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NordicFuzzCon 2026
3 days ago
General
2026 is practically just starting and the year has been already a concentration of meaningful moments, so here it goes a journal of this event that for so long I’ve considered my most favorite furry convention, and I can confirm it is still going the best non-niche general furry convention. And for sure 2026 has been so far my most favorite NordicFuzzCon ever, and that’s too much to say!!
Just Before NordicFuzzCon
All started on a short weekend trip visiting my parents just before my flight to Copenhague, one that I thought that was going to be a regular visit that included a concert in between. I’ve been doing that so many times, every time I want to go to a concert that is happening in Mexico City, I go to visit my family, who lives one hour away that big city. This time I had tickets to see My Chemical Romance live (what an amazing concert! Also a big coincidence I met two other furries there among a sea of people: Jano and Zorro Chino)
But something completely unexpected is that, during my weekend visit, a member of my family who I love deeply needed to go the hospital as urgency, which made that weekend very stressful and scary, I was there in the hospital, which resulted in a very traumatic experience, I got to see many things there that I don’t want to even describe here because my stomach would mix again and I don’t want yours go in that direction at reading this if you are as sensitive as I am, but despite all that I was very worried about the situation of my loved one, to the point that I was considering canceling my entire upcoming trip just to stay there for them. But all my family insisted me that they were going to be there for them, that everything was going to be alright, so I decided to keep my trip going, but I was feeling horrible to leave someone I love in the hospital while I was going for a “fun trip”, at that point I was not even sure if I was going to have fun anymore. I was trying to call every day to check if everything in the hospital was alright, I’m not going to describe that part on the rest of this journal again, but of course I’ve been aware of everything is going on there till this date I’m writing this. (Edit: now I know they are alright and safe back home)
Many weeks before the trip I was worrying about attending NordicFuzzCon for many other reasons, reasons that after this experience in the hospital turned in silly worrying and I felt stupid to even worry about it. While I was in my fist plane I couldn’t help but crying a lot and suddenly in my mind crossed those reasons I was worrying about before that weekend, my worryings were: “What if I face this person? What if others say bad things about me? What if I get lonely?”and I changed my perspective to those thoughts and telling to myself: “Was I really worrying about that!? We are living only one life, you are very fortunate, you should enjoy what this life is giving you instead of getting anxious for things that are only on your mind, those anxieties are not even real and are just affecting your health.”
My first layover was at Los Angeles airport, I had to wait there 8 hours for my flight to Frankfurt (that was my layover between LAX and Copenhague, all the layovers that I make just for having very affordable flights). And suddenly a pain on my stomach started, and it was not a quiet one. I had experienced this bother on days before, but it hadn’t been so painful until then, and I worried a lot because I was going to be out of home for more than 2 weeks, and definitely that was something a doctor should check. I started messaging my husband, my family and some of my friends that I was going to see in Sweden about how I was feeling, and that I was considering very highly to return home instead, I even started checking flights from LAX to Guadalajara or to Mexico City for that same day, but they were insanely expensive, they were cheaper for the next day but I didn’t want to stay one night there. Everyone I messaged were calming me down, they encouraged me to keep the trip going, that if anything got worse I could check on a doctor in Sweden, I had trip insurance in Europe so anything serious that could happen it could be covered, and that was going to be better than staying one night in the USA, where I definitely didn’t have any insurance.
I had this hunch that was telling me everyone were right, and that the pain was due the stress from the weekend I had just lived. So I kept my trip on. It resulted that my problem was Colitis caused for all the stress, as soon as I calmed down that problem was gone, I still want to check with a proper doctor when I’m back home.
Monday: NordicFuzzCon Early Arrival
The entire trip went very smooth, I didn’t even feel those 11 hours in the plane, but of course I was too tired after only sleeping 3 hours on a proper bed before those flights, and maybe I got to sleep 3 hours in the plane as well.
When I took my third flight, from Frankfurt to Copenhague, I saw so many furries boarding it, but I was too tired that my social battery was completely empty; despite that, a furry started chatting with me, it was fine, I could follow the chat with no problem, but at that moment I just wanted to disconnect myself and plug into my music. Same on the train from the Copenhague airport to Malmö, so many furries there but I was on a very asocial mood!!
It was my first time seeing Malmö with snow, it was very cold but also very pretty.
Arriving to my room I took a proper nap and then a long bath in the tub (Yes! There was a bath tub, how wonderful!!), I didn’t have the energies to check who was around. I was hungry but I was too lazy for going out, also because I was already too warm and outside was very cold and windy.
Henrieke messaged me telling me she was already there, that she was going to bring some snacks to Karpour who was setting up the charity booth and then we could go out for dinner together. I had loaded a little bit my social battery after that break alone in my room, I was not loaded at 100% yet but maybe 30% which was something, but hanging with good friends as them it was something I definitely had the energy for.
When I arrived to their room, they had a bunch of groceries, Henrieke packed some to bring to Karpour, and she mentioned how lazy also she was to go out for dinner but she definitely needed to eat something, I understood that feeling so well, and then she mentioned that she wouldn’t mind to have a very light dinner of just cereal, I was very glad she said that because I was exactly in the same mood, so she offered to bring food to Karpour and then return to their room to just have cereal, so we did. I could say a proper greeting to Karpour, we went together to see if we could pick our badge up, since on Monday STEW members could make an early pick up, but just the moment we arrived they closed the queue line and we couldn’t do it. Henrieke and I returned to the room and even I appreciated so much the honestly when she said “we can just eat, there is no need to be talking if you don’t want”, I guess she was in the very exact mood I was, I was too tired to even catch up, we were going to have the entire week for that.
I returned to my room and laid down immediately with the plan to sleep, this was at 20:00, I settled no alarm clock, thinking I was going to be awake at 5:00, but when I woke up it was 9:30, so I got to sleep around 13 hours, that was a very good movement so I avoided completely jet lag on the upcoming days.
That night I got to be completely alone, since Kazan, my roomie, was not arriving until the next day.
Tuesday: City Hall
I woke up in time for breakfast, oh boy how I was missing the Clarion breakfasts!! I didn’t miss a single one that entire week!!
I met my friend Almita Otter with her husband Omar, we went to line up for registration together, despite I was Golden sponsor and I could cut entirely the line, but I wanted to hang out with them. It was also Almita’s first time not only in Europe but outside Mexico, as well as her husband, but in his case it was also his first furry convention, he was very curious about everything of these kind of events and during the entire time we were on the queue he was asking so many questions that I was very happy to answer about furry conventions.
At the end of the line I got to hang out with Shorty for a very shorty time. It made me laugh his badge that was printed wide instead of vertical how it was meant to, he told me about an accidental printing batch they were having a previous day, later on the convention they offered badges like that in exchange of a donation for charity, I should have gotten mine! (But I didn’t).
It is my first time at NordicFuzzCon being part of STEW so I finally got my own STEW T-shirt. They usually have a cooler design than regular attendees in my opinion.
Then I went to the City Hall with Karpour and Henrieke, it seems like every year the mayor of Malmö is going to host an event in the city hall for furries, last year they had done that event as well.
I kind of wanted to bring my fursuit but at some point of that event I needed to book my hotel for Anthrocon, so I attended as human. It was a very nice event with snacks, drinks and cute fursuiters to be hugging.
It was almost the end of the event when I had to sit down to see if I could get a main hotel room for Anthrocon, I thought I was not going to get it since I was going to try it on a 5G network and competing with IPs from USA when I was in Sweden. But surprisingly, and after a very low system from their part, I got a room for Anthrocon!! Yay!!
That evening I only got to hang out with my friend Waffle, I’m glad I did at that moment because I barely saw him the rest of the week. And I got to have a German sausage for dinner on a street food cart that was outside the hotel, it was actually good.
I got to see Kazan who arrived at midnight but I don’t remember we got to talk too much, he was tired and I slept immediately as well.
Wednesday: Opening Ceremony and Pub Quiz
Just after breakfast, Vael, Koidel, Holiday and I went out to buy some groceries for the weekend, and after that, knowing that was Holiday’s very first time in Sweden (I think it was his first time in Europe in general), and he wanted to try authentic Swedish things, I made him try the infamous salty black liquorice candies, he didn’t like them as most of people who is not from Nordic countries, he also tried Mairbou chocolate which he found it nice, and then I thought it was the perfect time for going for a Semla (a traditional pastry, that if you ever read my journal from NordicFuzzCon 2019 you may know that is one of my most favorite desserts), and also 3 years ago learned that it is a seasonal pastry for the first sun of the year, and NordicFuzzCon is always during that season of the year, that’s why I always get to try it when I go there. So delicious!
