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Midwest Fur Fest 2023
2 years ago
General
Well, that was some weekend! Still trying to collect my thoughts about it, but I'm going to put down here what I can.
The last time I went to this con was in 2016. My roommate Typhus was a DJ for a furry radio program and was invited down to a room paid for by the group so that they could promote the radio station. I was his +1. That year was the first year MFF actually eclipsed AnthroCon in con attendance, making it the largest furry convention in the world. It was surprising to me and yet not surprising for many reasons; I had heard that a lot of people were being turned off to AnthroCon for various reasons and such. Weirdly the con that year felt downright cozy and the large spaces in the hotel and the convention center of Rosemont were such that it never felt like there were that many people there.
All of that is gone.
MFF is the new AnthroCon, both in spirit as well as in practice. The convention now takes up every hotel in Rosemont, though the events are still limited to the Hyatt and Convention center. Sky-bridges connect many of the hotels now but since there are so many hotels spread across such a wide area even with the skybridge you have to walk and walk and walk to get anywhere. It would have absolutely killed my roommate, and I'm not sure how mobility challenged furs managed if they weren't in the Hyatt. I probably lost some weight going to this one and my hotel was right across the street from the convention center! Every bit of that open space was packed with people. It did not feel cozy. Lots of times group of furries would form a wall of people and block access to walkways and such. There were so many people we beat AC's numbers by over 1k. The con store ran out of merchandise. There was a line to get into the Artist's Alley. It was chaos the whole con...not necessarily a bad kind of chaos but I can definitely see why some of my friends have stopped going to this one.
Oh yeah, at one point we managed to break every elevator in the hotel. We broke two of the three elevators in the hotel I was staying at, additionally.
Programming was good...when I could get to it. I never once made it in time to catch a full panel though. Food was everywhere which was a welcome difference from other cons I've been to. Weirdly there was some kind of traveling curiosities show using the Convention Center while we were there. I was tempted to go through it but everyone going through looked very normal and it cost $20 to get in. I stayed in the furry space, lol.
It was great catching up with old friends, which I spent most of my time doing this year, even if my time with each was too brief. I made some new friends too, including a wonderful horse...<3
I dunno. Normally everything would break down. "It's always something." I'd say. But this time...things were different. I need to get out of my comfort zone more, this much is clear. I need to try to be that confident asshole and not the nervous wallflower. Did meet someone who had an aura of sullen dourness that was so overpowering it stopped me in my tracks though. It...really wasn't what I was expecting to encounter at a furry convention, let alone a room party. I don't want to be that guy, yet sometimes I feel it creeping in my soul.
Perhaps because of all the walking I was able to actually play some Pokemon Go this year, which despite the traveling almost never happens at these things. Beat a Mega Kangeskan raid and used my Master Ball to catch a Reshiram after a drawn out battle with tons of attrition. Still have mixed feelings about that, but I don't get into group raids often; I probably wouldn't have the chance at it again for quite some time.
There is one thing MFF has that I've never seen before. Apparently paramedics were summoned to the con literally every night. That's not hyperbole. There were fire trucks and ambulances and police outside the Hyatt every day at sunset. I've heard that in Illinoise a lot of substances are legal now and if this is the result of that then I can safely say I no longer support legalization. I've been to Anthrocon, Megaplex, FWA, and many other cons and none of them had this problem. Like, Atlanta is the drug crossroads of the United States and FWA is the biggest fur con in the south and even they don't call 911 every day or multiple times a day. Frankly, it's embarrassing. Everyone I spoke to acted like it was normal. "Yeah, this is a common occurrence at MFF." It really fucking shouldn't be. Y'all are going to piss off the city if you haven't already. There's a place for hedonism but one would think that furs would recognize that it's not unheard-of for cities to shut down events for things like "risky behavior" and "public nuisance". Tying up the emergency services of Rosemont regularly every time you host a yearly event is a good way to get there.
There was nothing so dramatic as the time someone attacked the con with chlorine gas but there was someone using a flipper-zero device to attack the con space with bluetooth DNS exploits. Their shenanigans also affected my implant and someone's insulin pump, so they're on the hook with the Feds if they get caught. Mostly it caused Iphones to crash, and they seemed to split most of their time between the dome and the Dealer's Den. Adding to the drama were a number of rapes, some of which were the reason those paramedics were called.
Listen, I don't want to sound like a downer. MFF was an amazing experience and I met a lot of really great people. I pushed myself out of my comfort zone. I had consenting sex. I tried Malort. I roomed with someone from the UK. But having just turned 40 I look at all this chaos and am like "woah." It's a reminder that eventually I'm not going to be able to do cons like this, even if I want to. I like MFF, I really do, but like...idk if it's possible for them to do better pulling numbers like they are.
