that could be interesting to them. We will never know, that was very strange!
We closed NordicFuzzCon, back to the hotel, in a Jackbox room party with the cool artists guys. And once again it was very hard to say goodbye to everyone when we were heading to sleep, since we were going to wake up very early to catch our flight to Copenhagen.
Definitely NordicFuzzCon is still my personal favorite furry convention in the world, it is that convention that, despite is so expensive for me to get there, I want to be repeating every year no matter what. Each of the 3 NFCs I’ve attended have been special on their own particular way, and each one of them live very clear in my memories.
I never received my Fursuit for the convention, nor even during the trip, but that didn’t overshadow my experience, I still managed to enjoy the convention, and that thanks to friends who made my convention so great!
On my way back home I got to travel together with Koidel, so I was not alone and that made it more comfortable to be traveling for more than a day. At the Chicago’s airport we had time enough to even go out the airport and quickly go for a Chicago’s style pizza and back, we even saw the MFF’s hotel, but the Uber’s driver was driving so fast that I couldn’t get a proper good picture of it. And back to the airport is when jetlag started hitting us so hard, that for the waiting of our gate to open, either Koidel and I couldn’t remain completely awake and we were getting asleep, something that could have been dangerous to miss our flight just because we ended up sleeping in front of our gate, but we managed to get in the airplane and I didn’t even notice when we took off, I woke up when the plane was landing to Guadalajara.
A very last pro tip that I got to experience on my flight back to Mexico: DON’T use low budget airlines to travel overseas, it is more worthy to spend a little bit more of money for seats that are comfortable to hold your butt for 9 hours, and to use airlines they don’t try to charge you ridiculous amounts for taking your carry-on with you, but they don’t tell you that until you already crossed UE customs and there is no way back. And my lesson learned for my flight from America to Europe: for more affordable some flights look like, if the layovers are not longer than at least 3 hours, avoid them!
If you want to see the pictures of the trip, some of them are pictures others shared me, but most of them are by me:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/dtmwwz1l.....O66YPs0la?dl=0
Be nice with people, check on your friends, live your life that we only have one!
As an overview: my hype for NFC was not underrated, I had a lot of fun and I definitely still consider it my personal favorite furry convention! They really put a lot of love to this convention and I got to see friends who I was missing so much. And this trip brought me lot of personal knowledge and lessons.
Houston, we have a problem
My trip didn’t start in a good way. My plan was arriving from Guadalajara, Mexico to Prague, Czechia. Having 2 layovers in between: to Houston, USA and Frankfurt, Germany.
But it is from my very first stop, in Houston, when the bad luck attacked me: my flight was slightly delayed, not on a worrying way, despite knowing I had a connection, but I tried to get out from the plane as quick as possible and I run to be one of the firsts ones in my plane to get in line for US customs, and I’m very sure I was! The problem was at arriving to customs and seeing this 3 kilometers zigzag queue, and I only had 1 hour 20 minutes before the boarding gate of my next flight opened. I was thinking to talk with a guard to tell him my situation, but just when I was approaching to one of them, another group in front of me told them they had exactly the same situation than me, but even worse to them because their flight was in 30 minutes, but the guard told them that they had to do the queue as the same of the people there, I remember he yelled: “France, China, Germany… everyone here has connections, too!”
I can’t lie, many of the problems I got to live in this trip that I will tell on this journal were very manageable, I’m kind of proud how patient I am and how easy would have been for many people to get stressed for any of the situations but I was not. But…those were the 2 most stressful hours on this trip! Not being able to do much, just standig up in an endless queue, surrounded by more stressed people, and watching the time running. To add even more stress, I received a notification on my phone “The boarding for your next flight is open!” and I could count 10 more turns to that zigzag. When I finally was in front of the customs agent, it was 15 minutes before my flight departed, I explained him the situation but he started asking me so many questions about why I was going to Europe. “I’m just going to be 15 minutes here in the United States!! Let me in and catch my next flight!!” Of course I didn’t tell the agent that, and spoiler: I ended up not staying just 15 minutes.
I even had checked how the map of the Houston airport was, and where exactly my boarding gate was, so I could run to it. But when I was finally officially in, and I was running, I was stopped two times by officers that didn’t seem to like people running. The second time I was stopped they started asking me questions, but they let me go when they knew my situation. But when I thought I could make it, I realized I had to cross a security check yet, that took me other 5 minutes, and then… that the area where I customs are was separated from the terminal I was heading by a skytrain, so I had to wait more minutes for the train to arrive. And at the time I arrived to my terminal, I needed to run to the gate C14, and of course from the entrance it started on consecutive numbers from C1, so I had to run the distance of 14 gates, just for realizing the gate for my flight from Houston to Frankfurt had already closed, the airplane had started moving already, I even could see it leaving out the gate; they had removed my luggage out the plane, and they couldn’t do anything else to let me get that flight, I had to go to the airline’s desk to request taking the next flight.
