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Anthrocon 2025: Cyan Glaciertooth's Experience
5 months ago
General
Hey, everyone!
This is going to be my story of my time at this year’s Anthrocon in Pittsburgh. I’m sharing this later than expected since I still needed the time to think about how I’m going to say all this, but here we go.
As usual, Anthrocon was really amazing, just like every time I’ve been there before. I’ve got to see several of my fellow furs there, meet and make new friends, attend some cool panels, like the webcomic fan meetup, bought a Shadow the Hedgehog shirt in the Dealer’s Den, commissioned an artist in the Artist’s Alley, saw Uncle Kage’s Story Hour, saw Anthrocon Tonight, and other things.
Registration seemed to be a much bigger improvement over last year. Last year, I waited 3 hours in line to pick up my badge, and yet I was still luckier than most of the others in line who had to wait longer. If I remember correctly, registration that day remained open till late at night, but had to close for the night for the health and well-being of the staff, volunteers, and those who’ve waited so long in line. This year, however, things were much, more quicker. I know I got to the registration line an hour before it opened, but within the first half-hour of registration being open, I got my badge. This was a major improvement over last year and I’m sure many of those are a lot more satisfied as well with how badge pickup went.
At times during the weekend, I would go out in fursuit. I’ve gotten plenty of pictures of me taken there, as well as use my character to make others happy. The latter part is what I find really rewarding and why I wanted to get a fursuit of Cyan.
On the topic of fursuiting at AC, there’s one particular fursuiting event at the con that has been talked about ever since they’ve announced changes to it. This is about the fursuit parade. The purpose of the fursuit parade was to showcase the craftsmanship, creativity, and character performance of these fursuits, and it’s become very popular among not just Anthrocon’s attendees, but also the citizens of Pittsburgh who really love seeing us in their city every year.
I understand not everyone was satisfied with the changes made to the fursuit parade. Anthrocon themselves didn’t want to make these changes. That being said, in order for them to continue to have the fursuit parade and be able to manage it more safely and efficiently, they had to have a cap on the number of participants in the parade. Last year’s parade was too large for them to manage well. It lasted 2 hours, and some fursuiters had to wait in Hall C longer than that before exiting out of the hall to move on to the parade. I, for one, was frustrated on making my way to Hall C in preparation for the parade. Because of this, Anthrocon was faced with needing to reduce the parade’s size. Last October, they announced that they were going to make changes like these in order to better manage the parade. Part of these changes were that they were going to have specific requirements to participate, which I know not everyone was going to be happy with. Anthrocon knew these changes weren’t going to please everyone, and as already mentioned, Anthrocon didn’t want to mandate these changes. But they didn’t really have any other choice at this point. The following May, AC gave details on how they were going to manage the parade. Details included a new pre-approval process, which I think is a great idea, but also had to restrict the parade to full and partial suits only (partials are fine as long as no skin is showing). These are rules that only apply to the parade, not to everywhere else at Anthrocon. What got people upset over these rules was the parade not allowing “poodling”, having, for example, just a head, tail, handpaws, with skin showing. As already mentioned, the parade’s size HAD to be reduced, and the parade’s purpose is a showcase of craftsmanship, creativity, and character performance. These are rules Anthrocon DID NOT WANT to make, but are left with no other choice. I was originally afraid they wouldn’t allow partials since that’s all I have for my Cyan suit. Had partials not been allowed, as disappointed as I would have been, I’d accept it and just move on. The way they planned to organize the parade this year turned out to be much better than I thought it was going to be. This year’s parade lasted 40 minutes and from what I’ve heard, there were no big safety issues. They’ve definitely made things easier for the parade.
Now, I’d end my thoughts on the parade here, but there’s still another aspect about it to bring up, another aspect that a lot of people are concerned about. It involves a certain individual that wound up making his way into the parade somehow, despite no one wanting him there. This particular individual that was spotted at the con, well, if you know the whole backstory behind this person, you can tell why people were outraged by this. In fact, the outrage was so big, AC had to make a public statement about this person. Usually, they don’t disclose information about banning people, but the drama was so huge, AC was left with no other choice but to make this statement just to ease the backlash. Personally, I’d like to learn more about how this person still got in? I’ve been hearing theories like a volunteer, unaware of who this person is and the infamy associated with him, approving his fursuit in the pre-approval. Another theory was that he showed a picture of another person’s fursuit at pre-approval (which is another option for pre-approval if they don’t show up in fursuit for pre-approval) and acted as if that was his and got pre-approved for it, only to wear his actual own fursuit in the parade. Whatever the exact reason, I don’t know. While I do hope this person remains forbidden to attend Anthrocon ever again, I won’t be surprised if he still finds a way to get back in. He’s known for showing up at other conventions, even though they don’t want him, so even with AC publicly stating that he’s banned, there’s no guarantee he’ll never return again. But who knows? Enough on the fursuit parade. Let’s move on.
