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*Angry*
11 months ago
*Warning - much profanity ahead*
Okay I'm fucking pissed. Just got home from work, saw the shoutout that AC reg was starting today, so I log in and...already fucking sold out of supersponsors. Already sold out. In less than six hours. The FUCKING REGISTRATION SOLD OUT. Is this what it's come to now? In the future, I'm going to have to take a day off work specifically so I can register to AC, because it's not bad enough we have to do that sort of shit for hotel rooms too?
This isn't okay. I'm not going to be okay. Fuck no! I get one (1) fucking vacation a year, and that's AC. I don't get a lot of time off work. I don't have heaps of disposable income. I don't get the luxury of "just go to another con". There ISN'T another con. I go to AC because it's semi-local to me. I can drive there. If I attend another con, it's all the same expenses, if not more, plus airfare and needing extra time off work for the travel. I don't have that sort of money. I can barely afford the one convention.
And at the one convention? I'm working most of it anyway. Each day I get up, shower, gear up, and go wander around and take photos for hours. Go get lunch, come back to the room for a refresher shower, get my gear on and go back out to take photos for hours. Dinner time, get food, go back out and get more photos for another hour or two. Come back to the room, start offloading photos onto external hard drives, set up batteries to recharge overnight, go to sleep. Wake up the next day to do it all over again. Spend all weekend on my feet behind that camera. The only time I get to relax is a handful of events like the fursuit dance comp and the talent show. Those are the only times I sit still and actually relax all weekend. That's my one luxury I afford myself. I get front-row seats to a handful of exciting events I want to see in person. No I don't want to fucking sit all the way in the back or watch it on the TV in the hotel room like I had to do in 2023. I'm working all weekend, and I just want one fucking decent thing for myself. Just ONE fucking thing to make it worthwhile and be able to enjoy the weekend. Hell I don't even think I could use the phrase, "is it not too much to ask for?", since I literally pay out several hundred dollars for the privilege in the first place so it's not like I'm "asking" for anything.
That's it. That's all I get. And apparently I don't even get that anymore. I'll return from AC, my feet and legs sore, sunburned, gigabytes of photos to process and work on for months, but without the luxury of being able to do the one fucking thing I go there to do.
I'm livid. Not at any person or the system, it's just a fucked situation. I'm pissed. I'm disheartened. I'm discouraged.
Okay I'm fucking pissed. Just got home from work, saw the shoutout that AC reg was starting today, so I log in and...already fucking sold out of supersponsors. Already sold out. In less than six hours. The FUCKING REGISTRATION SOLD OUT. Is this what it's come to now? In the future, I'm going to have to take a day off work specifically so I can register to AC, because it's not bad enough we have to do that sort of shit for hotel rooms too?
This isn't okay. I'm not going to be okay. Fuck no! I get one (1) fucking vacation a year, and that's AC. I don't get a lot of time off work. I don't have heaps of disposable income. I don't get the luxury of "just go to another con". There ISN'T another con. I go to AC because it's semi-local to me. I can drive there. If I attend another con, it's all the same expenses, if not more, plus airfare and needing extra time off work for the travel. I don't have that sort of money. I can barely afford the one convention.
And at the one convention? I'm working most of it anyway. Each day I get up, shower, gear up, and go wander around and take photos for hours. Go get lunch, come back to the room for a refresher shower, get my gear on and go back out to take photos for hours. Dinner time, get food, go back out and get more photos for another hour or two. Come back to the room, start offloading photos onto external hard drives, set up batteries to recharge overnight, go to sleep. Wake up the next day to do it all over again. Spend all weekend on my feet behind that camera. The only time I get to relax is a handful of events like the fursuit dance comp and the talent show. Those are the only times I sit still and actually relax all weekend. That's my one luxury I afford myself. I get front-row seats to a handful of exciting events I want to see in person. No I don't want to fucking sit all the way in the back or watch it on the TV in the hotel room like I had to do in 2023. I'm working all weekend, and I just want one fucking decent thing for myself. Just ONE fucking thing to make it worthwhile and be able to enjoy the weekend. Hell I don't even think I could use the phrase, "is it not too much to ask for?", since I literally pay out several hundred dollars for the privilege in the first place so it's not like I'm "asking" for anything.
That's it. That's all I get. And apparently I don't even get that anymore. I'll return from AC, my feet and legs sore, sunburned, gigabytes of photos to process and work on for months, but without the luxury of being able to do the one fucking thing I go there to do.
I'm livid. Not at any person or the system, it's just a fucked situation. I'm pissed. I'm disheartened. I'm discouraged.
As for everything else, have you not thought about joining con staff as a photographer? I remember something or other you had discussed, but I recall it was some more informal group at AC? Or am I incorrectly remembering?
I've been trying to figure out what else to do. The major problem is the tight finances - if it were so easy to just attend another convention, this would sting a lot less. The only other cons I've explored are also kinda too big and busting at the seams, so I don't know what to do.
While typing out this reply I realized, "Oh hey there's a western PA furry weekend thing, let me look that up!", and that already passed for this year. And I'm fairly sure I can't attend next year either since I have family obligations happening around Oct of next year anyway.
