Good evening my fluffy friends! As I write this, it is currently the end of the day on Sunday at Furpocalypse, and the Dead Dog Dances have just wrapped up! The theme for Furpocalypse this year was "Astrophobia," and the con was held from Oct 31st to Nov 4th! This year, Furpocalypse has undergone a number of big changes. For starters, it is now a fully-fleged four day convention, and in addition, it was held at a new hotel, the Hilton on Fairfield Avenue in Stamford, CT! The new hotel isn't all that far from the Armon where the con was held previously, but the change was needed as the convention grew by leaps and bounds post-covid. That still stands true as well, even in the new hotel, but more on this later! Lastly, the previous chairman of the convention, Silverwolf, has stepped back, and a new chairman has taken his position: Mr. DeWolfe! Despite all these changes, the one thing that hasn't changed is how much I enjoy attending my home state convention! Why is that you wonder? Allow me to share my con wrap-up with you!

(Ringgar's Furpoc 2024 Photo Album!)

If you have or see any photos of me or with me in them on any social media site or Furtrack, please send me a message and let me know! Thank you!

In previous years, the convention did unofficially start on Thursday, as registration opened late in the evening. With Thursday now bring a full con day, events and panels started in the morning, and registration opened in the early afternoon. I had arrived early on Thursday, unpacked, and decided to volunteer by helping to set up the PC gaming room before registration opened. That took just enough time for me to join the reg line, but I decided to partial as Ringgar before joining the line. That's something generally don't do as it is a lot of just waiting around in suit, but I was able to join the line in a good spot. Registration took me just over an hour, and I took my partial off to take a trek into Downtown Stamford. Last year at the Armon, I looked into the bus routes that travel from the convention and into downtown, as most of the food options were at least a 20 minute walk away. The same is doubly true at the new hotel location. Before the convention, I compiled another list of routes that travel near the hotel! I don't know if anyone else used this as there was a notable amount of Door Dashers going to and from the hotel, but I shared this list with the convention group chat and with the staff! It's a small thing, but one I was proud of! I walked to the transport center in Downtown to grab my ticket for the weekend, had dinner in Downtown, then bussed back to the hotel. By the time I got back to the hotel, opening ceremonies was to begin shortly, so I donned Ringgar once again to attend opening ceremonies, but left a little early to set up handing out candy for trick or treat! I brought Hi-chews and earplugs to hand out again this year, as well as the custom Ringgar MTG card I had printed for those who wanted them! I realized midway through trick or treating, there were a number of trick or treaters who were skipping my room, likely because my room door was around a corner, and fursuiters would have a hard time seeing the door hanger. For the last 30 minutes, I held my door open to ensure people would see they could trick or treat here, and I was lucky enough to have EXACTLY enough candy to hand out, while handing out the last pieces at the very last minute of the event. (I also traded some with  VeggieGator, who was just a few doors down from me!) Once the trick or treat event was done, I wandered the con in fullsuit to see who was around! The rest of the late evening was uneventful, but I did notice that someone had placed a bunch of earplugs at the door to the Thursday rave. I'd like to think the idea I had with earplugs last year and caught on with someone else, which I'm happy to see!

Friday was full of fun events to partake in! After the usual breakfast fare, I started the day by suiting up to participate in the Fursuit Games! Getting the chance to be silly in fursuit is one of my things to do as Ringgar, and the Fursuit Games are great event to do so! I try to go to this event every convention I go to, and the new ballroom was a great fit for the event! The best part about the event was one of the games was a ring toss! It was done specifically for me, of course xP. I was on the Blue team this year (which we named the Green Team, trying to channel the color's previous Fursuit Games' track record), but we came in third. Next year, we'll get those green bandanas! I had a brief interlude to clean Ringgar off, then put him on in partial form to attend Furry Feud! Better yet, I was able to participate this year for the first time! Our team didn't win, but I was over the moon for being able to participate at all. I had attended this event at a number of other New England cons, always hoping to play, and it seems my dream came true! I hope to do this again next year! After the event, I let Ringgar rest and headed out for dinner again, deciding to walk this time. I happened to meet (Sven Fennec) on the walk there! We had dinner together at a burger joint nearby (after walking around trying to find an open one), and had a good time together! The boardwalk the restaurant was located on was in a nice commercial district, which is something I'll keep in mind when looking for photo spots next year! After I came back to the hotel, I fullsuited for about 4 hours to meet up with friends and go to furry Improv, once again hosted by  Heathclaw, which is always a laugh-out-loud funny panel! That event took place in a second, smaller ballroom which was the perfect size for a comedy improv event! The last thing I did for the day was attend a late night broadcasts panel, where we watched an old CRT TV with a collection of old episodes and videos of odd things from the 90s' and beyond! At that point, it was about 2AM, so I called it a night afterwards.