We got to fursuit for a little bit outside the hotel, but that day was particular cold and windy that even in fursuit I was freezing, so we didn’t last too long. It was so weird to go back from fursuiting and not only not having a drop of sweat but also wanting to be warm, my back was very cold. We went out to have dinner instead, we invited Karma and Jerry with us for Swedish meatballs in a place called Spoonery, very recommended, it is very good!
It is the first time at a NordicFuzzCon that I’m not present in live for one of the ceremonies, but most of my friends were going to watch the Opening on livestream in a room, so I joined them instead, it was pretty nice.
After the opening ceremony, SlyCat, Procyon, Karpour, Henrieke, Chiros, Koidel and I went to try the Pub Quiz event. I had wanted to try that event for so long and I had been invited on the past, but for circumstances I couldn’t be there, now this time I finally could accept.
At the moment we were getting there, Kazan joined us not having idea what exactly we were going. Teams were supposed to be only of 7 members maximum, but ours ended up being of 8, due the Kazan’s confusion and that they never counted the members of our team.
The name of our team was “And in the third place…”. Remember the name of our team, it is important!
We had the misfortune to seat on a table just next to the speakers, they couldn’t do too much to help us, because of course the sound of the microphone was very overwhelming, we could just move our table half meter away.
Questions were very nerdy and many so difficult, they asked about flags, countries and NordicFuzzCon, those were few things I’m nerd and I guess I could help a little bit with those topics, I thought I was going to be also helpful with the music part, when they played first seconds of a song and we needed to guess it, but the songs they played were very unknown to me (except “Come Together” by The Beatles but I’m sure everyone got that one). There were questions about space, which I thought we got those ones in our pocket because one of our members is an astronomer, but I guess those questions were too difficult even for him, I don’t think someone got them right.
At the end, when they announced the winners…. Third place goes to… “and in the third place…”!!
I still don’t know how we predicted that future. We got free candy!
Thursday: Artists Alley
After breakfast, all Karpour, Henrieke, Koidel, Balt, Karma, Jerry, Holiday and I went immediately to line up for getting a table in the artists alley, and we got to be all together next each other. At NordicFuzzCon, artists alley works different than most of conventions I’m used to for getting a table, it is first come first serve but also they have two rounds each day: morning and afternoon, you can stay all two rounds if you desire or leave the space for an artist who wants to be on the next one. Originally I was planning to stay in the artists alley all day Thursday, but I had with me very few merch (6 comic books, some few pins and stickers) and I was going to take 6 commission slots, and in that first round if the day I filled all slots and most of my merch got sold out, so when the first time round was over, and most of my friends were leaving because they wanted to stay only in the morning and also most of them were going to an event in fursuit, I really didn’t find reasons to keep staying there and I left my table as well.
My bad I announced on my Telegram channel that I was going to be there only that day but not that I was going to be only in the morning, I got to know later that many people were searching for me during the second round and they couldn’t find me. I’m sorry!!
I went for first time during the convention to the second venue that is called “Valhalla” (10 minutes walking or taking a bus that runs every 10 minutes), I transformed myself into panda bear an jumped to the bus, but just when I was about to board I saw Kiro in fursuit, Kiro is an artist from Brazil I like his art so much, and I was surprised he also recognized me as soon as we saw each other, I run to hug him and took a picture with him, that made me so happy.
In Valhalla I found was Satti, I hanged out with him, we took some pictures with the big inflatable Mausie (they brought back the big Mausie!!! That also made me so happy)
In our return we stayed outside the hotel with the bunch of fursuiters who were there, one of them was Bolt the train dog, I wanted to say hi and talk with him but he was always busy, but I got to see Kiro again, and also Koda the red panda, we got to play on the bouncy castle that was outside, despite there were some normie guys. That was actually the last day I could play on that bouncy castle, the upcoming days every time I tried to do it there were always scary normie teenagers that we didn’t knew their intentions, and there were not other furries in there, it was like they took over it.
Inside I found Mausie and Iris who were roaming around. They ALWAYS make me so happy!! I love them so much!!
That evening after fursuiting it was art jam time until very late, I could advance most of my commissions I had taken earlier in the Artists Alley
Friday: Charity Event at Hospital
After breakfast I quickly run to the Con Store, I had to pick there cards from the collecting NFC trading cards, I’ve been collecting those since they introduced them and I’m not missing a single one, and in this set there was one with my art (I think it is the 3rd card with my art in it).
Also to pick up my free pillow case I had designed. But since I was in the store, it was inevitable to not buy things, I’m huge fan of NordicFuzzCon and imagine being in a store full of merch of that thing you are super fan of, I ended up buying a lot of things! They even had for sale that T-shirt of STEW from 2020, it has been one of my most favorite designs of t-shirts of a NFC and it was only for STEW members, so I didn’t get it. When I asked for it, the guy on the cashier told me “oh that one is actually for sale but only for STEW members” and I showed him very proudly my STEW lanyard 😎
I think I won’t use that t-shirt but only on very special occasions, to preserve it very well.
Thabo the Meerkat had invited me some days before to join them for a charity event he was organizing to a children hospital, I accepted because it was something I had never done before.
It resulted to be during the Opera and also during the Open House times. When I had seen the schedule I had seen that Open house and the Opera was at the same time, so I was considering going to the Opera in fursuit if it was allowed so when I was out I could get immediately in the open house, but then I couldn’t attend any of those for the commitment that I had accepted, and I wanted to see the Opera not only because it was going to be super cool to check out the big theater of Malmö, it was the very first time that a NordicFuzzCon event was hosted in there, but also because my friends were participating in it, JD Puppy was acting and Kazan performing on the instruments. But some spoilers: I won’t regret my decision of going to the hospital instead.
We were figuring out how to get to the hospital, we were 6 people with 4 fursuits, the hospital was in another town and the cars they had were not big enough for people with big suitcases, and when they were searching for an Uber XXL (which were not available apparently), I saw Lightfox for first time during the convention and waved my hand to say hi, he stopped what he was doing to say a proper greeting, we told our current problem and he offered to lend the big truck from NFC, which solved all the problem, it was such a big truck!!
The hospital was not close at all, it was even in another town called Lund. We arrived and the people from the hospital were very kind and welcoming, they gave us a place where to change and they even provided water and towels in there. We turned into cute animals, we were Thabo, Mausie, Iris and Paco. We went down where the kids where and this is the moment of realization of what exactly I had accepted. Of course I knew what we were going to do, but I hadn’t thought of how this was going to hit me emotionally, I was not even prepared for it.
First of all, the fact that we were in a hospital, when I had just lived traumatic experience in one just a weekend before, but seeing how different can be a hospital from country to country, I could feel my heart shrinking, but that was just the beginning.
We found two kids with their respective parents, a little girl and a boy, they were so happy to see us, they were such sweethearts, the girl was wanting to hug each one of us and talking at us with her limited vocabulary (definitely she knows more Swedish vocabulary than I do, so I couldn’t understand her anyway), the boy was sharing his toys, also hugging us, he was more playful. He was wearing a pajama with his hoodie on, and there was a moment he removed his hood and I could see more clearly his face, his hair was removed and he had big rings around his eyes, it reminded me there was a big reason these kids were there, they were such beautiful human beings and they were not alright, I could see then the smile on their parents for looking their children smiling, that hit me so hard that suddenly my eyes turned foggy, I couldn’t see a thing because I was crying so much, but I couldn’t left my character aside, I kept playing with them, we kept making them so happy. Then, they arrived more kids, one of them was on a wheelchair, his movements were limited as well as his communication, he was talking with his mom in sign language, he was also incredibly happy to see us, he wanted to feel our fur and every time he touched it he was smiling so much. We were giving away some animal plushies to them, one of the kids had two plushes on his arms now. As characters, we NEVER speak, we need to mantain all time the magic, I made him notice with some gesticulation that he had two plushies and I had nothing, so he standed up and went to reach one for me, once again, them being beautiful beings, when I grabbed the plushie he was giving to me I couldn’t help crying again inside, I was so sensitively emotional at that moment, everything was making my heart melting.
It was also very hard to say goodbye to them, the first girl from the beginning started crying and she really wanted to say goodbye to each one of us. I was just holding my big cry because I definitely couldn’t start crying there, that would have made me break the character, and I thought that as soon as we stepped on our private changing room I was going to let all the tears out, and I was going to be very embarrassed for it; but when we went back to the room, I guess it was the same embarrassment that prevented me to start crying in front of everyone else, I just calmed down, I didn’t cry, but I told everyone how beautiful that had been, and thanked Thabo for have been including me to that.
We all are humans and we can suffer inside, we all have our reasons for the actions we take and our mistakes, but we all can be great people, maybe we can’t be friends of everyone but we all are living our own story, we all deserve respect, you never know what you are affecting to others for good or for bad, sometimes we hook to people for how bad they have done to us but probably they were doing it for reasons of their own perspective, not because they want to be evil, it’s better to live our lives and treat everyone how we would like to be treated.