At the airline’s desk I received the help by a lady who, at first sight, I thought she was going to be rude, I think they tend to receive many complains about anything (of course, I don’t think there are many people who go to the airline’s desks to give compliments), so I decided to act respectful and avoiding to be rude, even smiling to her, those simple acts helped to change her attitude to be kind and helpful with me, which was very nice because it existed another problem she let me know: of course there were no more flights that day to Frankfurt, I really was expecting that, but what I was not expecting is that there were no more flights until two days later, that meant to stay in Houston for two nights and arriving to Prague until three days later than what I was expecting. I asked her if there was no other option I could take to get to Prague even if it was not by Frankfurt, but any other destination, but all the possible options she found were completely fully booked. We even tried checking not arriving to Prague but to any other city in Europe where I could take easily a train or a bus, but the only option she gave was London. I have no idea how I would have I needed to do to get from London to Prague, but I really considered that option. But since the lady was really wanting to help me, which is something I was very grateful with her, she found a very crazy alternative that would make me arrive only one day later: Houston - Chicago - Paris - Prague, and there were seats available, so I took it! Fortunately they didn’t charge me more for that change, but of course I had to spend one night in Houson on a very cheap hotel I found on internet that was very close to the airport and with shuttle bus available.
Chicago, Paris and Prague
My new re-booked trip had no apparent problems, that next day I went to Chicago, I had some extra hours that I could share a meal with a local friend who I know he lives very close to O’Hare, then I arrived to Paris with no problems and avoiding any jet lag. I wanted to check very briefly at least something on Paris because I’ve never been there, but those 5 hours I had between connections were no enough but only for crossing customs, waiting for the other airline’s desk to open, to be sure my luggage was on their system and it was going to Prague (this is important for later), and then I only had 2 more hours before the flight so I didn’t want to risk anything and I had lunch at the airport. I have an AirTag on my luggage so I could track it (That’s a pro tip! Very recommendable to do it whenever you travel, believe me!), I was relief that everything was working and I could track with the app that my luggage had actually arrived with me to Paris.
But when I finally arrived to Prague, I decided to check my AirTag app to realize my luggage didn’t make it with me, it was still at the Paris’ airport. I waited on the baggage claim band anyway just to be sure, I had some hopes my AirTags were not updating correctly and it was actually going to arrive, but no, it didn’t. It is the third time that my luggage doesn’t arrive with me (and the three times have been at European airports), so I already knew the procedure. The first time my luggage was missing it arrived to the next day, the second time it took longer: three days. So I was really not worrying so much about it, now I know that can happen and since then I pack smart: all the essentials (clothes, cables for devices..) with me on my carry-on and backpack, and non-essentials like books, fursuits, gifts… on my checked bag.
I had a really nice time on Prague, first time I visit that city, and the Czech Republic in general. They were telling me that I was visiting in the worst time of the year when it is almost the end of winter, there is no even snow, and everything just looks gray and depressive. But honestly I can find some kind of charm to that as well, since in Mexico we don’t have real winters and even that kind of weather is very rare for me to experience. Of course I’m sure it would be more beautiful in summer when everything is green and there are flowers on gardens, but I really enjoyed checking the city, being with local people, trying local food and even having some beer (despite I don’t drink that much, but it was really tasty, I just feel bad my taste is not that very well trained to tell what’s a good beer and a supreme beer, for me it was just a very tasty one), and local sodas (funny to say I’m more trained to taste sodas, hehe).
Days were going on while I was on Prague and I was not receiving useful updates of my luggage, despite I called them every day. They kept telling me they haven’t found my luggage, they were aware that I had an AirTag on my luggage which I could track exactly where in this planet my luggage was, I could see it was still at the Paris’ airport, inside a building that seemed to be a big warehouse from the map. I even asked them many times if I could send them by e-mail a screenshot of my AirTag so they knew exactly where to find it, but they kept saying “No, many people already put AirTags on their luggage and that information has not been useful for us”, but there was a day that I decided to send them a screenshot anyway, but I received no reply about it.
It was the day we have to leave from Prague to Malmö, Sweden, for NordicFuzzCon. So I had to call them to reroute my luggage to the NFC’s hotel when they found it, so they didn’t send it to Prague anymore.
Arriving to NordicFuzzCon
The part that the few of you who read this journal were probably more interested to read about, instead of all the shenanigans that I was living during my trip!!
And oh boy it was so good!!
At the moment I arrived and stepped in the Clarion Hotel, it couldn’t be more perfect who was one of the first fursuits I got to see and the first one I got to hug, it was
Mausie!!!For those who doesn’t know Mausie (Which I doubt if you have seen my art galleries, I draw him a lot): Mausie is one of the two mascots of NordicFuzzCon, one of my favorite characters in the fandom, and definitely one of my favorite fursuiters in the world. I’m really a fan boy of that raus (he’s a rat / mouse hybrid), one of the main reasons why I wanted to attend NordicFuzzCon years ago. I was hyping for this convention to come back more than any other, and it was the best way to open for me the convention.
koidelcoyote took a video of that moment, which I’m so grateful, so I can revive that moment over and over again.Something that I enjoy so much at attending NordicFuzzCon is that most of fursuiters are such characters, they take a lot of effort to push a good performance, they know who exactly are their personalities as the characters they’re playing, and it turns in a very spontaneous crazy event full of colorful living cartoons, and that is something it has inspired me a lot in many ways. At that first night I was reminded why I love this event so much, I was getting very excited despite the convention officially hadn’t started yet.
