The Eurofurence Forum
Eurofurence Information => Programming => Topic started by: o'wolf on 26.07.2019, 20:38:55
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After careful consideration we have decided to drop the fursuit parade from the Eurofurence schedule. It wasn't an easy decision, as this ends a long time tradition.
The reasons are manifold. For one, despite the numbers of fursuiters at Eurofurence constantly growing, the number of fursuiters in the parade has declined considerably over the last years. The audience, both of Eurofurence attendees and general public, has shrunk even more.
Furthermore, as the authorities of Neukölln don't allow blocking Ziegrastraße (the street in front of the hotel) for a longer time any more, thus restricting the parade to the sidewalk for the last two years. The sidewalk is quite narrow and has a number of bollards in the middle that are invisible to many fursuiters. Fursuiters running into them and cringing with pain are not a very nice view, we think.
Last year the parade couldn't even go through the dealers room due to safety concerns, which made the route even shorter and less interesting. The room was already crowded and overheated at the time the parade started, with a long line of attendees waiting to get in.
Last not least, the parade was an "all hands on deck" event for our security crew, paramedics and support teams, and required a surprisingly high amount of planning and logistics. It simply doesn't make sense to block a full afternoon off of other programming for an event that sadly has lost much of its attraction.
Due to high workload and time constraints, we were not able to come up with a cool fursuit event in time for EF25 to replace the parade. We will be grateful for any practical suggestions for next year: what would you like to see or do, preferably something that hasn't been done elsewhere yet?
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Ok, let me ask here some questions:
Did you tried to route the Parade along the Sonnenallee instead of the Ziegrastraße?
This Street has way bigger sidewalks then the Ziegrastraße so it would be more manageable for the Suiters as well as Security imho. Sure, you will not get Neukölln to close it but the usage of the Sidewalk could work. Also the general public will notice us way more when we march along the Sonnenallee!
Did you invited someone of the authorities before
According to what I saw no one from the authority (beside the Cops when we where allowed to close the Ziegrastraße) ever showed up to Eurofurence. So did you for example invited the Major of Neukölln Martin Hikel. As a former teacher and born 1986 I would bet he would like the Con, so maybe HE could manage the situation somehow!
Disclaimer: this is not to be meant to sound harsh or like a complain, I just want to clarify some things that I don't understand.
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The biggest barrier for me was always the heat of things, not the actual parade. However it will be interesting to see what alternatives are brought in to replace it.
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I just found out about this and I'm extremely disappointed! I've only been to one previous EF (last year) and while the bollards are a valid concern, I can imagine many other possible routes that could work within the convention space, around the back of the hotel lobby and food truck area. Also, you know that big, long room right at the back of the convention area where Tupperware do their thing? That would be a great place to do a loop around, if you could rent it for just one day.
EF is the biggest convention in Europe and I'm sure you can get enough volunteers to help support this if you said you needed it! The only convention I know of that doesn't have a parade is BLFC, because it's in the middle of a casino, so it simply isn't allowed. Estrel doesn't provide that excuse. If the parade is getting less popular, then find out why and address those issues!
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This sudden change to the schedule would have perhaps been better accepted if the organisers had...
- Substantiated and quantified the issues they were having (give us actual numbers for parade attendance over the last 10 years, tell us how many volunteers they require and how many they currently have)
- Attempted to warn us in advance and try to recruit more volunteers to keep the parade going, and
- Made the decision more than a few weeks before the con was due to start! You wouldn't try to book the Estrel only a month in advance, would you?
As it stands, this just looks like a managerial 'whoopsie' which hits the con's reputation. This whole screw-up just reminds me of this year's hotel Ladenfest, or should I call it crash-fest?
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Thank you for your feedback. We are sorry to hear that you are unhappy with the situation, and your input has been duefully noted.