So yeah, I didn’t feel bad for have missed completely the Open House and the Opera, I’ve been at the open house before and it is fun, probably next year I’ll be there, and the Opera is something I can see recorded later on the internet, I’m so glad everyone applauded how good the Opera went, everyone who attended loved it, I can’t wait to have some time back home to sit down and watch it with some pop corns and soda.
Friday: The Great Evening
Yes! We’re still on Friday! Friday was a very special evening! I can even describe it with luxury of detail everything that happened that night.
We planned to dance in Valhalla for the 80-90s set, so I was suggested to go in partial, but you may know how I am about fursuiting, I don’t like ruining the magic, I personally don’t mind if others puddle or not, I don’t do it, for me it is a ritual that transforms me in my own character, so if the idea of partialing was for not overwhelming, I went with a long sleeve light shirt, but I still wore my paws, legs and shorts.
We were Akko, Karma, Vael, Smokey and I who went together to Valhalla. It started snowing. We arrived early, the dances hadn’t even started yet so we went to the arcade room to play. Long ago, years actually, that I hadn’t entered to the NFC’s arcade, I had forgotten how amazing it is, it’s practically a museum, they even explain you facts about each console displayed, we got to play pinball, Mario Kart 64, and many other games in retro consoles. Then the dances started.
The first set was also retro, it was hip-hop from the 90s, which was as well enjoyable, but not as much as when it started the the 80a-90s set. First I found the 90s cool raccoon guy: Ralphie, not surprised to find him there, those dances were practically his theme. But then I found Baseball the bat and Kazan, they joined our group for the rest of the set, we danced and sang so many songs until the end of the set. Moments like those made me feel how lucky we were to be there, that we are living an amazing time in our lives, that we may be in the right moment and all the decisions we’ve made in our lives are worthy, realizing that we are surrounded by people whom we can be as authentic as we want with. When else in the timeline of the history we could be like that? So surreal to be animals, species we decided to be, and be surrounded by other animal people, with or without their disguises.
“Welcome back to NordicFuzzCon” Koidel told me when he noticed how much I was enjoying those dances. It really felt like that, like I hadn’t been there in ages.
After the dances I didn’t feel exhausted at all, I still had a lot of energy, we returned to the bus and it was already snowing more heavy, it was very cold to go from the entrance of the building to the bus.
At entering to the bus, we found Baseball, Spikie, Aura, Duino and Sly Cat (uff, I hope my memory is not wrong, I think they were all of them, I’m sorry if I’m changing someone or adding someone who was not there). I remember being more chatty than usual, I had so much energy and I got surprised how social I was at the moment. When we arrived back to the hotel, I was torn between keep hanging with all of them or checking a party that was happening in one of the stages, I decided I was going to check the party a little bit and then hanging with them (spoiler: I stayed at the party, I didn’t keep hanging with them).
The party was not as good as the 80-90s one, not even close, the music was lame and very low, but what made me stay there was all the people I got to see there, and since at the moment I was feeling especially social, I was chatting with each one of them. When I noticed it was already 2:00 am, so I thought it was too late to hang out with those guys I had found in the bus.
I was about to return to my room but I decided to lay down on the rat pit (like a ball pit but with rat plushies instead), it was finally free, I was with Smokey and we kind of wanted to chat about how amazing that evening had been but more people joined us in the pit, they were having their own chatting until I realized I was getting sleepy and it was going to be bad if suddenly I felt asleep in fursuit in the middle of the convention center, I noticed that Smokey actually had fallen asleep and I had to wake him up.
We finally returned to our room and it was almost 3:00 am
Saturday: Maid Café and Cancelled Fursuit Parade
After breakfast, I had reserved a time slot for going to the Maid Cafe, something that there have been years I hadn’t attended despite always having a ticket for free coffee and pastry there, I was simply missing out so much.
Kazan, Koidel, Kön and I went together, we had a super cute puppy as our waiter, and in our table there was a crossword activity which was related to the convention, have I told you how nerd I am about NordicFuzzCon? It was the easiest crossword to me, they were asking basic questions about NFC, like the species of the mascots (it is “Raus”, a hybrid between mouse and rat, something that I’ve been pushing lately to the convention to make official is that the plural of the species don’t be “Rauses” but “Rice”, especially when they seem to love naming official things as food). When the puppy took our order I told him I had filled the crossword successfully, asking him what have we won, that if we cash it for a free dessert, I was joking but he really took the paper, saying he was going to ask, and he returned with the obvious news that it was just a fun activity, that there was not any reward for it.
Another funny moment was when we saw Trax in the distance and he went to our table to say hi, and our puppy waiter arrived and told him “I’m sorry, no cats allowed!”
Something I was looking forward so badly this NordicFuzzCon was their fursuit parade, it is the second best fursuit parade I know (I’m sorry, Anthrocon’s still my favorite), but as soon as we woke up we saw it kept snowing, floor was so wet and icey, we suspected fursuit parade was going to be cancelled, and indeed on the chat of my staff department announced beforehand that the parade was going to be cancelled and they were preparing an announce for replacement of the event, since the convention had prepared to have a professional marching band to open the parade, that was going to look so cool! But instead they managed to make an event on main stage with the marching band where many fursuiters could be there dancing with their mudic. I attended that event with another fursuit, I can tell not many people who wanted to go to the parade checked out that event, I could imagine the amount of people who were going to be in the parade and that didn’t reflect the amount of people in main stage for the replacement event. Well, it was very cool, it was evident that marching band are professional and their energy was very contagious. I don’t know where I got all the energy back, I barely had slept (I went to bed at 3:00 and for some reason I was awake at 8:00 despite I had put my alarm clock at 9:00), I danced a really lot like if I was fresh as lettuce, I even got to be in the middle of the marching band (they were encouraging fursuiters to do it so), I didn’t be there the entire event, I got very exhausted after a conga line, that conga line was crazy, for the rhythm of the music we were practically running. So running, dancing and in fursuit is the best combination to get exhausted.
After a quick break in the fursuit lounge, I was ready to stop being a cute critter but in the way from the lounge to the elevator I got to see more opportunities to keep playing with more fursuiters, especially on that funny trash bin, I don’t know how I managed to jump in that trash bin prop when there was already another fursuiter there, and the fursuit I was wearing has a lot of padding for the low crotch, sometimes I’m inexplicably agile in fursuit, when out fursuit I feel like an old dude whose back aches.
The owner of the fursuit saw me keep doing crazy stuff, he approached to me and told me “you’re completely wet, you should rest”, yup, at that moment I returned to stop being a critter and turned back to human mode.
Saturday: Pool Toy Party
So you may think that then I rested after fursuiting for so long in an energetic way after barely had slept the previous night that I had spent dancing. But that was not the case, as soon as I jumped out the fursuit, I realized I hadn’t checked the dealers den and that was the very last chance I had, so I went to Valhalla by my own (it feels so good to be free to plan things by myself and not needing to check with someone else what are their plans and worrying that maybe our plans don’t match and missing out spontaneous decisions like that).
After going to the dealers den, I went back to the Clarion by walk, finding out for first time how close Valhalla is from the Clarion, I had no idea! This is the first year I went many times to this other wing of the convention this many times, in previous years I had only been there once for a very quick event and even last year I didn’t step there a single time, this year I went there many times, most of times by bus but that time walking back to the Clarion felt very good, it was cold but it was a very cool walk.
Back to the hotel I found some friends who were going to check the Circus event, I was thinking to check Furovision but it was excessively full, it was one of those events that if someone wanted to attend they needed to line up so minutes before, so I didn’t even try, I preferred to check the Circus, at least the first 20 minutes, and it was mainly because I wanted to see how cool it was the main theater, since I couldn’t check it during the Opera, it was mainly to do a check on my list.
But I went out from the Circus because I wanted to jump in fursuit again, to turn in a panda bear, because I was heading with Baseball the bat to the Pool Toy Party in Valhalla. It has been the biggest pool toy party so far at NordicFuzzCon, well, that at least I remember, since also I hadn’t attended it in years. There we also met Satti, Karma, Akko, Vael, Smokey, Latin Vixen, Kiro… well… many cool critters were attending that event. I wondered at that moment why I got so exhausted during it, but I had been so active during the past 48 hours nonstopping. Despite the exhaustion , the event was too much fun, I don’t know why I liked so much a simple big tire, where many fursuiters could sit down and if we started jumping in there we could feel like flying. At first I had disliked that tire because I try to sit down on it like if it was one of those pool tires to lay down and relax, but the hole was too big that at sitting I got stuck inside in an awkward position without being able to move, I couldn’t move my legs or my arms to try to stand up by my own, I got a little scared when I found I couldn’t move and the position was hurting my back, I started yelling “help!”, but instead anyone helped me, people started taking me pictures “aww what a cute panda!”, until I yelled “no, for real! I need help!” And someone helped me to stand up. I didn’t do it again, and I was scared when I saw that Baseball was about to do the same, I helped him to avoid to get stuck.