And I was very happy to finally being able to meet in person
Thabo the Meerkat! NFC: Wednesday
But the next morning, on Wednesday, I woke up and checked again where my luggage was, it was still stuck in Paris, I was calling again and they kept telling me they had no new information, and what pissed me off even more is when they told me “It is being searched at the Chicago’s airport as well, and they haven’t found it”, and I pointed at them again that I had an AirTag in it, I knew it was in Paris, and I knew where exactly in the globe it was, even coordinates, and I could provide that information easily, but they kept saying that information was not useful for them. So I felt incredibly sad that I was coming back to my favorite furry convention in the world after waiting three years for it, that I had decided not to work in the artist alley nor dealers den because I wanted to enjoy it fully, and even I had packed so many pairs of under armours and balaclavas because my plan was to be in fursuit almost the whole time. And I didn’t have my fursuit with me because it was stuck in Paris. So I had this crazy idea to take a flight at that moment to Paris and coming back the same day just to pick it up. But the cheapest option to do that was very expensive, it was going to be crazy just to do that, so I thought it was better to be patient, having faith it was going to arrive at some point of the convention.
I started telling my friends I was meeting at the convention my situation with my luggage, and they were many of them who offered me that I could use their fursuit any time I want during the convention. Which was very nice and kind, I took their words to many of them and I really performed on their characters, that is something I would be telling ahead, but I couldn’t be ALL of those that I was offered for more than I wanted.
On Wednesday I spent most of the time checking the convention around, and something I could notice, comparing other years, is that they actually decorated according the theme of the year (Which was “Toy Town”) but it was not THAT great as how they had done at previous editions. I personally dislike to compare or having specific expectations, especially when I’ve been part of the organization of an event like a furry convention, and knowing the mood after many years of having the world paused and trying to retake everything like if nothing had happened, and I wouldn’t like to complain about these little details, because the event was so much fun anyway. But for those who were attending previous NordicFuzzCon’s could notice easily the lack of many activities and how they were pushing so much to decorate the event to make it look amazing, and this year there were only few props of toys here and there. But mainly I was worried because I had recommended so much my friend Koidel this convention that I finally convinced him to come, since I had told him all the marvels about this Swedish convention and how many activities we could do and how beautiful they always decorate it, that for some moments I thought he may think I was exaggerating at not seeing many of the things I had told him this convention had. But now I know by his experience that he had the time of his life, and not sure how truth this is but he’s also saying that it turned into his favorite furry convention, so I guess I was just worrying for little details that other previous years had than this year there were not.
Because of course the nice people from all over the world, the cool fursuit performers, many amazing events, the maid cafè with fursuiters, the blip machines, the special fursuit badges with codes so you can “catch them” and collect them like if they were Pokémons, the fun charity events, the big arcade, the art jams at evening at the drawing room with lot of art materials… and so many things that make NordicFuzzCon really great…they were there! And Koidel could experience them for first time and I was so happy to see him that happy.
Even from Wednesday we went to be pretty late drawing at the drawing room with cool artists (And always happy to see again
henrieke and 
Karpour). A new silly activity from this year was the “Make your own pet rock” that was in that room, with many rocks and many materials like googly eyes, glue, markers… and we made many stupid rocks that we put on the little pet rock town.NFC: Thursday: Doodles For Charity
Thursday of the convention was the day with most activities I had planned, and I don’t want to mention the lack of news about my luggage on this day because at this point I was already resigned that for this day it was not going to arrive. And the main activities I had planned for Thursday I was wanting to do them in fursuit: “Doodles for Charity” and “Blind Cute Fursuits Drawing”
My friend
steelius was offering me to lend me his fursuit for those activities, but since both of them were related to draw in fursuit, it was going to be very strange for people that this red panda fursuit had exactly my drawing style, or that on the spot of “Paco Panda” for the Doodles for Charity there was this other panda drawing instead. So he had this stupidly brilliant idea of making a fursuit cardboard mask with my character’s face, and a sign that said “Definitely Paco Panda”, and if anyone asked me why I was not wearing my fursuit, on the other side of that sign I was explaining very briefly the reason.Steel is another fursuiter who I admire his performance a lot, and I love how he has developed his red panda character, it’s so much fun to see him around and it’s extremely amusing to interact with him or see him doing so many stupid stuff with a lot of energy. So I need to say I was very afraid to be offered to be him, because I was not completely sure if I could fit his character slightly good as he does. But definitely I didn’t want to miss the chance to be Steel, even when we were going to actually tell the people “It’s not Steel, it’s Paco” but even that way I was creating too much pressure on my mind for not disappointing.
