Well, I have seen come and go the local Furry Con in the area: RainFurrest. After some thought, I am seriously thinking about going, making this my first convention anything.

I am a bit unsure what to expect. Being a bit of a closet furry, I dont exactly have a group of friends to go with.

If anyone has suggestions on what to do, what to partake in and avoid, and anything else, please let me know.

Also, if anyone else plans to go to RainFurrest and wouldn't mind a local following you around and learning what is going on, I would appreciate the help.

Thanks for your time guys,
Waffles

I've heard that furry conventions are weird and retarded events. I want to go to Anthrocon one day, but part of me hopes that the con burns down at full capacity.

Keep a hand over your butthole at all times.

null0010 said:
Keep a hand over your butthole at all times.

Or use a metal plate...
Honestly, I've never been on a fur-con, just sayin'

I'm sure plenty of people will over-criticize furry conventions while they themselves have never been to one. That being said, I've never been to one either, so I can't give any advice.

You should accustom yourself to the smell of dried spoo and BO beforehand. Not that I would know. I wouldn't be caught dead at one of those things.

I've never been to a furry convention, but I have been to a few fan conventions (and a few OSCONs, but a furcon is not that sort of convention), so here's some general advice:
*HYDRATION
*HYGEINE
*NUTRITION
*HYDRATION
*SLEEP
I know, I said hydration twice. I like hydration. You should too. Passing out because of dehydration will kill your weekend, and a saline IV is a hell of a lot more expensive than tap water.

Seriously, keep up on all of those. It'll help you avoid the con flu, and you'll have a much better time while you're there, too.

Take a look at the schedule ahead of time. Figure out what you want to do, and make yourself a personal schedule. Not a minute-by-minute sort of thing, but make sure you find the stuff you really really want to do and know when and where it is. Don't be off doing whatever and then realize later that you missed one of the things you were really looking forward to. It sucks.

If it's got a dealers room with stuff you even MIGHT be interested in, bring money.

to wander slightly off topic...

HYDRATION.

I've never need to a con, but most people these days are under hydrated. I spend almost all day drinking water, and almsot nothing but water, and I still am not hydrated enough.

but. since i started drinking water more? holy fucking shit. I feel BETTER. I no longer have headaches every. single. day. I don't feel as old and creaky, stiff and tired.

Water is fucking AWESOME guys. I can tell when I need water. I can tell when I've been not as diligent at drinking all the time. and past that? I'm not eating as much (a lot of the time you feel hungry? you're not. You're actually thirsty. Plus filling the stomach with water helps reduce the 'hungry' sensation if you ARE hungry... at least for a bit. great if dinner's in an hour but you're hungry now), I've lost weight, and I generally feel more awesome.

Fucking hydration, man. it's AWESOME.

So by the sounds of it, its not even worth going to.

Weird vision? Water.
Headache? Water.
Feeling cranky, did you just snap at someone? Water.

Stay away from the carbonated beverages, soft, hard, diet, or otherwise.

Seriously.

Snowy said:

Take a look at the schedule ahead of time. Figure out what you want to do, and make yourself a personal schedule. Not a minute-by-minute sort of thing, but make sure you find the stuff you really really want to do and know when and where it is. Don't be off doing whatever and then realize later that you missed one of the things you were really looking forward to. It sucks.

If it's got a dealers room with stuff you even MIGHT be interested in, bring money.

Yes, get a list of events going on, and make a list of stuff that looks interesting. Stuff that's new and possibly interesting, and stuff that you're interested in. Talk with exhibitors. Strike up random conversations. Worthwhile cons have a boardgame room or similar, ask around to join a game. It's way better to have too much to do, I think, then not enough.

If you're an art collector, bring a poster tube or a 11x17 board. Maybe bring some lightweight canvas bag for swag and whatnot.

_Waffles_ said:
So by the sounds of it, its not even worth going to.

I've never been to one myself... but.. her'es my thought: you are INTERESTED in one. isn't that a good enough reason to go?

besides, there are some peopel where who are light mode trollin', and others who are giving you advice of how to best enjoy yourself. :)

Take a leap! maybe you'll find some local friends :D also, if you want someone to go with, maybe you can find some local friends? searching for "<your area> furries" .. browse a little, look for devart, furaffinity, meetup addresses etc. Make some friends.. even if it's just so you have someone to run around with :)

WATER, MAN!

Wtf have NONE of you guys ever been to a furry con? :P

I have attended 13 furry cons so far, so maybe I can provide a bit more insight.

The thing about furry cons that makes them different from anime cons, gaming cons, and so on is that fury cons are all about the people and the fandom itself, whereas anime/gaming cons are mostly focused around products or otherwise commercial material of some sort. In that sense, furry cons have much more of a "by the fans, for the fans" feel to it than a lot of other cons.

It's unfortunate that you don't have any friends attending RF, because my friends are definitely the primary reason why I go to furry cons. It's just an awesome experience to finally get to meet the people that you've been talking to online for months or years. Even still, I have made a lot of NEW friends as a direct result of attending furry cons.