Out that, the party was really fun, I felt I didn’t last too much, but looking at the clock I was indeed about 2 hours playing with the pool toys, and I got very sweaty than usual, when I was back to the fursuit lounge and removed my head, my friends pointed me out how wet I was, like if I had gone out a shower. Many of my friends went to dance after a quick break there, but I knew I needed a bigger break, I wanted to dry as much as possible, and when I was about to get ready to return, my friends went back from the dances for another break, boo!!!! I got to say goodbye to Satti at that moment, he was returning to his hotel and leaving in the morning.
The moment I was ready to go to the dances, the dances room was completely covered in dry ice (or I don’t know how you know that smoke that they put on shows to make lights visible), something that immediately made my throat itchy, I don’t know how others could stay there dancing, I had to leave the room almost immediately without dancing, I started feeling so tired after all so I better decide to return to the hotel. After taking a shower I went down to the drawing corner to hang out with my friends but I guess I was too tired for keep drawing, I doodled a little bit on the tables, tho.
Sunday: Closing Ceremony
Last day of the convention, usually when many people is already leaving, at difference of a furry convention in America when Sunday is still a full day. I was very confused first times I was attending furry conventions in Europe and that closing ceremony was so early in Sunday and after it almost nothing else was happening.
The hotel spoiled us so much that morning, adding a chocolate fountain during breakfast.
Just after breakfast we went to line up for attending Closing Ceremony in person with Kazan and Holiday, it was cool because we got to be in one of the firsts rows. I enjoyed a lot this ceremony, the stats video was so funny, and I loved the animation for announcing the next year’s theme, I was told I was included in the animation so I was paying attention to it, and yes, my panda was featured but for less than 1 second. But an artwork I did was displayed for longer, a version of the American Gothic painting but with Mausie and Iris, I did a second version that was supposed to look like AI generated (despite it was not) but I guess I needed to exaggerate it even more because it was barely noticeable what was the joke in it. As a fun fact, I worked on that artwork not even knowing what was going to be the theme for next year, I wanted to save it as a surprise for that moment. Also my friend Sora worked on an artwork for the convention, which was displayed after the animation, so the theme for next year is about detectives, I think it is a fun theme.
If you want to watch the animation video, they already shared it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBifXZQ6mBw
I was a little bit emotional when they announced the closing of the event, I enjoyed the convention a really lot, it was a big honor to be a stew member this year and I was already aware that had been my most favorite NFC so far. I had thought on skipping next year to give myself a break from NFC, but I’m not considering that break anymore, I want to keep helping them, keep being part of this. I wanted to hug and thank for the event to many of the other stew members I was seeing during my way out main stage, thanking them for being so passionate for the event that it is noticeable, you really can notice the love put on everything you see around during this week, and that passion is contagious.
After the ceremony I called my mom and for some reason I got very emotional with her, my friends saw me crying while on my call and I worried them, but everything was alright, at that moment anything was making me cry. And then, I got to see Terkina, I knew it was going to be her very last furry convention, that she was not going to plan any other, this NFC was her big farewell; at first I was hesitant because I saw many people were saying proper goodbyes and being very emotional with her, and I don’t consider myself someone who was slightly closer, I was not even sure she knew who I was, but I was wanting to say something. When I got my chance to talk with her, she knew exactly who I was, I could talk with her a little bit before telling a proper goodbye. Just when I was leaving I couldn’t help but crying a lot, I was holding it.
Then we saw Kvikk who gave me for third time one of the Kvikk chocolate bar from Norway.
Almita sent me a message, asking me if I knew what a semla was and where she could get one, so I thought it was a good idea to go at that moment for a semla and a coffee, I invited her and her husband some semlas, they seemed to enjoy it, it was a very nice moment with Kazan, Holiday, Koidel, Almita and Omar (Almita’s husband), oh dang there was someone else with us and I can’t remember who it was!! My bad! I’m sorry! Probably I will remember later! But I remember we were talking in two different groups, me with Almita and Omar and the rest of them in another group, we all were talking about our experiences during the event and how much we enjoyed it.
I went very quickly to the drawing corner just to say hi to people there, and Zahzu gave me a pocket fan with a panda on it, she said that she looked at that fan and she thought on me, I don’t know why I was so emotionally sensitive that day, but that also touched me. You may think these thoughts from me are very silly, but I can’t help but keep thinking I’m a nobody, and especially with people I admire I feel like I have zero chances I can be someone to them, I tend to be very nervous. This feeling was something I had towards Zahzu. Something like this happened 7 years ago when I met Karpour and Henrieke for first time, I was so nervous to even being on the same room with them, and I couldn’t believe that they were actually wanted to hang out with me, they were really looking forward for it, and in my mind I had a thought “do they really know who I am?”, and they wanted to get me very into their group; nowadays I consider them very good close friends, I still feel shy and nervous sometimes when they introduce me very cool people.
So it was not like the pocket panda fan made me so happy, it was more the fact that I’m really someone for people I admire, I need to go out my bubble and start being more brave at interacting with people I think they are cool, especially those who give me good hunches.
Sunday: Mausie Party
We went to the 25th floor of the Clarion for dinnr, not recommended at all, avoid that place: expensive, nothing special and very rude staff.
After that bad experience, I went to the Jackbox party hosted at Karpour and Henrieke’s room , we were many peple on that room that I won’t mention everyone in there, we were about to start playing when suddenly someone knocked the door, and here is when I can say we were the luckiest party in the entire convention that evening, who it was? Mausie!!
We played the Cheese Party song in many of their different versions, at that moment I felt incredibly good, imagine being so fan of something so specific as one furry convention that I know all the songs and know all the lore of their mascots, so that moment it was one of my biggest fanboy moments of all time: we all were singing along the Cheese Party song, even the “rap” part, while having Mausie there dancing. It was the best! Then we kept playing Jackbox Party.
After Mausie left, I also returned quickly to my room to pack, Kazan and I were packing, but he was leaving that same night. After he was done packing, we went together back to Henrieke and Karpour’s room.
We chatted there a lot until very late night, I don’t even remember what time exactly it was but it was pretty late. Kazan left the room for taking his flight and I remained there for more hours.
Monday and Beyond: NFC, See You Next Year!
Not having a proper amount of sleep, I woke up very early for the last breakfast at the hotel. Vael, Koidel and I were taking the same flight, we could hang out more with Karpour, Henrieke, Duino and Aura, we even went together to the airport and spent more time there until it was time for boarding. The three of us went to Germany, and from there to Florence and Venice in Italy for some extra days of vacations after the convention, those extra plans post convention help a lot to minimize PCD. When we went to Florence we made a quick detour to Pisa, where we met Koda (who joined the rest of our adventure), Karma and Jerry. It was a very nice time full of amazing scenery and super yummy food.
Conclusion
I’m glad I can say again NFC is my most favorite convention. On previous years it was feeling very automatic, I was on a stage of my life that I was feeling a depression I was not wanting to accept. As I said to my stew team.. I was taken for granted everything like if I was not aware of anything around me, now I feel more grateful, we are only living our life once and nothing we live is going to repeat again, things may change for good or for bad, we are unable to make time stop, but what we can is to follow the flow, enjoy our moments with our friends, the opportunities this life is giving us to make things different, unique, make this place as good for us as for everyone around us, and all time feel grateful for being alive.
All the decisions we make are impossible to know if they are right or not, let’s follow our hunches, and not just follow what others tells you are right.
I almost don’t go to NFC, there were many times I made the decision to cancel the plans of traveling this time of the year to Malmö, Sweden, first for my own insecurity of how everything was going to go, deeper some weeks before the trip I didn’t want to go; but then when I was 100% decided with myself of going, there were two more situations that became priorities to consider than a trip, but in the end everything was alright and I could go, so it was like I really needed to go to this trip, some how it felt like it was written. It feels like if it was an before and after point.
Thanks a lot for those few who really read all this, and even if you just read a few and was skipping many parts, still thank you! I usually write these journals to settle a memory for myself but if others can also enjoy my point of view of the event it’s always gratifying.