At the moment I got to be at the convention as Steel “disguised” as Paco Panda, people immediately thought that was so hilarious, despite many were very skeptical about if that red panda was pretending as a joke to be me, or if it was really me. I was completely a mute red panda so many of them kept the doubt.
I took my spot for the Doodles for Charity, there were already people in a queue for it and some of them were also confuse if that was the real Paco or an impostor, some asked “Are you the real Paco Panda?” I kept just pointing to the sign that said “Definitely Paco Panda” as an answer. But they saw the wah drawing with my style and they knew it was me.
I extended a little bit my time of drawing for the charity because I didn’t want to say “No” to people who wanted a drawing by me, but it had to get a point where the person in charge of the event had to tell the people I had to stop.
NFC: Thursday: Blind Cute Fursuiters Drawing
I got to be around the convention as a wah for a little bit more before taking a break before the next panel hosted by Trax “Blind Cute Fursuiters Drawing”. That was a panel I had suggested to happen, but I ended up not planning it, since I was going to be one of the “victims”, I mean, the fursuit artists. It was about a drawing game we tended to play long ago among local artists, where we request blindfolded artists to draw something on a canvas, then to add more elements to that drawing to the point they have no idea where exactly the drew that item. For example: Draw a house, then draw a fox next to the house, draw a cloud on the sky, now draw a hat to the fox… and since the artists can’t see anything, they need to remember where in the canvas they drew the fox and ended up missing it and drawing a floating hat or drawing it over the fox. At some point I made a video on YouTube with this same activity but with fursuiters, which resulted in a very funny stupid video. So I suggested that could be a funny activity to make at a furry convention. Trax offered himself to host the event and even adding more things to do during the panel to make it more interactive with the audience, and I was requested not to help at organizing the activity since I was one of the artists and he preferred me to be surprised for what we were going to draw.
Oh wow I was surprised, but for how bad it went! Sorry Trax if you are reading this, I love you, you should be proud for NordicFuzzCon to be a great convention and the favorite one of many furries, and I know mostly it was for all the technical problems it had this panel, but it was a boring one!
The panel didn’t have boards where to draw at first, we were interacting at first with the audience and doing silly things while all the technical problems were trying to be solved, but it went a point when we had no idea what else to do, and I think it was Thabo who suggested to do fursuit charades instead, which indeed is always a fun thing to do, especially in fursuit. But it was the moment when the boards arrive, so the Blind Cute Fursuit Panel was officially started, and I never understood why they were not blindfolding our eyes and the requests of drawings was already starting, so we were just a bunch of fursuiters drawing in front of an audience. The audience was not really reacting so much so I was doubting if they were really having a fun time. When we were finally blindfolded and the real activity started, I was trying to do stupid stuff while blindfolded, like crashing over the audience, drawing on something else that was not the board, or waving and cheering to the other side where obviously the audience was not. But I never heard they were really reacting, laughing or doing a thing, so I was not sure if they were already very tired or what was happening. We only got to do one drawing (and as a collab) of a random chimera and that was it.
I’m sure the panel has potential, because I know this is an activity very funny to do and to watch, definitely having no technical issues on the room would work. And I personally understand very well how is to be staff at a convention, doing so many things before and during the event, and try to prepare and host a panel, it is so difficult!! So I can understand the possible problems that could have caused this panel. But also so many of us miss so much the Fursuit Charades, I think those were so much fun, not even adding new features, exactly how that panel was it was one of the best of the world!
NFC: Thursday: Bouncy Castle
After that panel, Baseball the bat and Steel disguised as Paco Panda went to the bouncy castle. And that was so much fun!!
Steel’s fursuit has a very beautiful partial body with a very long tail (I would say: absurdly long tail, but I got to see way longer tails at this NordicFuzzCon) and I had no issues about the tail after performing for hours…. Until the bouncy castle happened.
We were bouncing together, it was a very dark place with night dances lights, so I barely could see a thing. This bouncy castle was exactly the same that they have taken in the past years: an inflatable big monster head with opened maw, which is a slider, and from time to time the mouth closes, making it look like it is eating all the people who are inside the mouth. So furry and so great, I love it!
Baseball and Steel were trying to climb into the mouth of the monster, but it was especially hard because that long tail was a little bit heavy for that, and suddenly the mouth of the monster was closing, so the red panda was being lifted inside the mouth, but not the tail. The tail was stuck somewhere so that made pull the panda out, making him roll over a pile of fursuiters on the bouncy area, making it really hard to stand up, and the tail was actually stuck in that fursuit pile, so there was no way to get out from there.
At the moment that was happening it was very scary for some reason, but now that I remember it was very funny. But also very tiring! Jumping in a bouncy castle in fursuit is so much fun but it always drains my energies quickly.
I had so much fun that day, I got to be one of my favorite characters in the fandom, I got to share those moments with special people to me, but at the same time I was worrying that Steel, who was handling me, he was missing all the fun, since I know how much he enjoys being in fursuit. But I’m very thankful with him for letting me have an experience that was very spontaneous, and for sure way different than if I would have had my fursuit with me. I can’t say if my experience that day would have been better, regular or kind of the same with my actual character, but for sure I had a very great time.