This year’s AC isn’t without a nostalgic and bittersweet aspect to this, as this is the first Anthrocon in its entire history, ever since its beginning in 1997 when it was based in Albany, NY as “Albany Anthrocon”, without an amazing person who used to attend every year, one I used to do roomshare with at conventions like these, a local fur who had so many stories to tell, longtime a radio deejay for the college he graduated from, fellow mascot fan, classic cartoon fan, but most importantly, a great human being. This year’s Anthrocon is the first Anthrocon without the late Bob Nelson, a.k.a. “Anthro Coon”. At 62 years old, after a long time battle against his health problems, he passed away back in January. Learning the news was really painful. Being at Anthrocon without Bob felt really different. However, instead of letting the absence of Bob wear me down, I have decided to dedicate my visit to AC in his memory. He would have loved to see me, as well as his other fellow furs, go to this convention and enjoy it all as best as we could. When he became an absentee from last year’s FurPocalypse because of his health conditions, he told me that he’s been to several great cons throughout his life. He is very happy he got to experience it all and wanted me to enjoy these cons like he did. To honor the memory of Bob Nelson, I’m going to do that. I’m going to make the most out of any convention I go to from this point onward, and I’m doing so while keeping Bob in all our hearts. This AC’s for you, Bob. We’ll always remember you.
So, that’s my time at Anthrocon 2025. Big thanks to those who made it a great con. As for if I’ll be there next year, as much as I’d love to be back, I cannot promise that I’ll be there. With other things in my life that I need to focus on, I can’t guarantee that I’ll be back. I hope everyone else enjoyed AC as well. I hope Pittsburgh enjoyed having us over again. If I’m in a good position to go again, I’ll go.
I’ll be at Eufuria in Albany later this week, so to those going, I’ll see you there!
(P.S. If you are going to leave a comment here, please keep it civil.)
This is going to be my story of my time at this year’s Anthrocon in Pittsburgh. I’m sharing this later than expected since I still needed the time to think about how I’m going to say all this, but here we go.
As usual, Anthrocon was really amazing, just like every time I’ve been there before. I’ve got to see several of my fellow furs there, meet and make new friends, attend some cool panels, like the webcomic fan meetup, bought a Shadow the Hedgehog shirt in the Dealer’s Den, commissioned an artist in the Artist’s Alley, saw Uncle Kage’s Story Hour, saw Anthrocon Tonight, and other things.
Registration seemed to be a much bigger improvement over last year. Last year, I waited 3 hours in line to pick up my badge, and yet I was still luckier than most of the others in line who had to wait longer. If I remember correctly, registration that day remained open till late at night, but had to close for the night for the health and well-being of the staff, volunteers, and those who’ve waited so long in line. This year, however, things were much, more quicker. I know I got to the registration line an hour before it opened, but within the first half-hour of registration being open, I got my badge. This was a major improvement over last year and I’m sure many of those are a lot more satisfied as well with how badge pickup went.
At times during the weekend, I would go out in fursuit. I’ve gotten plenty of pictures of me taken there, as well as use my character to make others happy. The latter part is what I find really rewarding and why I wanted to get a fursuit of Cyan.
On the topic of fursuiting at AC, there’s one particular fursuiting event at the con that has been talked about ever since they’ve announced changes to it. This is about the fursuit parade. The purpose of the fursuit parade was to showcase the craftsmanship, creativity, and character performance of these fursuits, and it’s become very popular among not just Anthrocon’s attendees, but also the citizens of Pittsburgh who really love seeing us in their city every year.
