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An Ode to FurFright
12 years ago
I hear a new convention is already forming up to succeed FurFright. Their initial post left me with a few concerns, but if they can create a convention as good as what came before, more power to them. They'll have some pretty big shoes to fill.
FurFright came into my life at a point when I was having a bit of a crisis of faith with regards to the furry fandom. I'd been going to a different con off and on for several years, and the best I could say was that it was an...inconsistent...experience. I never knew going in whether I was going to have a good or bad time, and often I was left feeling I'd had significant doses of both. That convention had also increasingly moved farther away from me and was about to move much, much farther away. I figured at that point I should cut my losses.
Then a couple of local furry friends asked if I'd be interested in driving down to FurFright with them and sharing a room. I was pretty nervous about this for all of the reasons I'd outlined above, but figured I'd go, and if I had a shitty time, I'd learn from my mistake. Hell, this time I was sharing both car and roomspace with friends, so I figured I'd stacked the deck in my favor a fair bit.
Well, I had a pretty decent time indeed, and left with no question in my mind that I'd want to go back the next year.
Three years later I found myself nervous about FurFright again. My friendship with the two people I'd been going to the con with had disintegrated, and I wasn't entirely sure that there was anyone going to the con who I could really consider friends of mine as opposed to friends of ours (we all know how that mutual friends thing tends to pan out). I really did worry that I'd have a crappy con, and wouldn't know what I wanted to do with regards to the fandom afterward.
I had such a good time at that FurFright that for the first time in my life I came down with Post-Con Depression. Knowing that I had friends there, that even after I lost other people there were folks at the con who were happy to spend time with -me-...for the first time in a long time I felt like the words "furry community" actually meant something a bit positive again. It was such a welcome and saddening and surprising feeling to find that I didn't want to leave the con at the end of it all.
FurFright has been great to me ever since. It had a stronger sense of community and family to it than I think a lot of other cons offer, and I met people there who I count among my closest friends now. This con made me care enough about the fandom to start running a yearly panel which was more about helping others than doing anything for me, and this year it became the first convention to publish a story of mine...in other words, the first time my writing was ever published.
To hear that FurFright will cease to exist is heartbreaking. It's not just the death of a con, it's the death of a place I could go to every year and be with my friends doing things I enjoyed and having great times with people who all really seemed to care about each other.
FurFright may be succeeded, but it will never be replaced.
Sleep well, FurFright. I hope one day you'll wake up again.
I welcome any memories of FurFright that people would like to share here.
FurFright came into my life at a point when I was having a bit of a crisis of faith with regards to the furry fandom. I'd been going to a different con off and on for several years, and the best I could say was that it was an...inconsistent...experience. I never knew going in whether I was going to have a good or bad time, and often I was left feeling I'd had significant doses of both. That convention had also increasingly moved farther away from me and was about to move much, much farther away. I figured at that point I should cut my losses.
Then a couple of local furry friends asked if I'd be interested in driving down to FurFright with them and sharing a room. I was pretty nervous about this for all of the reasons I'd outlined above, but figured I'd go, and if I had a shitty time, I'd learn from my mistake. Hell, this time I was sharing both car and roomspace with friends, so I figured I'd stacked the deck in my favor a fair bit.
Well, I had a pretty decent time indeed, and left with no question in my mind that I'd want to go back the next year.
Three years later I found myself nervous about FurFright again. My friendship with the two people I'd been going to the con with had disintegrated, and I wasn't entirely sure that there was anyone going to the con who I could really consider friends of mine as opposed to friends of ours (we all know how that mutual friends thing tends to pan out). I really did worry that I'd have a crappy con, and wouldn't know what I wanted to do with regards to the fandom afterward.
I had such a good time at that FurFright that for the first time in my life I came down with Post-Con Depression. Knowing that I had friends there, that even after I lost other people there were folks at the con who were happy to spend time with -me-...for the first time in a long time I felt like the words "furry community" actually meant something a bit positive again. It was such a welcome and saddening and surprising feeling to find that I didn't want to leave the con at the end of it all.
FurFright has been great to me ever since. It had a stronger sense of community and family to it than I think a lot of other cons offer, and I met people there who I count among my closest friends now. This con made me care enough about the fandom to start running a yearly panel which was more about helping others than doing anything for me, and this year it became the first convention to publish a story of mine...in other words, the first time my writing was ever published.
To hear that FurFright will cease to exist is heartbreaking. It's not just the death of a con, it's the death of a place I could go to every year and be with my friends doing things I enjoyed and having great times with people who all really seemed to care about each other.
FurFright may be succeeded, but it will never be replaced.
Sleep well, FurFright. I hope one day you'll wake up again.
I welcome any memories of FurFright that people would like to share here.
BTW I missed you and the rest of the gang this year. My Brother had a wedding that conflicted pretty significantly, so it was unreasonable for me to come.
Have we actually met? I seem to remember us meeting here when I tried to inject some sanity into one of the anti-Dorsai rants, but I don't recall meeting in person ever.
I'm less than entirely thrilled that when I asked the person who's apparently working on NuFright some questions about it, I didn't get responded to. Then again, I wasn't exactly ignored either.
I did get a kick out of the person who seemed to think that "rehashing" FF would be a bad thing. Yes, by all means let's not keep a con that most attendees really enjoyed consistent! :p
I've emailed Belic directly expressing my condolences and sympathies, but haven't heard back. Though if he's really involved in something bad, that's not too surprising. I admittedly would like to know what's going on, but I accept there's a good chance it isn't really any of my business.
As for meeting, no, we haven't . But that can easily change next time. ;)
I could accept the staff moving on in general, but really, the con was almost perfectly located for me (i.e. not horribly far), and it was a good place to see so many of my friends. Plus it had a great atmosphere, IMO of course.
Do you go to any cons besides FF?