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[Rishary]

I posted the same thing on reddit but it also belongs here:

I seriously doubt that I could do the entire experience justice with just words but I will try my best.

About me - I'm a 27 year old long time Lion King fan that just came back from his first furry convention - Eurofurence 21. If you want to know more just ask in the comments!

Some background - I have just finished my B.Sc and knew that I deserve a small vacation. It drives me crazy but I cannot for the life of me point out how I extremely suddenly got the idea of going to a convention. There is literally a point of time about 4 months ago that before it I didn't think much about the fandom (Though I was always a fan of anthropomorphic animals) and definitely didn't think about conventions. After this strange point of time I knew that I must go. I quickly found out that I can make it to eurofurence so I got a plane ticket and tried to book a room at the Estrel. It was obviously full by now so a quick trip to the eurofurence forum revealed that other furries are booking at the nearby hostel. I contacted them on skype and the adventure was set in motion.

In the meantime I became much more active in the fandom - Made a fursona, attempted to draw him (http://www.furaffinity.net/view/16370705/), made an FA account, people were nice (A highly recurring theme in this fandom) and made some free art of him. I also made contact with other local furs.

The trip date was rapidly approaching and I started having some minor doubts after viewing the schedule. Nothing major such as cancelling the whole thing but thoughts as "Will I actually have enough to do there?" and "I won't know anyone except the 3 I'm hanging out with at the Hostel". I made a list of some places to go to just in case...

I'm waiting at the hostel lobby till my roommates arrive and incredibly fast we find things to talk about - The fandom, the convention, tabletop RPGs, video games... Everyone was hyped for the upcoming days. Tuesday arrived and we walked to the Convention center. Seeing the Eurofurence flags raised high and suiters already walking around made everyone feel good. Why exactly? You will have to come for yourself and figure it out, or maybe just keep reading. This day actually started a bit dull, we walked around admiring the atmosphere but didn't do a lot besides exchanging a few words with some people. Around lunch we got to know some more people and so started this ever growing circle of new friends and an ever growing skype group (http://www.furaffinity.net/view/17451446/). This was when the convention started for me, not the opening ceremony the next day. This quickly became incredibly fun - splitting from the main group, meeting more cool people, fooling around with the suiters and then checking your phone only to be assaulted by a million messages from twitter, skype, telegram, whatsapp showing what the rest are up to and where they are.

"I'm having the time of my life and the con hasn't even started yet" I tell myself as I throw the "List of other things to do" to the nearest trashcan and replace it with the pocket con schedule. I wander into the Games Corner and find some people playing dominion. I ask to join but sadly it's the german version. No problem one of them says as he stops to translate everything and deals me a a starting deck. The opening ceremony is arriving with a typical (Or so I heard) delay. Well standing in queue is part of the EF experience I joke around as I take out a deck of cards and go show some magic to the fellow furs in the queue. From this point on my memories are a bit blurry, I run from panel to the main stage and back with part of the still growing group, high-fiving the other parts of it and complete strangers along the way. The 80's dance follows but I'm not that fond of the music so I don't stay for too long though just being there and absorbing the atmosphere is amazing.

Thursday arrives, the first official "Full" con day and probably the best one yet. I attend the "Your first convention" panel even though I saw one online before just to meet even more first timers. The Rhubarb & Cosmik show arrives and I wasn't sure what to expect as I didn't get a very strong impression during their comedy bit at the opening ceremony. These are the guests of honor, aren't they supposed to be one of the major highlights of the con that makes it special for that year? One song later and I stand corrected, the show was incredible and I can't wait for the upcoming concerts! We then enjoy Kage's story hour and head to the bar as I desperately try (And fail) to convince a fellow fox that this time I'm paying (Did I mention that furries are very nice?). We hang around till the fureoke ends much later than expected because everyone wanted to keep going.

I spend most of friday in the Dealer's den and art show. As a very new member of the fandom I was never exposed to much furry media so just browsing the den and art show showed me just how talented some of the people involved are. I buy some stuff for a friend that could not attend and sadly miss the furry hypnosis panel. I quickly find some of the gang and we had to the bandthro concert, giving all the coins in my pocket to a charity box tiger for the ?th time along the way. I am amazed as this somehow managed to top the show from yesterday. I get a little chat with Fox Amoore and we head to the fureoke.

I can't believe it but saturday arrives. We sit at the art & charity auction waiting for the staff to find Kage. The auction starts and quickly gets to one of it's highlights - a joke piece with 50% charity named "lol, tit-snail", everyone is happy that we got this thing to auction but Kage stops our fun as he refuses to call it by name - "You will have to bid at least 150 euros for me to say it" says the auctioneer as someone near the front happily shouts "One fifty" to the cheers of the crowd. The charity part of the auction arrives and people happily donate more. We then had to the charity concert which was again incredible like the rest with some hilarious songs poking fun at the fandom. After that we sadly get poor seats at the dance contest and can't view it well. The closing ceremony closes the circle with another typical delay and I suddenly realize how fast everything went by... We hold a tear as the skype talk with Rosi from Wildtierhilfe Fiel starts and emotions fly high. Cheetah closes the convention as we go dance the night away.....

It is Sunday and we head toward the Estrel for the last time this year to relax, talk about next year and how suddenly everyone wants a fursuit.

This concludes my adventure. I hope that I managed to at least give it some of the justice it deserves and I would like to personally thank to each and everyone that made this expirence as amazing as it was - My roommates, my new friends, the convention staff, the hotel staff, the attendees I didn't get to talk to and the rest of the community.

Thank you and see ya next year.

TL;DR: Ever pondered the idea of going to a convention? Just go. Don't think, don't ponder, just do it. I guarantee that you will have fun.

[Zefiro]

Thank you for your well-written report. It fills my heart with joy to hear that we, as a community, as Furry Fandom, are as welcoming to Youngfurs as we had been a decade+ back when I first joined. No doubt we also have some dark sides, mostly personal drama on the forums, but for me, the sheer amount of friendlyness, fluffiness and creativity tops it all. And it's nice to hear that it's as easy to feel welcome and make new friends now as it was then.

*purrrr*

[Lutra]

Hi,

nice to hear that you enjoyed it so much. I love this convention because you meet so many interesting people. A lot of creativity involved everywhere and its great fun.