NFC: Friday: Live Fursuit Figure Drawing
I was requested since last time that NordicFuzzCon was supposed to happen before it was postponed two times was to host a panel. It was requested specifically to be a panel about drawing. I’m not so good at explaining, and especially I think my English is a little bit broken and I’m so nervous to speak in English in front of a lot of people. The first time I was requested to host a panel was for Megaplex 2018 when I was Guest of Honor and I remember needing to practice a lot before doing it for real, and even when I got to host it I felt so clumsy at trying to explain why I draw or why I paint like I do. So I stopped doing serious drawing panels, because I suck at that, and every time a convention requested me to host a panel about drawing I was doing a very silly funny activity that was “Creating Crazy Creatures”, which was totally a not serious panel where people were making collab arts, completing other’s art with no knowing how the other’s art look like and the result were very crazy creatures that I always loved to joke those were going to be their new fursonas. It was always a successful panel where everyone was laughing and they kept playing that game even when the panel was over.
So when NordicFuzzCon requested me to host a panel, I had no problems to accept it and I was thinking to host precisely THAT activity. But my big surprise was when they listed that panel as “Silver and Golden Sponsors Only”, that meant people needed to pay more for being able to attend my panel. That was something I was not expecting, and I’m not sure how much I liked that decision, because honestly I would rather want everyone who wants to be in a panel by me even regular attendees. I know I should have felt honored for that, but that also made me very nervous, because then I felt like I was going to scam people when they knew how silly and simple my panel was: “Aha! You paid more for this exclusive event where…you can draw something stupid by yourself, I won’t explain anything and actually you can do this activity whenever you want!”
So I needed to think in something that is actually worthy, something that allowed me to explain at least a little bit and share some of my knowledge, but that it didn’t so difficult for me, and get everyone an experience that they can only live in a furry convention, and not something that they can actually check on a tutorial video. And it was when I attended at MFF 2021 a panel about Live Anatomy Drawing but with fursuits when I got this idea in mind. At MFF the panel was very simple, fursuiters were doing poses for couple of minutes with no moving, the host was explaining very few things but mostly of the panel was everyone on the audience drawing them. But I could see how fursuiters were getting tired of kept a pose for so many minutes, and the audience laughed because one of the fursuiters decided to push one of those where posing.
I told a friend about this idea for the NordicFuzzCon panel, and he suggested that actually fursuiters should create a shenanigans because of course they don’t want to stay still, they are like big kids and you can’t tell a kid to stay in a same pose for so many minutes. So I decided to experiment this panel at Confuror and then at Anthro North West before taking it to NordicFuzzCon.
Something great at Confuror and Anthro North West is that I could have the mascots of the respective conventions at the panel (Yuri and Raucous at Confuror; Andy and Cove at ANW), and in both of them it was really successful event, where people were really laughing and loved interacting with the fursuiters, or they were mocking at me for not being able to make fursuiters to behave. So for sure I wanted to have Mausie and Iris, the NordicFuzzCon mascots, at my panel as well!! I also invited Steel, knowing how great he is performing, and also Koidel, who is also a really great one!
The problem with this panel at NFC started when I noticed they had scheduled it on Main Stage. For context if you haven’t been at NFC on the 2020 or 2023 editions, that Main Stage is huge, it is actually a concert hall with lots of seats pointing at a stage. I was expecting a regular small room with tables making a circle where inside the circle could be the fursuits posing. Mainly so fursuiters could interact with the audience. But at Main Stage it was like presenting a show, I wanted personal interaction with them and the audience who were drawing. And also they scheduled a previous half an hour queue seating like if my panel was going to have that big audience. I don’t know if they were expecting me to have 500+ people attending that event, especially when it was listed only for Silver and Golden Sponsors (Spoiler: From the three times I’ve hosted this panel, this time was the time it has had the least audience).
For more I wanted them to change this panel in another room, they couldn’t.
Then, the second big problem I realized, and I noticed this problem during the convention, it was a day before the panel, when someone stopped me to say hi, and he told me “I was wanting to attend your panel!” I asked him if it was because he was not silver nor golden sponsor, and he showed me his badge “Oh, actually I’m Silver Sponsor, I could attend, but I don’t want to miss the fursuit parade”
That was like if someone had pulled the break suddenly. WHAT!? Is this at the SAME time than the Fursuit Parade!? An “exclusive” listed (for some reason) as important event, where I had requested the mascots of the convention to attend it and it had been previously approved… at the same time than one of the main events of the convention, where the mascots for sure are also requested (and for bigger reasons) and it’s for sure an event nobody wants to miss, that even they give a break to vendors so they don’t miss?
I had to go to request a change of schedule on my panel, but there was a big confusion about who could work on changing a panel of time. They couldn’t, so I was resigned to have zero attendees at my panel and very likely not having the mascots of the convention helping me, which was going to be a little bit of downgrade for my expectations.
