As more cons are doing away with fursuit parades it kind of strikes me as counter-intuitive. The fandom is after all continuing its shift from art to suiting. But let's face it, fursuit parades are laden with issues.

I'm not a suiter myself. I've never had any desire to do it. But the fursuit parade is the nexus of any con. Whether suiter or not the whole con comes to a screeching halt for the parade.

The main problem though is that with the ever increasing number of suits, the parade is just too much. I can only imagine some old North Vietnamese officer clapping his hands at the misery suiters must go through being crammed A to B in the main room waiting for their turn. It's really not much better for us waiting for you either. We want to be there and see it. We made a point of finding out when and where it'd be and showing up yet I almost inevitably wish I hadn't.

Here's the timeline for those of us who watch the parade.

Start: *After standing in the ever thickening mass of humanity along the route for 20+ minutes* "Come on already. When are they gonna start this thing? *trying to see over the 17 people of me* Is that them? Oh finally.

1/2 way through: Man...they've got a ton of suits here...

3/4 of the way: *Looking through the dealers room to where they're still streaming in on the other side* How many are there?? If this goes on much longer I'm gonna have to back to my room and use the can. Can't get to the ones down here.


Rather than get rid of the event, 1 idea cons could try is splitting it up. If a suiters badge name starts with A-L, they're in the Friday Parade. If their name starts M-Z, they're in the Saturday one. If people want to whine that the main attendance isn't till Saturday then still split it up. Have the first 1/2 parade when the dealers den opens at 10, then the second half after everyone is back from lunch at 2pm.

Also, designate a parade photo area and have staffers physically block it off and make the people with pro photo gear be there to photograph it. Yeah everybody is gonna be taking the occasional snap with their smartphone but if you've got a $1,200 Nikon, you're a pro. This reduces the liability of their stuff getting broken by jostling parade viewers and it stops the dick move of pro photo people constantly shoving their way to the front then staying in that prime viewing area. That just causes other people who can't see to shove their way to the front and the parade corridor ends up getting smaller and smaller.

Some cons are switching to a "Fursuit Mingle" instead of a parade. This is a terrible idea. There's already an unofficial "mingle" after the parades though the correct word for it is "mob". Anyone who doesn't feel like playing linebacker just to get around, let alone see any suits, is just going to walk away.

Also another idea might be to have the suiters carry a piece of paper with their characters name writ large on it so those of us who aren't suit stalkers know what a suit/character is called.