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BLFC 2015 wrap up
10 years ago
I figured I'd better let the furs east of the Mississippi know about BLFC.
For being it's third year, it has grown rapidly with nearly 2,500 attendees, and close to 700 fursuiters in the parade.. WOW! I do recommend this convention!!
It's held on the lower floor of the Grand Sierra Resort and Casino in Reno, NV. Lot's of food available on site, and a Walmart right across the street, you can't beat the venue. The only rule you cannot break is no fursuit heads in the casino itself. Because it is a casino, there is a strong security presence. There was one incident that was rapidly taken care of, and no sign of the "homeless pilfering" seen at big city conventions.
The con is held in two large rooms connected by a wide hall with various food and shopping emporiums. One room contained the dealers den around the perimeter and all kinds of activities in the open middle space. The other large space had the main stage, an open area with tables, a separate marketplace/artist ally space with the panel rooms around the perimeter. There were two fursuit lounges with water, Gatorade, fans and head dryers. They even had sanitary wipes to clean the head dryers, too! It is a very well thought out convention, and everything well contained with two main points of access..
There were a lot of decorations in keeping with the theme of the con. Really cool! Also, nylon bar code collars were given if you performed a simple task.
If you want swag, go for sponsor. Current year swag is not sold at the con, so if you want the shirt and other goodies, spend the extra bucks when registering.
The hotel itself is very comfortable, my room was huge, probably twice the size of any other hotel room, and I've never had a shower that envelopes your entire body with water like this on does. Wi Fi is free, as are the water bottles in the room. A coffee maker is provided with wimpy coffee, but there is no fridge or microwave.
I had no problem waiting on an elevator. They're well divided between floors. There is not a complimentary breakfast, so you're stuck with Starbucks or the all you can eat buffet. There are various restaurants in the building ranging from subs and pizza to steak and seafood..
Check in was busy, as was check out. In both cases I had to wait in line. There is a shuttle to the airport every 30 minutes.
Reno airport is like any other airport, although I found security was quick and efficient compared to other airports. Check in was a bit of a nightmare, as the airline was scrambling to place passengers from a cancelled flight. Baggage claim was fairly rapid.
As for transporting Fu Manchu, I carried his head in a drawstring laundry bag, unstuffed his tail, and put the rest of him in my carry on. The tail stuffing I put in a vacuum bag and packed it in my checked bag.
So, that's the facts. Now on to the fun stuff.
The fursuit parade is held in the evening at 6, with minimum wait to get the group photo first. It works, but you do need to keep an eye on the time..
I ran into a few furs I all ready know from cons I've previously attended, made a lot of new friends, and in general had a lot of fun! There was a lot of public interaction in the big hallway, so lots of photos with humans were made.
Fu Manchu got to meet his maker,
. I am happy to say, she has approved of the modifications made to him since she put him in my care. It was awesome to participate in her group photo, being surrounded by many of her incredible creations. So much talent there!!
The only negative I have to voice is having to fly, deal with airlines, airports and the additional cost, or drive for three days to get there from where I live. A common predicament for any convention on the other side of the country.
Would I go again? Most definitely!
For being it's third year, it has grown rapidly with nearly 2,500 attendees, and close to 700 fursuiters in the parade.. WOW! I do recommend this convention!!
It's held on the lower floor of the Grand Sierra Resort and Casino in Reno, NV. Lot's of food available on site, and a Walmart right across the street, you can't beat the venue. The only rule you cannot break is no fursuit heads in the casino itself. Because it is a casino, there is a strong security presence. There was one incident that was rapidly taken care of, and no sign of the "homeless pilfering" seen at big city conventions.
The con is held in two large rooms connected by a wide hall with various food and shopping emporiums. One room contained the dealers den around the perimeter and all kinds of activities in the open middle space. The other large space had the main stage, an open area with tables, a separate marketplace/artist ally space with the panel rooms around the perimeter. There were two fursuit lounges with water, Gatorade, fans and head dryers. They even had sanitary wipes to clean the head dryers, too! It is a very well thought out convention, and everything well contained with two main points of access..
There were a lot of decorations in keeping with the theme of the con. Really cool! Also, nylon bar code collars were given if you performed a simple task.