If you want to see pictures, either that I took or that I was saving that were shared by others, here is where you can see them: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/yvswgptwxm0cvp2cjvme4/AK-3xPbDxzU3gHqUHjAjX9Q?rlkey=all2no29veeuiwft9na65p18h&dl=0
Just Before NordicFuzzCon
All started on a short weekend trip visiting my parents just before my flight to Copenhague, one that I thought that was going to be a regular visit that included a concert in between. I’ve been doing that so many times, every time I want to go to a concert that is happening in Mexico City, I go to visit my family, who lives one hour away that big city. This time I had tickets to see My Chemical Romance live (what an amazing concert! Also a big coincidence I met two other furries there among a sea of people: Jano and Zorro Chino)
But something completely unexpected is that, during my weekend visit, a member of my family who I love deeply needed to go the hospital as urgency, which made that weekend very stressful and scary, I was there in the hospital, which resulted in a very traumatic experience, I got to see many things there that I don’t want to even describe here because my stomach would mix again and I don’t want yours go in that direction at reading this if you are as sensitive as I am, but despite all that I was very worried about the situation of my loved one, to the point that I was considering canceling my entire upcoming trip just to stay there for them. But all my family insisted me that they were going to be there for them, that everything was going to be alright, so I decided to keep my trip going, but I was feeling horrible to leave someone I love in the hospital while I was going for a “fun trip”, at that point I was not even sure if I was going to have fun anymore. I was trying to call every day to check if everything in the hospital was alright, I’m not going to describe that part on the rest of this journal again, but of course I’ve been aware of everything is going on there till this date I’m writing this. (Edit: now I know they are alright and safe back home)
Many weeks before the trip I was worrying about attending NordicFuzzCon for many other reasons, reasons that after this experience in the hospital turned in silly worrying and I felt stupid to even worry about it. While I was in my fist plane I couldn’t help but crying a lot and suddenly in my mind crossed those reasons I was worrying about before that weekend, my worryings were: “What if I face this person? What if others say bad things about me? What if I get lonely?”and I changed my perspective to those thoughts and telling to myself: “Was I really worrying about that!? We are living only one life, you are very fortunate, you should enjoy what this life is giving you instead of getting anxious for things that are only on your mind, those anxieties are not even real and are just affecting your health.”
My first layover was at Los Angeles airport, I had to wait there 8 hours for my flight to Frankfurt (that was my layover between LAX and Copenhague, all the layovers that I make just for having very affordable flights). And suddenly a pain on my stomach started, and it was not a quiet one. I had experienced this bother on days before, but it hadn’t been so painful until then, and I worried a lot because I was going to be out of home for more than 2 weeks, and definitely that was something a doctor should check. I started messaging my husband, my family and some of my friends that I was going to see in Sweden about how I was feeling, and that I was considering very highly to return home instead, I even started checking flights from LAX to Guadalajara or to Mexico City for that same day, but they were insanely expensive, they were cheaper for the next day but I didn’t want to stay one night there. Everyone I messaged were calming me down, they encouraged me to keep the trip going, that if anything got worse I could check on a doctor in Sweden, I had trip insurance in Europe so anything serious that could happen it could be covered, and that was going to be better than staying one night in the USA, where I definitely didn’t have any insurance.
I had this hunch that was telling me everyone were right, and that the pain was due the stress from the weekend I had just lived. So I kept my trip on. It resulted that my problem was Colitis caused for all the stress, as soon as I calmed down that problem was gone, I still want to check with a proper doctor when I’m back home.
Monday: NordicFuzzCon Early Arrival
The entire trip went very smooth, I didn’t even feel those 11 hours in the plane, but of course I was too tired after only sleeping 3 hours on a proper bed before those flights, and maybe I got to sleep 3 hours in the plane as well.
When I took my third flight, from Frankfurt to Copenhague, I saw so many furries boarding it, but I was too tired that my social battery was completely empty; despite that, a furry started chatting with me, it was fine, I could follow the chat with no problem, but at that moment I just wanted to disconnect myself and plug into my music. Same on the train from the Copenhague airport to Malmö, so many furries there but I was on a very asocial mood!!
It was my first time seeing Malmö with snow, it was very cold but also very pretty.
Arriving to my room I took a proper nap and then a long bath in the tub (Yes! There was a bath tub, how wonderful!!), I didn’t have the energies to check who was around. I was hungry but I was too lazy for going out, also because I was already too warm and outside was very cold and windy.
Henrieke messaged me telling me she was already there, that she was going to bring some snacks to Karpour who was setting up the charity booth and then we could go out for dinner together. I had loaded a little bit my social battery after that break alone in my room, I was not loaded at 100% yet but maybe 30% which was something, but hanging with good friends as them it was something I definitely had the energy for.
When I arrived to their room, they had a bunch of groceries, Henrieke packed some to bring to Karpour, and she mentioned how lazy also she was to go out for dinner but she definitely needed to eat something, I understood that feeling so well, and then she mentioned that she wouldn’t mind to have a very light dinner of just cereal, I was very glad she said that because I was exactly in the same mood, so she offered to bring food to Karpour and then return to their room to just have cereal, so we did. I could say a proper greeting to Karpour, we went together to see if we could pick our badge up, since on Monday STEW members could make an early pick up, but just the moment we arrived they closed the queue line and we couldn’t do it. Henrieke and I returned to the room and even I appreciated so much the honestly when she said “we can just eat, there is no need to be talking if you don’t want”, I guess she was in the very exact mood I was, I was too tired to even catch up, we were going to have the entire week for that.
I returned to my room and laid down immediately with the plan to sleep, this was at 20:00, I settled no alarm clock, thinking I was going to be awake at 5:00, but when I woke up it was 9:30, so I got to sleep around 13 hours, that was a very good movement so I avoided completely jet lag on the upcoming days.
That night I got to be completely alone, since Kazan, my roomie, was not arriving until the next day.
Tuesday: City Hall
I woke up in time for breakfast, oh boy how I was missing the Clarion breakfasts!! I didn’t miss a single one that entire week!!
I met my friend Almita Otter with her husband Omar, we went to line up for registration together, despite I was Golden sponsor and I could cut entirely the line, but I wanted to hang out with them. It was also Almita’s first time not only in Europe but outside Mexico, as well as her husband, but in his case it was also his first furry convention, he was very curious about everything of these kind of events and during the entire time we were on the queue he was asking so many questions that I was very happy to answer about furry conventions.
At the end of the line I got to hang out with Shorty for a very shorty time. It made me laugh his badge that was printed wide instead of vertical how it was meant to, he told me about an accidental printing batch they were having a previous day, later on the convention they offered badges like that in exchange of a donation for charity, I should have gotten mine! (But I didn’t).
It is my first time at NordicFuzzCon being part of STEW so I finally got my own STEW T-shirt. They usually have a cooler design than regular attendees in my opinion.
Then I went to the City Hall with Karpour and Henrieke, it seems like every year the mayor of Malmö is going to host an event in the city hall for furries, last year they had done that event as well.
I kind of wanted to bring my fursuit but at some point of that event I needed to book my hotel for Anthrocon, so I attended as human. It was a very nice event with snacks, drinks and cute fursuiters to be hugging.
It was almost the end of the event when I had to sit down to see if I could get a main hotel room for Anthrocon, I thought I was not going to get it since I was going to try it on a 5G network and competing with IPs from USA when I was in Sweden. But surprisingly, and after a very low system from their part, I got a room for Anthrocon!! Yay!!
That evening I only got to hang out with my friend Waffle, I’m glad I did at that moment because I barely saw him the rest of the week. And I got to have a German sausage for dinner on a street food cart that was outside the hotel, it was actually good.
I got to see Kazan who arrived at midnight but I don’t remember we got to talk too much, he was tired and I slept immediately as well.
Wednesday: Opening Ceremony and Pub Quiz
Just after breakfast, Vael, Koidel, Holiday and I went out to buy some groceries for the weekend, and after that, knowing that was Holiday’s very first time in Sweden (I think it was his first time in Europe in general), and he wanted to try authentic Swedish things, I made him try the infamous salty black liquorice candies, he didn’t like them as most of people who is not from Nordic countries, he also tried Mairbou chocolate which he found it nice, and then I thought it was the perfect time for going for a Semla (a traditional pastry, that if you ever read my journal from NordicFuzzCon 2019 you may know that is one of my most favorite desserts), and also 3 years ago learned that it is a seasonal pastry for the first sun of the year, and NordicFuzzCon is always during that season of the year, that’s why I always get to try it when I go there. So delicious!
We got to fursuit for a little bit outside the hotel, but that day was particular cold and windy that even in fursuit I was freezing, so we didn’t last too long. It was so weird to go back from fursuiting and not only not having a drop of sweat but also wanting to be warm, my back was very cold. We went out to have dinner instead, we invited Karma and Jerry with us for Swedish meatballs in a place called Spoonery, very recommended, it is very good!
It is the first time at a NordicFuzzCon that I’m not present in live for one of the ceremonies, but most of my friends were going to watch the Opening on livestream in a room, so I joined them instead, it was pretty nice.