Maybe it's all a moot point because there's a coin flip for this country reenacting the backstory to "V For Vendetta" anyway.
Thinking of I conventions within a decent radius of Pittsburgh, I am aware of a con in Philadelphia, which seems to be popular, and a smaller one in Columbus, OH. It also looks like someone is trying to start up a convention in the Cleveland area. If you don't mind crossing over into the Anime realm, there's Colossalcon, which is held in both the Poconos and in Sandusky, OH.
If you're still wanting a "bigger" con, although it does require travel, I do recommend Texas Furry Fiesta. Big con feel without being too big and as Barkley Beaver put it, hasn't "outgrown it's britches".
For a lark, I Googled the attendance chart for conventions. Back when I attended my first Anthrocon (2005), it looks like it was around 2.5k. And yet, I was about to respond to your post by saying, "Nah, really not interested in a bigger con, maybe just 2-4k attendance?" I was thinking in terms of 2-4 attendance being around a mid-size convention, at least in my mind. 2.5k used to be the largest fur con. Now I'm thinking about that as "mid-size". Boy how times have changed.
But it's not just missing out on supersponsor that has me feeling this way. It's just so crowded, everywhere, all the time. One quick example I can give is that every time I wanted to pull someone over for a photoshoot down one of the DLCC hallways, it was always lined with people. Just piles of people down every corridor. Every single time I wanted to take photos, I had to politely ask numerous people to move temporarily so we could get a few decent shots. It didn't used to be like this. I used to be able to have quiet photoshoots there without a problem. I could find spots with no people so I didn't have to ask anyone to move. Now there's people hanging out in every hallway, the small gathering areas with the couches and chairs are always a mess and overwhelmed with people, the walkways are crowded, the food locations near the hotel are crowded.
It just gets to the point where it feels almost claustrophobic and overwhelming. I don't normally have issues with crowds, but all the spaces in the convention just feel so busy and rushed and packed with people like a major airport concourse right after a few flights have disembarked. Conventions are primarily social gatherings, but ironically there's so many people that it's stifling the social part. The crowds just start to feel like some nameless eldritch horror that will swallow you up and you'll never be seen again - falling into a vortex of people and noise where nobody can hear you scream out for a human connection before you disappear into a mass of disinterested murmurs, perpetual shuffling, and aimless movement.
Getting into food venues has always been somewhat of a challenge, but it was more so this past year, and having an hour + wait for a table is ludicrous. Fortunately, there's always Jimmy John's and Fernando's to the rescue.
Add to all that the debacle of trying to get a supersponser admission and the future stress of getting a decent hotel location, is it really worth attending?
When a convention gets that crowded, it's not fun anymore, and I celebrate that management will be putting a cap on attendance.
I have a strong feeling that I may be looking at some other summer convention to attend after 2025.
BTW, I believe TFF has an attendance in the range of around 6k.
My go-to for food at AC has always been Subway because it's easy. But this year even they have been overcrowded and I've had to wait a while in line for a sandwich. They way I circumvent this being a bigger problem is by buying two sandwiches in the morning - a hot sub that I eat immediately, and a cold sub that I keep in my hotel room for lunch later. Dinner is hit or miss depending on the circumstances of the night. I try to avoid that one Jimmy Johns at the base of the CC because there's just something off about it - it feels like a haunted house in a scary movie where you can't tell quite what the problem is, but there's just this vibe I can't shake that I don't want to be there. But that's just me.
And you're right, I'm absolutely dreading looking for a hotel room in the coming year. It's always been a bit precarious for me since I every time I try to get a group together of, "hey let's all room together every year to make this easier on ourselves", it lasts precisely one year then everyone declines to room together again, meaning it's another long hunt trying to find a roomspace from someone who isn't a complete stranger. That was enough stress and hardship on it's own without reg difficulties atop that too.
You asked the question. "Is it really worth attending?" Honestly, I don't know anymore. And I don't know how I'll answer for 2026. But this is really the first time since 2005 that I can't give an immediate answer, and that alone worries me.
The proliferation of "Moonlight festivals" and increased adult oriented merchants in the dealer's den at conventions is evidence to this trend.
Now as far as furry cons, I find that the big cons... Are more stress than joy for me these days. While I do love furry, I went to a small con last year that I really liked and had a good time, and it was all very chill. And I wonder if maybe instead of having big cons, we need more smaller and perhaps size limited cons, so you can do the things you want to do and not be overwhelmed by the sheer number of people.
The last TFF I went to, there were thin hallways which people congregated, and only a few open areas to take photos without dozens of people in the background. Fortunately I found a park across the street that served well for this, but at TFF over the years, the first year there were many photo opportunities but as each year passed there were more people and less clear areas. I think maybe what we need is to break the cons up a little. Have more medium and smaller cons and or something.
But I just know that I went to a Star Trek con with 25K and spent 5 minutes in a reg line, had no trouble getting a hotel, etc. I know furry is often volunteer run and that they have a lot less money to work with, but it's hard not to wonder how the larger furry cons can't streamline things a bit.