But, it sounds so mean to say it, but… that day the weather helped on favor for my panel, which is of course so mean because of course it would have been great to see the parade they had prepared for this year, that was a different route and going to the center of Malmö, that would have been definitely beautiful! But that Friday it was raining and especially cold. Even if it stopped raining an hour before the time the fursuit parade was listed, it was going to be all wet so they cancelled it. So there was no reason anymore to move my panel and the mascots could be there.
Also the staff and volunteers on Main Stage were very helpful to arrange what I needed for my panel and even they had a great idea for how it would be a good arrangement for the activity, I’m very glad with them for their awesome work!! So they thought it was going to be a great idea to actually use the stage where the audience could be drawing on tables, arranged in the shape of a half circle, so the fursuiters could pose in that half circle, and people who wouldn’t want to be drawing on stage could still see and draw them on the regular seatings.
It was already so exciting for me to see Iris and Mausie arrive to the place, and Steel was doing already great at playing with them and doing super silly stuff around, even the event hasn’t started yet. Around 15 people were shown to the panel, which honestly were more than I thought, after all the problems of the fursuit parade thing I thought they were going to be like… 3. Also Koidel arrived just when the panel was about to start. Another two fursuiters showed up wanting to be part of the show, of course I encouraged them to be part of it.
I knew before hand that the combo Koidel + Steel + Mausie was going to be awesome, and it really surpassed my expectations, they were creating lot of chaos on stage. I was supposed to be on the role of the “grumpy teacher” who simply wants to explain the class while scolding the trouble makers, but they were doing so many stupid stuff together that I couldn’t help but laughing a lot. So yes, they were very great, they were doing better than what I thought they were going to be: bothering each other while they were trying to pose, going where the audience was supposed to be to draw instead, making me pose like if I were a fursuiter too. Steel stole a prop from the stage and Mausie was using it like if it was an iPad, writing on it “CheesePad Pro Max” and drawing a cheese on it. Steel turned one of the tables from the audience upside down. Mausie grabbed my script, crossed all my text and wrote “Cheese” on it, like if anything I’m explaining was not true and the only important thing was “Cheese”, and Steel also wrote on it “…and apples”.
BUT… something was making me a little bit nervous, despite the fursuiters were doing a great job, is that the audience was very quiet, not interacting that much as I expected with the fursuiters, they were barely giggling, and they seemed very focused on actually drawing them. Even those who got the table upside down they didn’t fix it and they just kept drawing floating. So I didn’t know if I was doing a terrible job according them for that panel, if maybe they were really attending it to actually learn something, because of course I wanted to be sure that the description of the panel said that it was going to be turned in a chaos due the fursuiters.
But when the panel was over, most of attendees approached to me to show me their results, they congratulated me for such a funny panel, that it was so hilarious for them, and even I saw comments online where they were saying they enjoyed it a really lot.
So my thought is that… I was very used how people in USA and Mexico were reacting with that panel, for sure we Americans tend to be more noisy, we exaggerate our expressions even when we shouldn’t, and I was expecting precisely that. So, different cultures, and actually made me very happy to know those 15+- who attended that panel actually enjoyed it that much as they said, because for me, having all those guys being such trouble makers together was the best in the world and I was very happy how that panel turned in.
NFC: The rest of Friday
Having success on that panel cheered my day up. That day I got to be another character by another friend, which was sneakily secret that it was me instead. (Despite many ended up knowing). That was always fun.
I was already having so much fun at the convention that for a moment I forgot about my luggage, but when I checked again I had received an e-mail. Remember that they denied me to send them screenshots of the AirTag location and that they ignored my e-mail where I had attached a screenshot of it so they could find it easily? On this new e-mail they told me, after many apologies: “You mentioned us you have an AirTag in your luggage. Can you please provide us with a screen shot from the app to facilitate the restorement of your luggage?”
Of course I provided it, and guess what? Around three hours later they replied an e-mail “Thank you for your response, we were able to find your luggage thanks to your screenshot! We’re delivering your luggage on the next route we find to Copenhagen and our agents can deliver it to Malmö”
I slapped my face. No more comments, I didn’t want to be thinking “I told them” “They should have accepted my screenshot since the very beginning”, because of course that didn’t solve anything, it was completely out of my control, and actually I was having a great time at the convention.
That evening we stayed up very late at the art jam room making very fun collabs among Flacko, Yamavu, Koidel, Henrieke, Karpour and me. We ended up doing a bunch of collab drawings, and each drawing we finished we were signing them with combined names like Packour (Paco + Karpour), Karpavu (Karpour + Paco + Yamavu) and such.
NFC: Saturday
Comment “Meow” if you are really reading this to this point!
It’s curious how usually, at furry conventions on my side of the world, Saturdays are the half day of the convention. But for NordicFuzzCon it is the last complete day, and the last day of many attendees.