After the opening ceremony, SlyCat, Procyon, Karpour, Henrieke, Chiros, Koidel and I went to try the Pub Quiz event. I had wanted to try that event for so long and I had been invited on the past, but for circumstances I couldn’t be there, now this time I finally could accept.
At the moment we were getting there, Kazan joined us not having idea what exactly we were going. Teams were supposed to be only of 7 members maximum, but ours ended up being of 8, due the Kazan’s confusion and that they never counted the members of our team.
The name of our team was “And in the third place…”. Remember the name of our team, it is important!
We had the misfortune to seat on a table just next to the speakers, they couldn’t do too much to help us, because of course the sound of the microphone was very overwhelming, we could just move our table half meter away.
Questions were very nerdy and many so difficult, they asked about flags, countries and NordicFuzzCon, those were few things I’m nerd and I guess I could help a little bit with those topics, I thought I was going to be also helpful with the music part, when they played first seconds of a song and we needed to guess it, but the songs they played were very unknown to me (except “Come Together” by The Beatles but I’m sure everyone got that one). There were questions about space, which I thought we got those ones in our pocket because one of our members is an astronomer, but I guess those questions were too difficult even for him, I don’t think someone got them right.
At the end, when they announced the winners…. Third place goes to… “and in the third place…”!!
I still don’t know how we predicted that future. We got free candy!
Thursday: Artists Alley
After breakfast, all Karpour, Henrieke, Koidel, Balt, Karma, Jerry, Holiday and I went immediately to line up for getting a table in the artists alley, and we got to be all together next each other. At NordicFuzzCon, artists alley works different than most of conventions I’m used to for getting a table, it is first come first serve but also they have two rounds each day: morning and afternoon, you can stay all two rounds if you desire or leave the space for an artist who wants to be on the next one. Originally I was planning to stay in the artists alley all day Thursday, but I had with me very few merch (6 comic books, some few pins and stickers) and I was going to take 6 commission slots, and in that first round if the day I filled all slots and most of my merch got sold out, so when the first time round was over, and most of my friends were leaving because they wanted to stay only in the morning and also most of them were going to an event in fursuit, I really didn’t find reasons to keep staying there and I left my table as well.
My bad I announced on my Telegram channel that I was going to be there only that day but not that I was going to be only in the morning, I got to know later that many people were searching for me during the second round and they couldn’t find me. I’m sorry!!
I went for first time during the convention to the second venue that is called “Valhalla” (10 minutes walking or taking a bus that runs every 10 minutes), I transformed myself into panda bear an jumped to the bus, but just when I was about to board I saw Kiro in fursuit, Kiro is an artist from Brazil I like his art so much, and I was surprised he also recognized me as soon as we saw each other, I run to hug him and took a picture with him, that made me so happy.
In Valhalla I found was Satti, I hanged out with him, we took some pictures with the big inflatable Mausie (they brought back the big Mausie!!! That also made me so happy)
In our return we stayed outside the hotel with the bunch of fursuiters who were there, one of them was Bolt the train dog, I wanted to say hi and talk with him but he was always busy, but I got to see Kiro again, and also Koda the red panda, we got to play on the bouncy castle that was outside, despite there were some normie guys. That was actually the last day I could play on that bouncy castle, the upcoming days every time I tried to do it there were always scary normie teenagers that we didn’t knew their intentions, and there were not other furries in there, it was like they took over it.
Inside I found Mausie and Iris who were roaming around. They ALWAYS make me so happy!! I love them so much!!
That evening after fursuiting it was art jam time until very late, I could advance most of my commissions I had taken earlier in the Artists Alley
Friday: Charity Event at Hospital
After breakfast I quickly run to the Con Store, I had to pick there cards from the collecting NFC trading cards, I’ve been collecting those since they introduced them and I’m not missing a single one, and in this set there was one with my art (I think it is the 3rd card with my art in it).
Also to pick up my free pillow case I had designed. But since I was in the store, it was inevitable to not buy things, I’m huge fan of NordicFuzzCon and imagine being in a store full of merch of that thing you are super fan of, I ended up buying a lot of things! They even had for sale that T-shirt of STEW from 2020, it has been one of my most favorite designs of t-shirts of a NFC and it was only for STEW members, so I didn’t get it. When I asked for it, the guy on the cashier told me “oh that one is actually for sale but only for STEW members” and I showed him very proudly my STEW lanyard 😎
I think I won’t use that t-shirt but only on very special occasions, to preserve it very well.
Thabo the Meerkat had invited me some days before to join them for a charity event he was organizing to a children hospital, I accepted because it was something I had never done before.
It resulted to be during the Opera and also during the Open House times. When I had seen the schedule I had seen that Open house and the Opera was at the same time, so I was considering going to the Opera in fursuit if it was allowed so when I was out I could get immediately in the open house, but then I couldn’t attend any of those for the commitment that I had accepted, and I wanted to see the Opera not only because it was going to be super cool to check out the big theater of Malmö, it was the very first time that a NordicFuzzCon event was hosted in there, but also because my friends were participating in it, JD Puppy was acting and Kazan performing on the instruments. But some spoilers: I won’t regret my decision of going to the hospital instead.
We were figuring out how to get to the hospital, we were 6 people with 4 fursuits, the hospital was in another town and the cars they had were not big enough for people with big suitcases, and when they were searching for an Uber XXL (which were not available apparently), I saw Lightfox for first time during the convention and waved my hand to say hi, he stopped what he was doing to say a proper greeting, we told our current problem and he offered to lend the big truck from NFC, which solved all the problem, it was such a big truck!!
The hospital was not close at all, it was even in another town called Lund. We arrived and the people from the hospital were very kind and welcoming, they gave us a place where to change and they even provided water and towels in there. We turned into cute animals, we were Thabo, Mausie, Iris and Paco. We went down where the kids where and this is the moment of realization of what exactly I had accepted. Of course I knew what we were going to do, but I hadn’t thought of how this was going to hit me emotionally, I was not even prepared for it.
First of all, the fact that we were in a hospital, when I had just lived traumatic experience in one just a weekend before, but seeing how different can be a hospital from country to country, I could feel my heart shrinking, but that was just the beginning.
We found two kids with their respective parents, a little girl and a boy, they were so happy to see us, they were such sweethearts, the girl was wanting to hug each one of us and talking at us with her limited vocabulary (definitely she knows more Swedish vocabulary than I do, so I couldn’t understand her anyway), the boy was sharing his toys, also hugging us, he was more playful. He was wearing a pajama with his hoodie on, and there was a moment he removed his hood and I could see more clearly his face, his hair was removed and he had big rings around his eyes, it reminded me there was a big reason these kids were there, they were such beautiful human beings and they were not alright, I could see then the smile on their parents for looking their children smiling, that hit me so hard that suddenly my eyes turned foggy, I couldn’t see a thing because I was crying so much, but I couldn’t left my character aside, I kept playing with them, we kept making them so happy. Then, they arrived more kids, one of them was on a wheelchair, his movements were limited as well as his communication, he was talking with his mom in sign language, he was also incredibly happy to see us, he wanted to feel our fur and every time he touched it he was smiling so much. We were giving away some animal plushies to them, one of the kids had two plushes on his arms now. As characters, we NEVER speak, we need to mantain all time the magic, I made him notice with some gesticulation that he had two plushies and I had nothing, so he standed up and went to reach one for me, once again, them being beautiful beings, when I grabbed the plushie he was giving to me I couldn’t help crying again inside, I was so sensitively emotional at that moment, everything was making my heart melting.
It was also very hard to say goodbye to them, the first girl from the beginning started crying and she really wanted to say goodbye to each one of us. I was just holding my big cry because I definitely couldn’t start crying there, that would have made me break the character, and I thought that as soon as we stepped on our private changing room I was going to let all the tears out, and I was going to be very embarrassed for it; but when we went back to the room, I guess it was the same embarrassment that prevented me to start crying in front of everyone else, I just calmed down, I didn’t cry, but I told everyone how beautiful that had been, and thanked Thabo for have been including me to that.
We all are humans and we can suffer inside, we all have our reasons for the actions we take and our mistakes, but we all can be great people, maybe we can’t be friends of everyone but we all are living our own story, we all deserve respect, you never know what you are affecting to others for good or for bad, sometimes we hook to people for how bad they have done to us but probably they were doing it for reasons of their own perspective, not because they want to be evil, it’s better to live our lives and treat everyone how we would like to be treated.
So yeah, I didn’t feel bad for have missed completely the Open House and the Opera, I’ve been at the open house before and it is fun, probably next year I’ll be there, and the Opera is something I can see recorded later on the internet, I’m so glad everyone applauded how good the Opera went, everyone who attended loved it, I can’t wait to have some time back home to sit down and watch it with some pop corns and soda.