If you want swag, go for sponsor. Current year swag is not sold at the con, so if you want the shirt and other goodies, spend the extra bucks when registering.
The hotel itself is very comfortable, my room was huge, probably twice the size of any other hotel room, and I've never had a shower that envelopes your entire body with water like this on does. Wi Fi is free, as are the water bottles in the room. A coffee maker is provided with wimpy coffee, but there is no fridge or microwave.
I had no problem waiting on an elevator. They're well divided between floors. There is not a complimentary breakfast, so you're stuck with Starbucks or the all you can eat buffet. There are various restaurants in the building ranging from subs and pizza to steak and seafood..
Check in was busy, as was check out. In both cases I had to wait in line. There is a shuttle to the airport every 30 minutes.
Reno airport is like any other airport, although I found security was quick and efficient compared to other airports. Check in was a bit of a nightmare, as the airline was scrambling to place passengers from a cancelled flight. Baggage claim was fairly rapid.
As for transporting Fu Manchu, I carried his head in a drawstring laundry bag, unstuffed his tail, and put the rest of him in my carry on. The tail stuffing I put in a vacuum bag and packed it in my checked bag.
So, that's the facts. Now on to the fun stuff.
The fursuit parade is held in the evening at 6, with minimum wait to get the group photo first. It works, but you do need to keep an eye on the time..
I ran into a few furs I all ready know from cons I've previously attended, made a lot of new friends, and in general had a lot of fun! There was a lot of public interaction in the big hallway, so lots of photos with humans were made.
Fu Manchu got to meet his maker,
. I am happy to say, she has approved of the modifications made to him since she put him in my care. It was awesome to participate in her group photo, being surrounded by many of her incredible creations. So much talent there!!The only negative I have to voice is having to fly, deal with airlines, airports and the additional cost, or drive for three days to get there from where I live. A common predicament for any convention on the other side of the country.
Would I go again? Most definitely!
This is why I give these write ups. To let others know what to expect at a con they have not attended.
I do hope that if I am able to attend, we may meet again there.
We will now have a complete crew to track down the wine stealing scoundrel.
Perhaps the three of us can also get a photo together!
I do definitely recommend going if you can possibly make it.. I just wish I could have taken another suit..
actually seeing what is between point a and point be, instead of cloud decks or having to pay attention to the road. and i think you can carry on as much as you can carry, though of course you have to carry it off yourself too, unless you check baggage or fedex or something. and i've yet to hear of tsa hassles with it.
well i grew up with trains, and it never ceases to amaze me how completely people seem to have forgotten, they can sometimes actually be practical.
When I'm doing windshield time, I do glance around to see what I'm driving through. I've seen some wonderful things keeping my feet on the ground.
I actually saw the Grand Canyon out the plane window on the return flight..
rail infrastructure in the u.s. and pretty much anywhere in the western hemisphere, has been neglected and falling apart since the 1950s.
amtrak mostly exists because most railroads only wanted to run freight, and if it weren't for a few old farts like me,
there probably wouldn't even be any intercity rail passenger service at all.
railroads get nothing from the government to maintain the track they run on, while they pay taxes to build roads for trucks and cars.
and unlike oil companies and manufacturing, they can't run off to off shore tax havens.
bulk resources, durable goods, and intermodal are all that keep them in business.
not saying their management has been entirely blameless for this condition coming about.
but with tax subsidies to everything else but, our u.s. transportation policy is completely insane for the environment, the economy and everything else.
to the end user, conditions are of course what they are.
but as end users, or at least potential end users, our votes are not entirely innocent of the insanity of existing transportation policy either.
amtrak is of course government, but compared to what it spends on everything else, it is like table scraps thrown to a stray cat nobody cares about.
Hope to see you next year, and whatever suit you bring then! ^^
I would like to make it back again next year, and be able to stay through Sunday, too.
That's good information to know about the microwave and fridge. I've heard the same for some of the big con hotels as well, but there is a limited supply at those hotels.
Yeah, the GSR is also in limited supply and I do think only certain rooms have them? But defiantly do request them when you book your room even though its not guaranteed you'll get one, its still better to put in a request. ^^