It was also a fun day, I got to hang out with friends, to go with them to some panels they wanted to go, I took Koidel to see how the song contest at NFC is taken so seriously and they make a great show around it.
Also I got to be a friend’s character for the group photo that happened that day, and we made a silly activity for charity in fursuit.
But there was something that for a moment took my mood a little bit down. When I knew they had finally found my luggage a day before, I thought I was going to receive it at some point of that Saturday and I was going to actually be in my panda character at least a little bit at the convention, but they called me to tell me I was going to receive it to Malmö around Sunday evening. For those who are very familiar with European furry conventions, the events end on Sunday noon after closing ceremonies, it is not like at American conventions that on Sundays there is still a full day of event and the closing ceremony is until evening. Many people leaves on Sunday, so receiving it on Sunday evening when everybody was gone it was going to be actually very depressing for me, not only useless and dumb, but depressing. And I was having an unexpected great time despite not having my fursuit with me, so I really didn’t want to see that luggage in Malmö just when the convention was over, it was going to be like those nightmares that I know many of us tend to have just before conventions, that we forgot our fursuit (those who have fursuit) or that you arrive just when everything is over. So I had to tell them that I was leaving on Sunday (lies, I was leaving on Monday) and that they should reroute it back home then. They apologized so much and of course the compensation by the airline is on procedure, I just consider is kind of boring to go deeper to those paperwork details on this journal, but for those who are wondering if I’m asking a compensation for this big issue: Yes, I’m on it!
So it seems my fursuit had its own vacation without me, he should write his own journal, my fursuit traveled to Houston, Chicago, Paris, Prague and Madrid.
So… I went for a coffee because that always cheers me up, put myself very in mind that I was not bringing my fursuit for NordicFuzzCon, that despite that I was having the time of my life once again at a furry event.
I was offered again to be a friend’s character, one that I had never been and I always wanted to. This was for the inflatable panel and oh boy I had a great time there, it was such an experience! So, this friend’s character tend to speak and socialize with others, so it was not a surprise that people approached to “me” when they expected to talk with “him”, and he speaks languages that I don’t, so that was challenging, I had to run, play fool, making stupid sounds that didn’t mean anything, not even a Yes nor a No, simply…Nothing. And I got to play with other fursuiters who were such great characters, I’m sure it is going to be one of the times fursuiting who I will never forget, that I will have every single silly thing I was doing that evening very printed in my memories.
It was kind of late when we ended up fursuiting and even that way, after taking showers we went down again to the convention but as humans to see what was happening, and before continuing describing what happened that evening, I have mentioned this at previous journals about my conventions: I tend to be very solitary at furry conventions, so many people stops me to say hi, of course it feel so good that many recognizes me, that they get excited to see who is the artist behind those silly cute drawings, that they want to be with me; but despite that when people invites me to hang out with them I think I’m kind of awkward because I don’t speak that much for more that I try, and at conventions I make my own plans and I attend panels alone, but nothing of this is “sad” for me, so I don’t say it like trying to push the idea about me of “oh poor Paco, how lonely he is”, because honestly many times I feel like that’s exactly what I’m looking forward, I enjoy doing my own plans. Or at least that’s what I’ve been thinking for many years. Something has changed after the 2020 break because the difference I’m about to talk about I could also notice it on myself at American conventions.
I’m trying to improve and be more talkative, less shy, because I think that’s very annoying for someone who tries to be with me, to have a very quiet inexpressive person just next to them, and it’s really difficult because I don’t want to force myself to be someone else just to fit or just to have something to talk, the challenge is “Keep being exactly how you are, but don’t be shy and actually say things you think!”.. and I think it has been working, little by little, because I’m finally getting that group of people who I feel comfortable to hang out with.
At NordicFuzzCon, since the first edition I attended, I enjoyed so much that I got a group of artists who I always hanged out with them, but only at evenings; the last two editions I was as same solitary during the day but at evenings I had who to hang out with. But this edition I got someone who I was wanting so badly to meet and actually hang out with, and I remember that evening of Saturday night after fursuiting I spent it with him and another friend, and we couldn’t stop laughing for stupid things, we really didn’t do too much but wandering around the convention area, playing with the rocks and doing quick drawings. He was decided to make a drawing of my fursona, despite he says he doesn’t draw, and yeah, it was not a great drawing but it was not awful either, it was a very good drawing for someone who considers himself an amateur, but I wanted to keep that drawing as part of a memory, despite he really didn’t want it because according him it was an awful drawing. It was not, and for me it meant a really lot.
NFC: Sunday
Sunday is what Monday is for most of American furry conventions, the day of saying goodbye to people. So many are already leaving. And really long ago I hadn’t felt so badly this PCD, nor crying for saying goodbye to people who are leaving. But also the day of attending Closing Ceremonies. That usually opening and ceremonies at NordicFuzzCon are so great. This year’s were not the greatest but I think expectations now are really high comparing other years’, but since I don’t want to be comparing: honestly they really put a lot of effort on their ceremonies, no matter if they did them better or not as good as previous editions, they make them special. And it’s always exciting to see how they will introduce next year’s theme.