Friday: The Great Evening
Yes! We’re still on Friday! Friday was a very special evening! I can even describe it with luxury of detail everything that happened that night.
We planned to dance in Valhalla for the 80-90s set, so I was suggested to go in partial, but you may know how I am about fursuiting, I don’t like ruining the magic, I personally don’t mind if others puddle or not, I don’t do it, for me it is a ritual that transforms me in my own character, so if the idea of partialing was for not overwhelming, I went with a long sleeve light shirt, but I still wore my paws, legs and shorts.
We were Akko, Karma, Vael, Smokey and I who went together to Valhalla. It started snowing. We arrived early, the dances hadn’t even started yet so we went to the arcade room to play. Long ago, years actually, that I hadn’t entered to the NFC’s arcade, I had forgotten how amazing it is, it’s practically a museum, they even explain you facts about each console displayed, we got to play pinball, Mario Kart 64, and many other games in retro consoles. Then the dances started.
The first set was also retro, it was hip-hop from the 90s, which was as well enjoyable, but not as much as when it started the the 80a-90s set. First I found the 90s cool raccoon guy: Ralphie, not surprised to find him there, those dances were practically his theme. But then I found Baseball the bat and Kazan, they joined our group for the rest of the set, we danced and sang so many songs until the end of the set. Moments like those made me feel how lucky we were to be there, that we are living an amazing time in our lives, that we may be in the right moment and all the decisions we’ve made in our lives are worthy, realizing that we are surrounded by people whom we can be as authentic as we want with. When else in the timeline of the history we could be like that? So surreal to be animals, species we decided to be, and be surrounded by other animal people, with or without their disguises.
“Welcome back to NordicFuzzCon” Koidel told me when he noticed how much I was enjoying those dances. It really felt like that, like I hadn’t been there in ages.
After the dances I didn’t feel exhausted at all, I still had a lot of energy, we returned to the bus and it was already snowing more heavy, it was very cold to go from the entrance of the building to the bus.
At entering to the bus, we found Baseball, Spikie, Aura, Duino and Sly Cat (uff, I hope my memory is not wrong, I think they were all of them, I’m sorry if I’m changing someone or adding someone who was not there). I remember being more chatty than usual, I had so much energy and I got surprised how social I was at the moment. When we arrived back to the hotel, I was torn between keep hanging with all of them or checking a party that was happening in one of the stages, I decided I was going to check the party a little bit and then hanging with them (spoiler: I stayed at the party, I didn’t keep hanging with them).
The party was not as good as the 80-90s one, not even close, the music was lame and very low, but what made me stay there was all the people I got to see there, and since at the moment I was feeling especially social, I was chatting with each one of them. When I noticed it was already 2:00 am, so I thought it was too late to hang out with those guys I had found in the bus.
I was about to return to my room but I decided to lay down on the rat pit (like a ball pit but with rat plushies instead), it was finally free, I was with Smokey and we kind of wanted to chat about how amazing that evening had been but more people joined us in the pit, they were having their own chatting until I realized I was getting sleepy and it was going to be bad if suddenly I felt asleep in fursuit in the middle of the convention center, I noticed that Smokey actually had fallen asleep and I had to wake him up.
We finally returned to our room and it was almost 3:00 am
Saturday: Maid Café and Cancelled Fursuit Parade
After breakfast, I had reserved a time slot for going to the Maid Cafe, something that there have been years I hadn’t attended despite always having a ticket for free coffee and pastry there, I was simply missing out so much.
Kazan, Koidel, Kön and I went together, we had a super cute puppy as our waiter, and in our table there was a crossword activity which was related to the convention, have I told you how nerd I am about NordicFuzzCon? It was the easiest crossword to me, they were asking basic questions about NFC, like the species of the mascots (it is “Raus”, a hybrid between mouse and rat, something that I’ve been pushing lately to the convention to make official is that the plural of the species don’t be “Rauses” but “Rice”, especially when they seem to love naming official things as food). When the puppy took our order I told him I had filled the crossword successfully, asking him what have we won, that if we cash it for a free dessert, I was joking but he really took the paper, saying he was going to ask, and he returned with the obvious news that it was just a fun activity, that there was not any reward for it.
Another funny moment was when we saw Trax in the distance and he went to our table to say hi, and our puppy waiter arrived and told him “I’m sorry, no cats allowed!”
Something I was looking forward so badly this NordicFuzzCon was their fursuit parade, it is the second best fursuit parade I know (I’m sorry, Anthrocon’s still my favorite), but as soon as we woke up we saw it kept snowing, floor was so wet and icey, we suspected fursuit parade was going to be cancelled, and indeed on the chat of my staff department announced beforehand that the parade was going to be cancelled and they were preparing an announce for replacement of the event, since the convention had prepared to have a professional marching band to open the parade, that was going to look so cool! But instead they managed to make an event on main stage with the marching band where many fursuiters could be there dancing with their mudic. I attended that event with another fursuit, I can tell not many people who wanted to go to the parade checked out that event, I could imagine the amount of people who were going to be in the parade and that didn’t reflect the amount of people in main stage for the replacement event. Well, it was very cool, it was evident that marching band are professional and their energy was very contagious. I don’t know where I got all the energy back, I barely had slept (I went to bed at 3:00 and for some reason I was awake at 8:00 despite I had put my alarm clock at 9:00), I danced a really lot like if I was fresh as lettuce, I even got to be in the middle of the marching band (they were encouraging fursuiters to do it so), I didn’t be there the entire event, I got very exhausted after a conga line, that conga line was crazy, for the rhythm of the music we were practically running. So running, dancing and in fursuit is the best combination to get exhausted.
After a quick break in the fursuit lounge, I was ready to stop being a cute critter but in the way from the lounge to the elevator I got to see more opportunities to keep playing with more fursuiters, especially on that funny trash bin, I don’t know how I managed to jump in that trash bin prop when there was already another fursuiter there, and the fursuit I was wearing has a lot of padding for the low crotch, sometimes I’m inexplicably agile in fursuit, when out fursuit I feel like an old dude whose back aches.
The owner of the fursuit saw me keep doing crazy stuff, he approached to me and told me “you’re completely wet, you should rest”, yup, at that moment I returned to stop being a critter and turned back to human mode.
Saturday: Pool Toy Party
So you may think that then I rested after fursuiting for so long in an energetic way after barely had slept the previous night that I had spent dancing. But that was not the case, as soon as I jumped out the fursuit, I realized I hadn’t checked the dealers den and that was the very last chance I had, so I went to Valhalla by my own (it feels so good to be free to plan things by myself and not needing to check with someone else what are their plans and worrying that maybe our plans don’t match and missing out spontaneous decisions like that).
After going to the dealers den, I went back to the Clarion by walk, finding out for first time how close Valhalla is from the Clarion, I had no idea! This is the first year I went many times to this other wing of the convention this many times, in previous years I had only been there once for a very quick event and even last year I didn’t step there a single time, this year I went there many times, most of times by bus but that time walking back to the Clarion felt very good, it was cold but it was a very cool walk.
Back to the hotel I found some friends who were going to check the Circus event, I was thinking to check Furovision but it was excessively full, it was one of those events that if someone wanted to attend they needed to line up so minutes before, so I didn’t even try, I preferred to check the Circus, at least the first 20 minutes, and it was mainly because I wanted to see how cool it was the main theater, since I couldn’t check it during the Opera, it was mainly to do a check on my list.
But I went out from the Circus because I wanted to jump in fursuit again, to turn in a panda bear, because I was heading with Baseball the bat to the Pool Toy Party in Valhalla. It has been the biggest pool toy party so far at NordicFuzzCon, well, that at least I remember, since also I hadn’t attended it in years. There we also met Satti, Karma, Akko, Vael, Smokey, Latin Vixen, Kiro… well… many cool critters were attending that event. I wondered at that moment why I got so exhausted during it, but I had been so active during the past 48 hours nonstopping. Despite the exhaustion , the event was too much fun, I don’t know why I liked so much a simple big tire, where many fursuiters could sit down and if we started jumping in there we could feel like flying. At first I had disliked that tire because I try to sit down on it like if it was one of those pool tires to lay down and relax, but the hole was too big that at sitting I got stuck inside in an awkward position without being able to move, I couldn’t move my legs or my arms to try to stand up by my own, I got a little scared when I found I couldn’t move and the position was hurting my back, I started yelling “help!”, but instead anyone helped me, people started taking me pictures “aww what a cute panda!”, until I yelled “no, for real! I need help!” And someone helped me to stand up. I didn’t do it again, and I was scared when I saw that Baseball was about to do the same, I helped him to avoid to get stuck.