As for the cons themselves, they can be good and have some interesting stuff to do, but they're definitely meant to mostly be large social gatherings with things that you can do/see if you want, rather than one highly interesting or popular event after another. You're expected to wander a lot, to see the dealers den, artist's alley, video game room, board game room, or any number of other places while the con is going on. So if you're terribly shy, you might find yourself a bit overwhelmed if you don't have any friends to hang out with to make yourself feel more comfortable. If that's not an issue for you though, then furry cons can be the launching pad of new friendships, business partners, or whatever.

Anyone that paints a picture of furry cons as a bunch of creeps/weirdos acting as socially awkward around each other as possible has either never actually been to a furry con, or is GREATLY exaggerating how much social awkwardness that they encountered. Again, I've been to 13 furry cons so far; yes there are going to be "those" types of furries here and there, but "those" furries are few and far between. The vast majority are completely normal individuals that just happen to have this great interest in all things furry and want to share and enjoy that interest together with other furries.

Let me put it this way: I've never introduced somebody to their first furry con and not had them have a great time and want to come back again and again. I think having friends that they could stay around constantly helped though, since it just makes them feel a lot more comfortable. I mean even I personally wouldn't go to a furry con if I didn't know at least some of the people going who would be willing to hang out a lot. That's not to say that you couldn't have fun anyways, but I think it's just really important to keep in mind that you're essentially going to a large social event, so you're going to need to actually be social if you want to have the best time that you can.

Let me know if you have any other questions and I'll be glad to answer them.

Char said:
Wtf have NONE of you guys ever been to a furry con? :P.....

Thank you, this is more of the information I was looking for.

Any suggestions what events I should try and attend and ones I may want to avoid?

Char said:
lots of words

I'd consider going if there was anything around here, but yeah I supoose it's like anything new. At least try it and you just might be pleasently surprised. Either way you are trying something new.

SnowWolf said:

WATER, MAN!

Well no wonder you're always dehydrated, Snow actually contains very little water

I've been to four furry cons so far, FWA for 3 years and AC this year. Possibly doing MFF later and VA is having its own starter con soon in December, so I hope it shoots off well. I've also attended several anime conventions.

My experience with cons has always been pretty positive and totally worth it. I personally also attend local furmeets in my area though, so it wasn't that huge of a step to go from smaller furry gatherings to huge ones. Just more people to mingle with. I imagine that if you've never experienced going to a furmeet, it might be pretty overwhelming. :P

As far as events go, it really depends on what you are personally interested in. The larger the con, the more options you will have as far as panels and events, but there are always some events that are pretty standard. Meet and greets, art jams, video games and board games, fursuit panels, writing panels, etc. are some examples.

I admit that I very rarely go to panels, and most of my friends don't either. I go to cons to meet new folks, dance, party, and fursuit and I don't really pay attention to any of the events. The only things I attend religiously are dance panels and dance competitions because that's where my interests lie.

You'll figure out what you like and what you don't as you experience more cons. 3 to 4 days may seem like a long time to organize what you'd like to do, but you'll soon realize you have to pick and choose which things you want to make time for and what you don't care to miss.

As Char said, there's certainly always those creepers floating around that are tactless little shits and don't know how to function in social situations, but they are honestly few and far between, especially with how huge conventions are.

Hopefully you'll be able to find someone to take along with you. I'd suggest looking into your local area for furmeets or dragging a friend that doesn't care about furry stuff. :3

_Waffles_ said:
Thank you, this is more of the information I was looking for.

Any suggestions what events I should try and attend and ones I may want to avoid?

Well, every con is going to have different events, or at least events that may be great at one con but not so great at other cons. So it's hard to recommend anything in particular, especially considering the fact that I've never attended RF before.

Your best bet is to just check out the con schedule and see if anything appeals to you. I think just about everyone at least checks out the con's dealers den at some point though, or artist's alley (if the con has one) if they're looking to commission an artist at the con. I also like to check out some of the fursuiting events, particularly the fursuit dance competition if they have one (not all dance competitions are going to be created equal since they depend a lot on who's actually at the con that can dance, like FWA has a fantastic dance competition, and AC's is usually pretty good but I prefer the format of FWA's more). But yeah, just check out the schedule and see what looks good to you.

Char said:
Wtf have NONE of you guys ever been to a furry con? :P

Well, where I live furries aren't very common, or they're closet furries, I dunno :V Heck, even cons are uncommon, the last (and only) one was like a month ago...
But what you've said, it really helps a con-noob

Xch3l said:
Well, where I live furries aren't very common, or they're closet furries, I dunno :V Heck, even cons are uncommon, the last (and only) one was like a month ago...
But what you've said, it really helps a con-noob

I just thought it was funny that Waffles was asking for suggestions regarding fur cons, and everyone that replied to him had never been to one. :P

Char said:
I just thought it was funny that Waffles was asking for suggestions regarding fur cons, and everyone that replied to him had never been to one. :P

True, true...

Char said:
I just thought it was funny that Waffles was asking for suggestions regarding fur cons, and everyone that replied to him had never been to one. :P

I went to Anthrocon in 2004; I hated it.

null0010 said:
I went to Anthrocon in 2004; I hated it.

That's because toasters have nothing to do at a furry convention.