Since it was Koidel’s first time in Sweden, he didn’t want to miss the chance to take a tour to Malmö, and I get him very well, I wouldn’t want to go to a city on a country I had never been before, and just to know their convention center. And good thing he has a local friend who took us to a walking tour around the town, which was very pretty (despite I had already been there and actually made a tour before the convention on 2020, I got to see places I was not last time) but it was very cold, I was freezing. But it turned in a perfect day, with a clear sky, a beautiful golden hour that inspired to take many pictures, and I always enjoy walking.
Something weird that happened that time, we went out for burgers in a burger place called Surf Shack (very recommendable, way better than Max Burgers), and we took a seat on a big table and we were only a group of 3 people, so after some minutes, a couple sit down next to us on the same table. We were talking about various topics, and something that I noticed is that the couple were not talking a little bit, it was like they were paying attention to our conversation, they received their food after us and things started being weird when they don’t even touch their food, they remained in silent, very likely just listening at us. But it was way more strange when we were done with our food, we took our traces, stand up from the table, and they did the same just after us, and they threw their food without even touching it. And they left the place after us, but on the opposite direction. But they never talked each other, not even talked with us, it was just like they were there just to listen our conversation, they didn’t even look like furries, and we were not even talking about anything serious or something that could be interesting to them. We will never know, that was very strange!
We closed NordicFuzzCon, back to the hotel, in a Jackbox room party with the cool artists guys. And once again it was very hard to say goodbye to everyone when we were heading to sleep, since we were going to wake up very early to catch our flight to Copenhagen.
Definitely NordicFuzzCon is still my personal favorite furry convention in the world, it is that convention that, despite is so expensive for me to get there, I want to be repeating every year no matter what. Each of the 3 NFCs I’ve attended have been special on their own particular way, and each one of them live very clear in my memories.
I never received my Fursuit for the convention, nor even during the trip, but that didn’t overshadow my experience, I still managed to enjoy the convention, and that thanks to friends who made my convention so great!
On my way back home I got to travel together with Koidel, so I was not alone and that made it more comfortable to be traveling for more than a day. At the Chicago’s airport we had time enough to even go out the airport and quickly go for a Chicago’s style pizza and back, we even saw the MFF’s hotel, but the Uber’s driver was driving so fast that I couldn’t get a proper good picture of it. And back to the airport is when jetlag started hitting us so hard, that for the waiting of our gate to open, either Koidel and I couldn’t remain completely awake and we were getting asleep, something that could have been dangerous to miss our flight just because we ended up sleeping in front of our gate, but we managed to get in the airplane and I didn’t even notice when we took off, I woke up when the plane was landing to Guadalajara.
A very last pro tip that I got to experience on my flight back to Mexico: DON’T use low budget airlines to travel overseas, it is more worthy to spend a little bit more of money for seats that are comfortable to hold your butt for 9 hours, and to use airlines they don’t try to charge you ridiculous amounts for taking your carry-on with you, but they don’t tell you that until you already crossed UE customs and there is no way back. And my lesson learned for my flight from America to Europe: for more affordable some flights look like, if the layovers are not longer than at least 3 hours, avoid them!
If you want to see the pictures of the trip, some of them are pictures others shared me, but most of them are by me:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/dtmwwz1l.....O66YPs0la?dl=0
Be nice with people, check on your friends, live your life that we only have one!
Many hugs and stay awesome!
Hanging out with you was one of my highlights at the convention.
Roni loves the cheese incredibly much!! I knew he was going to love it, and he's telling me we should go to Netherlands mainly because cheese.
And about the chocolate.... >__> NO!
But I still need to share it with local friends >:3
*huuuugs*
No complains, always so nice to see you n__n
And yes, I just got my fursuit yesterday X3
I'm glad you took most of the unexpected hits with a smile and moved on - positive attitude really does miracles to the bad jubies waiting out there. It's really nice to know that you enjoyed the convention regardless of the undelivered luggage situation.
As a fellow shut-in on his way to learn how to enjoy socializing more, I think you were doing quite alright - at least from those few moments we bumped into each other.
And yeaaah D: all the boxes were gone on Thursday evening D: Dang cats!
And yeeees, I'm glad I could keep the positive mood and my friends helped me to have a very enjoyable convention!
It was so nice to meet you and hang out with you even if it was briefly n__n
Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry you had to go through all that on your way there and everything about your baggage. It's amazing that you were still able to enjoy NFC, since if I were in a similar situation, I would've been affected by it a lot and probably would've felt down for most of the time. I was wondering why you were in other fursuits, and now we know the full story.
It's wonderful to hear about Mausie and Iris! They're so adorable and it's always a joy to see photos of them<3
Mausie and Iris are adorable!! Always a main reason why to go to NordicFuzzCon, they're so great!
Yeah, on Patreon is better to check out some pictures in between the text. But also I shared the dropbox link to check out all the pictures I got to take during the event, and some others that people were sharing me as well.
Thank you for reading it!! :D