Out that, the party was really fun, I felt I didn’t last too much, but looking at the clock I was indeed about 2 hours playing with the pool toys, and I got very sweaty than usual, when I was back to the fursuit lounge and removed my head, my friends pointed me out how wet I was, like if I had gone out a shower. Many of my friends went to dance after a quick break there, but I knew I needed a bigger break, I wanted to dry as much as possible, and when I was about to get ready to return, my friends went back from the dances for another break, boo!!!! I got to say goodbye to Satti at that moment, he was returning to his hotel and leaving in the morning.
The moment I was ready to go to the dances, the dances room was completely covered in dry ice (or I don’t know how you know that smoke that they put on shows to make lights visible), something that immediately made my throat itchy, I don’t know how others could stay there dancing, I had to leave the room almost immediately without dancing, I started feeling so tired after all so I better decide to return to the hotel. After taking a shower I went down to the drawing corner to hang out with my friends but I guess I was too tired for keep drawing, I doodled a little bit on the tables, tho.
Sunday: Closing Ceremony
Last day of the convention, usually when many people is already leaving, at difference of a furry convention in America when Sunday is still a full day. I was very confused first times I was attending furry conventions in Europe and that closing ceremony was so early in Sunday and after it almost nothing else was happening.
The hotel spoiled us so much that morning, adding a chocolate fountain during breakfast.
Just after breakfast we went to line up for attending Closing Ceremony in person with Kazan and Holiday, it was cool because we got to be in one of the firsts rows. I enjoyed a lot this ceremony, the stats video was so funny, and I loved the animation for announcing the next year’s theme, I was told I was included in the animation so I was paying attention to it, and yes, my panda was featured but for less than 1 second. But an artwork I did was displayed for longer, a version of the American Gothic painting but with Mausie and Iris, I did a second version that was supposed to look like AI generated (despite it was not) but I guess I needed to exaggerate it even more because it was barely noticeable what was the joke in it. As a fun fact, I worked on that artwork not even knowing what was going to be the theme for next year, I wanted to save it as a surprise for that moment. Also my friend Sora worked on an artwork for the convention, which was displayed after the animation, so the theme for next year is about detectives, I think it is a fun theme.
If you want to watch the animation video, they already shared it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBifXZQ6mBw
I was a little bit emotional when they announced the closing of the event, I enjoyed the convention a really lot, it was a big honor to be a stew member this year and I was already aware that had been my most favorite NFC so far. I had thought on skipping next year to give myself a break from NFC, but I’m not considering that break anymore, I want to keep helping them, keep being part of this. I wanted to hug and thank for the event to many of the other stew members I was seeing during my way out main stage, thanking them for being so passionate for the event that it is noticeable, you really can notice the love put on everything you see around during this week, and that passion is contagious.
After the ceremony I called my mom and for some reason I got very emotional with her, my friends saw me crying while on my call and I worried them, but everything was alright, at that moment anything was making me cry. And then, I got to see Terkina, I knew it was going to be her very last furry convention, that she was not going to plan any other, this NFC was her big farewell; at first I was hesitant because I saw many people were saying proper goodbyes and being very emotional with her, and I don’t consider myself someone who was slightly closer, I was not even sure she knew who I was, but I was wanting to say something. When I got my chance to talk with her, she knew exactly who I was, I could talk with her a little bit before telling a proper goodbye. Just when I was leaving I couldn’t help but crying a lot, I was holding it.
Then we saw Kvikk who gave me for third time one of the Kvikk chocolate bar from Norway.
Almita sent me a message, asking me if I knew what a semla was and where she could get one, so I thought it was a good idea to go at that moment for a semla and a coffee, I invited her and her husband some semlas, they seemed to enjoy it, it was a very nice moment with Kazan, Holiday, Koidel, Almita and Omar (Almita’s husband), oh dang there was someone else with us and I can’t remember who it was!! My bad! I’m sorry! Probably I will remember later! But I remember we were talking in two different groups, me with Almita and Omar and the rest of them in another group, we all were talking about our experiences during the event and how much we enjoyed it.
I went very quickly to the drawing corner just to say hi to people there, and Zahzu gave me a pocket fan with a panda on it, she said that she looked at that fan and she thought on me, I don’t know why I was so emotionally sensitive that day, but that also touched me. You may think these thoughts from me are very silly, but I can’t help but keep thinking I’m a nobody, and especially with people I admire I feel like I have zero chances I can be someone to them, I tend to be very nervous. This feeling was something I had towards Zahzu. Something like this happened 7 years ago when I met Karpour and Henrieke for first time, I was so nervous to even being on the same room with them, and I couldn’t believe that they were actually wanted to hang out with me, they were really looking forward for it, and in my mind I had a thought “do they really know who I am?”, and they wanted to get me very into their group; nowadays I consider them very good close friends, I still feel shy and nervous sometimes when they introduce me very cool people.
So it was not like the pocket panda fan made me so happy, it was more the fact that I’m really someone for people I admire, I need to go out my bubble and start being more brave at interacting with people I think they are cool, especially those who give me good hunches.
Sunday: Mausie Party
We went to the 25th floor of the Clarion for dinnr, not recommended at all, avoid that place: expensive, nothing special and very rude staff.
After that bad experience, I went to the Jackbox party hosted at Karpour and Henrieke’s room , we were many peple on that room that I won’t mention everyone in there, we were about to start playing when suddenly someone knocked the door, and here is when I can say we were the luckiest party in the entire convention that evening, who it was? Mausie!!
We played the Cheese Party song in many of their different versions, at that moment I felt incredibly good, imagine being so fan of something so specific as one furry convention that I know all the songs and know all the lore of their mascots, so that moment it was one of my biggest fanboy moments of all time: we all were singing along the Cheese Party song, even the “rap” part, while having Mausie there dancing. It was the best! Then we kept playing Jackbox Party.
After Mausie left, I also returned quickly to my room to pack, Kazan and I were packing, but he was leaving that same night. After he was done packing, we went together back to Henrieke and Karpour’s room.
We chatted there a lot until very late night, I don’t even remember what time exactly it was but it was pretty late. Kazan left the room for taking his flight and I remained there for more hours.
Monday and Beyond: NFC, See You Next Year!
Not having a proper amount of sleep, I woke up very early for the last breakfast at the hotel. Vael, Koidel and I were taking the same flight, we could hang out more with Karpour, Henrieke, Duino and Aura, we even went together to the airport and spent more time there until it was time for boarding. The three of us went to Germany, and from there to Florence and Venice in Italy for some extra days of vacations after the convention, those extra plans post convention help a lot to minimize PCD. When we went to Florence we made a quick detour to Pisa, where we met Koda (who joined the rest of our adventure), Karma and Jerry. It was a very nice time full of amazing scenery and super yummy food.
Conclusion
I’m glad I can say again NFC is my most favorite convention. On previous years it was feeling very automatic, I was on a stage of my life that I was feeling a depression I was not wanting to accept. As I said to my stew team.. I was taken for granted everything like if I was not aware of anything around me, now I feel more grateful, we are only living our life once and nothing we live is going to repeat again, things may change for good or for bad, we are unable to make time stop, but what we can is to follow the flow, enjoy our moments with our friends, the opportunities this life is giving us to make things different, unique, make this place as good for us as for everyone around us, and all time feel grateful for being alive.
All the decisions we make are impossible to know if they are right or not, let’s follow our hunches, and not just follow what others tells you are right.
I almost don’t go to NFC, there were many times I made the decision to cancel the plans of traveling this time of the year to Malmö, Sweden, first for my own insecurity of how everything was going to go, deeper some weeks before the trip I didn’t want to go; but then when I was 100% decided with myself of going, there were two more situations that became priorities to consider than a trip, but in the end everything was alright and I could go, so it was like I really needed to go to this trip, some how it felt like it was written. It feels like if it was an before and after point.
Thanks a lot for those few who really read all this, and even if you just read a few and was skipping many parts, still thank you! I usually write these journals to settle a memory for myself but if others can also enjoy my point of view of the event it’s always gratifying.
If you want to see pictures, either that I took or that I was saving that were shared by others, here is where you can see them: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/yvswgptwxm0cvp2cjvme4/AK-3xPbDxzU3gHqUHjAjX9Q?rlkey=all2no29veeuiwft9na65p18h&dl=0
Glad your hospital friend is better now too...
And speaking of tears in those places, your segment telling of how much you felt while making the kids happy had me tearing up as well...
Wonderful to hear of sooo many good times and with great people as well...
Thanks for sharing your journeys! ^v^ *wing hugs*
That was such an experience indeed!
Thanks for real for reading it!
Glad to see you could enjoy it despite your stress right before the flight 😿
Hope we can meet next year 🩵🐰🐼
But yes!! Next year!!! :D :D :D :D :D :D