Ok, I'll do a proper translation:
Fan-Meeting
Wild turbulence of fairytale creatures
More than 900 friends of human-traited animals on the Ringberg. Their charity project is the Zoo of Suhl.
Written by Heike Hüchtemann.
SUHL - They roam through the city in packs and inhabit the Ringberg - Furry fans, with and without fake fur tail, with costumes, fluffy ears ... and over and over again they have to endure being asked what it actually is they are doing. They celebrate the largest meeting that exists in europe. "They", that is more than 900 artists and fans of anthropomorphic animals, which means that the mostly young people like animals, which have human trains, like in fables. And they do that on many cultural levels: with drawings, cartoons, comics, in stories and music, in theatric play or puppetry and, also, by wearing animal costumes, which is, to the public, the most spectacular form.
"It started 1990 in the USA with fan meetings of 69 people", says Jörg Reuter, speaker for the Eurofurence e.V. In germany - we have about 5000 furry fans - we liked that and started their own meetings. And those enjoy an every growing popularity. "This year we were booked out within 4 hours. Crazy Madness!", says Dirk Lang.
The Furries (meaning wearing-fur) traveled in from 32 different countries. Most of them are from germany, the UK, USA, the Netherlands and France. They represent all kinds of professions, some are more wealthy, some are less. This year's meeting has the theme "110 Arabian Nights" and that has started an explosion of creativity, says Jörg Reuter. No wonder that the fennec enjoys huge popularity with the artists, the animation movie creators and the costumers.
Last time in Suhl?
Artists and Fans that otherwise only communicate via the Internet get to know each other, work together "so that you suddenly have friends all over the world", says Dirk Lang, who is as enthusiastic about the meeting as he is about the conditions that the Ringberg Hotel is offering them, in which hundrets of furs reside for the 3rd time in a row now. "The Hotel, the surroundings, the crew - we are completely thrilled," Jörg Reuter praises the Hotel, but also says that this will be the last meeting on the Ringberg. "We have become too large and meanwhile have so many fans that we don't want to leave hanging on waiting lists, so we will have to find an even bigger venue."
The head of the Ringberg Hotel, Wolfgang F. Kanig is a bit sad about this, but pretty sure that they will come back, sometime, because he and his team completely adjust to the illustrious group. "Our employees work hard shifts this week." The food concept has been completely changed - the XXL-Burgers sell nicely, almost a ton of french fries have been ordered... but the fans of human-traited animals, like you would find on Bugs Bunny and Micky Mouse, will not depart from Suhl without doing a good deed. Like with all their previous meetings, they have a charity project this year, and it's called The Wild Animal Park of Suhl - The Suhl Zoo.
On that topic, the creative minds have more ideas than to just walk around with a donation box (which is, of cause, also done by the people in the cute costumes which do a little happy dance or clap their paws for every euro). Via an art auction they plan to raise money and a pool party raised 500 Euros in addition to it beeing the fun event it was. In addition to that, customers will be afoot in the zoo starting 2pm today. "Visitors can have their picture taken with them for a small donation." says Marion Fischer, responsible for the charity projects. At approximately 4:30pm there is a parade of the furry guests planned. "We have visited the zoo in the last 2 years - the employees there are incredibly productive. If you see what has changed and if you know that even more is planned to be remade to be more species-appropriate, but then there's almost no money... it's insane. That convinced us, that's why we help making progress here." Well, if that's no hint that the furs will return to Suhl ...