Take of that what you will. I would like to go to MFF again sometime, and hopefully without as long of a gap between conventions but it's definitely one of those cons that you need to be very prepared for.
The last time I went to this con was in 2016. My roommate Typhus was a DJ for a furry radio program and was invited down to a room paid for by the group so that they could promote the radio station. I was his +1. That year was the first year MFF actually eclipsed AnthroCon in con attendance, making it the largest furry convention in the world. It was surprising to me and yet not surprising for many reasons; I had heard that a lot of people were being turned off to AnthroCon for various reasons and such. Weirdly the con that year felt downright cozy and the large spaces in the hotel and the convention center of Rosemont were such that it never felt like there were that many people there.
All of that is gone.
MFF is the new AnthroCon, both in spirit as well as in practice. The convention now takes up every hotel in Rosemont, though the events are still limited to the Hyatt and Convention center. Sky-bridges connect many of the hotels now but since there are so many hotels spread across such a wide area even with the skybridge you have to walk and walk and walk to get anywhere. It would have absolutely killed my roommate, and I'm not sure how mobility challenged furs managed if they weren't in the Hyatt. I probably lost some weight going to this one and my hotel was right across the street from the convention center! Every bit of that open space was packed with people. It did not feel cozy. Lots of times group of furries would form a wall of people and block access to walkways and such. There were so many people we beat AC's numbers by over 1k. The con store ran out of merchandise. There was a line to get into the Artist's Alley. It was chaos the whole con...not necessarily a bad kind of chaos but I can definitely see why some of my friends have stopped going to this one.
Oh yeah, at one point we managed to break every elevator in the hotel. We broke two of the three elevators in the hotel I was staying at, additionally.
Programming was good...when I could get to it. I never once made it in time to catch a full panel though. Food was everywhere which was a welcome difference from other cons I've been to. Weirdly there was some kind of traveling curiosities show using the Convention Center while we were there. I was tempted to go through it but everyone going through looked very normal and it cost $20 to get in. I stayed in the furry space, lol.
It was great catching up with old friends, which I spent most of my time doing this year, even if my time with each was too brief. I made some new friends too, including a wonderful horse...<3
I dunno. Normally everything would break down. "It's always something." I'd say. But this time...things were different. I need to get out of my comfort zone more, this much is clear. I need to try to be that confident asshole and not the nervous wallflower. Did meet someone who had an aura of sullen dourness that was so overpowering it stopped me in my tracks though. It...really wasn't what I was expecting to encounter at a furry convention, let alone a room party. I don't want to be that guy, yet sometimes I feel it creeping in my soul.
Perhaps because of all the walking I was able to actually play some Pokemon Go this year, which despite the traveling almost never happens at these things. Beat a Mega Kangeskan raid and used my Master Ball to catch a Reshiram after a drawn out battle with tons of attrition. Still have mixed feelings about that, but I don't get into group raids often; I probably wouldn't have the chance at it again for quite some time.
There is one thing MFF has that I've never seen before. Apparently paramedics were summoned to the con literally every night. That's not hyperbole. There were fire trucks and ambulances and police outside the Hyatt every day at sunset. I've heard that in Illinoise a lot of substances are legal now and if this is the result of that then I can safely say I no longer support legalization. I've been to Anthrocon, Megaplex, FWA, and many other cons and none of them had this problem. Like, Atlanta is the drug crossroads of the United States and FWA is the biggest fur con in the south and even they don't call 911 every day or multiple times a day. Frankly, it's embarrassing. Everyone I spoke to acted like it was normal. "Yeah, this is a common occurrence at MFF." It really fucking shouldn't be. Y'all are going to piss off the city if you haven't already. There's a place for hedonism but one would think that furs would recognize that it's not unheard-of for cities to shut down events for things like "risky behavior" and "public nuisance". Tying up the emergency services of Rosemont regularly every time you host a yearly event is a good way to get there.
There was nothing so dramatic as the time someone attacked the con with chlorine gas but there was someone using a flipper-zero device to attack the con space with bluetooth DNS exploits. Their shenanigans also affected my implant and someone's insulin pump, so they're on the hook with the Feds if they get caught. Mostly it caused Iphones to crash, and they seemed to split most of their time between the dome and the Dealer's Den. Adding to the drama were a number of rapes, some of which were the reason those paramedics were called.
Listen, I don't want to sound like a downer. MFF was an amazing experience and I met a lot of really great people. I pushed myself out of my comfort zone. I had consenting sex. I tried Malort. I roomed with someone from the UK. But having just turned 40 I look at all this chaos and am like "woah." It's a reminder that eventually I'm not going to be able to do cons like this, even if I want to. I like MFF, I really do, but like...idk if it's possible for them to do better pulling numbers like they are.
Take of that what you will. I would like to go to MFF again sometime, and hopefully without as long of a gap between conventions but it's definitely one of those cons that you need to be very prepared for.