I understand not everyone was satisfied with the changes made to the fursuit parade. Anthrocon themselves didn’t want to make these changes. That being said, in order for them to continue to have the fursuit parade and be able to manage it more safely and efficiently, they had to have a cap on the number of participants in the parade. Last year’s parade was too large for them to manage well. It lasted 2 hours, and some fursuiters had to wait in Hall C longer than that before exiting out of the hall to move on to the parade. I, for one, was frustrated on making my way to Hall C in preparation for the parade. Because of this, Anthrocon was faced with needing to reduce the parade’s size. Last October, they announced that they were going to make changes like these in order to better manage the parade. Part of these changes were that they were going to have specific requirements to participate, which I know not everyone was going to be happy with. Anthrocon knew these changes weren’t going to please everyone, and as already mentioned, Anthrocon didn’t want to mandate these changes. But they didn’t really have any other choice at this point. The following May, AC gave details on how they were going to manage the parade. Details included a new pre-approval process, which I think is a great idea, but also had to restrict the parade to full and partial suits only (partials are fine as long as no skin is showing). These are rules that only apply to the parade, not to everywhere else at Anthrocon. What got people upset over these rules was the parade not allowing “poodling”, having, for example, just a head, tail, handpaws, with skin showing. As already mentioned, the parade’s size HAD to be reduced, and the parade’s purpose is a showcase of craftsmanship, creativity, and character performance. These are rules Anthrocon DID NOT WANT to make, but are left with no other choice. I was originally afraid they wouldn’t allow partials since that’s all I have for my Cyan suit. Had partials not been allowed, as disappointed as I would have been, I’d accept it and just move on. The way they planned to organize the parade this year turned out to be much better than I thought it was going to be. This year’s parade lasted 40 minutes and from what I’ve heard, there were no big safety issues. They’ve definitely made things easier for the parade.
Now, I’d end my thoughts on the parade here, but there’s still another aspect about it to bring up, another aspect that a lot of people are concerned about. It involves a certain individual that wound up making his way into the parade somehow, despite no one wanting him there. This particular individual that was spotted at the con, well, if you know the whole backstory behind this person, you can tell why people were outraged by this. In fact, the outrage was so big, AC had to make a public statement about this person. Usually, they don’t disclose information about banning people, but the drama was so huge, AC was left with no other choice but to make this statement just to ease the backlash. Personally, I’d like to learn more about how this person still got in? I’ve been hearing theories like a volunteer, unaware of who this person is and the infamy associated with him, approving his fursuit in the pre-approval. Another theory was that he showed a picture of another person’s fursuit at pre-approval (which is another option for pre-approval if they don’t show up in fursuit for pre-approval) and acted as if that was his and got pre-approved for it, only to wear his actual own fursuit in the parade. Whatever the exact reason, I don’t know. While I do hope this person remains forbidden to attend Anthrocon ever again, I won’t be surprised if he still finds a way to get back in. He’s known for showing up at other conventions, even though they don’t want him, so even with AC publicly stating that he’s banned, there’s no guarantee he’ll never return again. But who knows? Enough on the fursuit parade. Let’s move on.
This year’s AC isn’t without a nostalgic and bittersweet aspect to this, as this is the first Anthrocon in its entire history, ever since its beginning in 1997 when it was based in Albany, NY as “Albany Anthrocon”, without an amazing person who used to attend every year, one I used to do roomshare with at conventions like these, a local fur who had so many stories to tell, longtime a radio deejay for the college he graduated from, fellow mascot fan, classic cartoon fan, but most importantly, a great human being. This year’s Anthrocon is the first Anthrocon without the late Bob Nelson, a.k.a. “Anthro Coon”. At 62 years old, after a long time battle against his health problems, he passed away back in January. Learning the news was really painful. Being at Anthrocon without Bob felt really different. However, instead of letting the absence of Bob wear me down, I have decided to dedicate my visit to AC in his memory. He would have loved to see me, as well as his other fellow furs, go to this convention and enjoy it all as best as we could. When he became an absentee from last year’s FurPocalypse because of his health conditions, he told me that he’s been to several great cons throughout his life. He is very happy he got to experience it all and wanted me to enjoy these cons like he did. To honor the memory of Bob Nelson, I’m going to do that. I’m going to make the most out of any convention I go to from this point onward, and I’m doing so while keeping Bob in all our hearts. This AC’s for you, Bob. We’ll always remember you.
So, that’s my time at Anthrocon 2025. Big thanks to those who made it a great con. As for if I’ll be there next year, as much as I’d love to be back, I cannot promise that I’ll be there. With other things in my life that I need to focus on, I can’t guarantee that I’ll be back. I hope everyone else enjoyed AC as well. I hope Pittsburgh enjoyed having us over again. If I’m in a good position to go again, I’ll go.
I’ll be at Eufuria in Albany later this week, so to those going, I’ll see you there!
(P.S. If you are going to leave a comment here, please keep it civil.)