Saturday was mostly a social day, but the highlight of the day was, of course, the fursuit parade! Before this though, I suited up a little early to go to the photo room (also run by Sven!) and have some photos taken of Ringgar. I suited around the hotel and did some bucket brigading for charity before getting in line for the Fursuit Parade and photos! My suit sibling (Ripley) and I had some photos taken together while we waited for the parade to start. I also took some selfies with friends! The parade route was very short, but it terminated outside on the (very large) lawn of the hotel! Thankfully there was a breeze to keep the Indian summer heat down. After the photo, I goofed off on the lawn and in the hotel for a little while before going to a panel about obscure MLP fan content, having a barrel full of laughs, then de-suiting to watch the Freestyle Competition! During the competition, however, Ripley told me they had seen one of our other suit siblings! We left during the event to see if we could find them, and we found it was my suit sibling (Koda!) We spoke for a little bit, and found out it was Koda's first east coast convention! We made plans to meet up the following day for a family photo session, then I returned to watch the rest of the freestyle competition. It never fails to amaze me just what people can do to make a move! I went out for dinner after the event, then came back to the hotel to suit up one more time for the day to do some late night bucket brigading, which was a big success! Once I turned in my bucket, I stopped by the Karaoke in the secondary ballroom. There was a very long queue for karaoke, so much so that I didn't get to sing until past Daylight Savings Time! But I was able to sing the song I wanted in the end! By then it was 2AM, so I capped off the day and retired to my room.

Last but not least, Sunday had a lot of activity! In the morning, I met up with some fellow wolf fursuiters for a group photoshoot out on the lawn, which I followed up with doing one last (official) bucket brigade, and finally meeting Koda and Ripley for some fursuit family photos! I love how great and diverse our Starcane community is, and I really enjoyed getting to talk with Koda & Ripley. We had planned our meet to be just at the start of the dance competition, so I quickly de-suited and ran back down to watch the dancers pull off some incredible routines! (Typo's) in particular blew me away, as they had most of the other contestants come on stage briefly to help him with his routine! They had told me previously that their routine would be wild, but I was still blown away! At the conclusion of the dance competition, I had dinner inside the hotel, and fullsuited one last time just before closing ceremonies to say my goodbyes to friends who were leaving early, as well as do one last bucket brigade during closing! Closing was a little bit of a rollercoaster as we all anticipated the finally numbers of attendees and charity donations!
Furpocalypse 2024 had a total of 2845 attendees, 825 fursuits, and raised ~$17.1k for charity! For reference, that is a growth of about 1000 attendees from last year! Mr. DeWolfe had expressed during closing that they like this current size for the convention and wishes to maintain that going forward for as long as possible. I'm unsure if that will happen, but either way, I'm still optimistic about the future of Furpocalypse! The theme for next year's convention will be the 'The Midnight Dimension', which is a riff off of Twilight Zone themes! After closing, I started packing up what I could and gave Ringgar's fullsuit a rest. The last thing I did was attend the Dead Dog dance and let loose a little bit at the rave, as well as jump in to an impromptu dance cipher! I'm not much of a dancer myself, but I just wanted to have some fun for the last event of the convention. The Dead Dog also took place in the smaller ballroom, which meant it was quite crowded, but I feel that is fairly appropriate for a last hurrah rave. This now where we find me writing this journal!

Spaceflight Termination

Furpoc will always hold a special place in my heart for many reasons. It is the first furry convention I ever attended, the first full con weekend I ever attended, the con where I debuted Ringgar's fursuit, and it is my home state convention. Though Furpocalypse isn't anywhere near as big as some other conventions, I prefer ones just like this, where it is more likely I can meet my friends frequently (unless your schedules are just complete misses with others, which happens sometimes :P.) Furpoc may have a new look, a new chairman, and a new location, but the charm that is a furry's Halloween con has never faded! I will absolutely be returning next year, and I wish that the next Furpoc was already here! Until then, however...

I am planning on what conventions I would like to attend for next year. I've already decided to return to Furpoc, but I will also be attending ANE for the full duration of the con next year! As for other conventions, I would like to go to ones in areas I have not been to yet. I am currently thinking about doing somewhere on the West Coast and somewhere in the South Eastern parts of the U.S. In particular, if I can, I would like to go to Another Furry Con and Megaplex, despite their close proximity to each other and Furpoc in terms of dates. Nothing is set in stone beyond ANE and Furpoc yet, though!

My next convention will be Anthro New England in January 2025!


I can't thank all the staff and volunteers enough for all the work that is put in to make this convention possible! This circle wolf appreciates everyone's hard work! Finally, thank you for reading as well!