Do not expect to see me at FWA in 2024. From your description of MFF, I feel it's a smaller version in it's debauchery.
Megaplex worried me this year with the lax attitude the con staff took enforcing their own rules. MFF worries me because outside of immediate con spaces it doesn't feel like it has any. Con staff was good, security was good, everything was well put together but...man.
It feels like people going to this con have a self-destructive bent and it really bothers me that the convention just seems to accept that some attrition will occur. No. Not even AnthroCon operates like that.
If I could give the MFF showrunners any advice it would be that they need to beef up their safety crew and focus on prevention instead of response. They need to mention at Opening or a New Members panel what some of the common pitfalls are and how to avoid having a medical emergency or being put in situations where one's health and safety are compromised. They need to build a culture of safety like what we have in warehouses, where everyone is aware of potential problems before they happen.
The con itself is still run like a furry convention though. There was no debauchery 'baked in'. People just brought that themselves.
I mentioned in a previous conversation with you that I expected people were having "cabin fever" after two years of Covid-19. Now though I'm starting to wonder if maybe there's more to it then that, and it's actually Gen Z starting to shift how cons are expected to operate as they start attending? The other greymuzzles sensed it too.
To some degree, I think some of the changes I'm seeing are related to the "changing of the guard" in regards to the senior staff running the cons. I see "it'll be cool if we do this" or "if we do this, it'll bring in more attendees" without regard to the consequences or how it will get viewed by the general public.
The reputation a convention has, or is getting, may have a lot to do with how much the substance abuse and debauchery are getting out of control. Using the term "Furry convention" seems to be just an excuse to have an out of control party anymore, at least where attendees are concerned. It's not in the background anymore, and it's smacking us right in the face. I wouldn't be surprised if the boost in attendance is just people looking for a "good time".
Unfortunately, in some cases, the convention staff seems to have little or no control, or just doesn't care what happens outside their con space, or their little piece of it that they're responsible for. The bigger the con, the worse it gets.
I will say this, there are 3 large cons I attend that security always has a presence and watchful eye on attendees, and you can tell the difference in the attitude. It's definitely a much better experience, and until that changes, I will continue to spend my money with them.
Hmm...how do I word this..
There's always been an undercurrent of liberated gay pickup culture running through the fandom, ever since certain groups misinterpreted what furry was about and caused the Knots Berry Farm incident. It's taken a long time for the fandom to recover from that and in some ways it still hasn't. People having wild parties at these cons isn't anything new though. Perhaps it's more that the fandom is growing too quickly? It used to be that you could go to a con and always run into the same group of people....If you had a room party you generally knew who was there. Nowadays there are so many people going to these things that the people are harder to keep track of. Could be more people coming in are getting the wrong idea or are just new to everything and getting swept up in the raucousness they're being exposed to by others? A lot of the emergency responses at MFF turned out to have come from fursuiters overexerting themselves while drunk. That's why I think some intervention from con staff in the form of educational panels and the like would be useful and perhaps help some with this problem.
So like, I also understand the desire to innovate. I like the idea behind what FWA is doing with the Moonlight Festival; making a safe space for exploring the more adult side of the fandom and giving kink groups an opportunity to have a voice. Maybe they need to work out some of the shortcomings in their execution of it, but I'd like to see them get to a point where they can do it respectfully and without compromising the integrity and atmosphere of the rest of the con. It may take a while to get there, but I believe it's possible. That said the con staff needs to be 100% on top of it to get there, or they risk having another incident like the one that started it all.
I don't know. The fandom has definitely been growing, and growth and change are two things that are bound to cause some friction.
I've leaning more towards the Anime conventions lately. The Carolina Cons group has 3 of them scattered between Charlotte, Greensboro and Columbia. And of course, the ones here in Greenville.
I do enjoy TFF greatly, and have been attending since 2016. FE in Toronto is another one I enjoy seeing my north of the border friends, but unfortunately, it also conflicts with TFF. If that doesn't change, I'll be alternating between the two
If there's only one con I can go to a year, it would be MFM over Labor Day weekend. Since Megaplex is in conflict with MFM, they're off the list until that changes.
As long as I can afford it, I will continue to go to AC. But it's getting increasingly expensive to attend.
I'll be a regular at Bewhiskered, and I hope that the same team brings back BRFF.
I'd love to go back to BLFC in Reno. The cost to get there is keeping me away.
There's been a few other cons I hear about, wouldn't mind dabbling in attending them. Time, scheduling, distance and cost are the restrictions keeping me away.
I have no issues with cons having room parties, moonlight festivals, kink panels, alcohol tasting and the like, as long as it's behind closed doors. It's when it overflows into the public domain that I have issues. And why is it that only Furry cons seem to have such a focus on these things?