Anthrocon Anthrocon Anthrocon! Fluffsplosion of hype. NEWSDUMP (7/20/15)

by Patch O'Furr

Tips: patch.ofurr@gmail.com. 

Headlines, links and little stories to make your tail wag.  Guest posts welcome. “Local correspondents” wanted to talk about your local networks.  

This week’s Newsdump: Everything Anthrocon!  There was SO MUCH of this news, and it was such a busy month, that I will be playing catch-up for a while with it… I’m not able to read all of these links.  Good job catching all this attention, AC!  Has there ever been this much?  Some of it is national (the Onion A.V. Club and NPR notice seems particularly cool.) It was quite a coup to parade outside on the Pittsburgh street for the first time.  5,000 regular public watchers came out to see the furries, and they went nuts for it.  I hope the crowd doubles in the future.  I’d love to interview Uncle Kage about the planning and reception. (Official Anthrocon wrapup report.)

Onion A.V. Club: Watch almost 1500 furries strut their stuff at this year’s Anthrocon.

The official count of members in the Anthrocon 2015 Fursuit Parade Group Photo is 1,460.  This reminded me of a neat aspect of the con.  All that show value!  These costumes represent so much investment… we could do a few estimates to figure out how much.  In a previous post, “$3 million sale raises furry auction topic”, I came up with an arbitrary $2,320.51 per fursuit represented in Anthrocon’s parade.  Multiply by the count of 1,460 members this year to reach a (rough guesstimate) value of $3,387,944.60 in fursuits.

NPR: The Furries Have Landed — And Pittsburgh Is Giving Them A Bear Hug.

It’s a fantastic national news write up… and I’m tickled to be in the cover image!  (Far left and center, next to Gentoo).  ACIt concludes with a quote from Uncle Kage (Dr. Conway) showing his renowned media savvy:

“I could probably go on all day. ‘I heard the furries this, I heard the furries that!’ The only real statement is, ‘I heard that furries are some of the most creative people on the face of the planet,’ ” says Conway.

But, he concedes, there is one drawback.

“Do they shed all over the hotel rooms? Yes. I’m sorry, they do.”

A furpile of more news:

Vox Fox’s Anthrocon video.

Just posted: Anthrocon 2015 Random Encounters . True Blue Furrier, Mr. Fox Amoore and Mr. Zarafa Giraffe are all featured or have a mention here. Video is under 10 minutes. Regards, VF

There’s a certain Husky in the parade.

Here’s some questions I’d ask Kage if he would answer.

Uncle Kage – I’ve heard you described as ushering furries towards the kind of acceptance that Comic Con achieved. Do you think that’s accurate?

As far as I can tell, AC’s relationship with Pittsburgh seems to have never been this good.  The mayor put a welcome letter in the con book.  Can you tell us how it stands, and any stories from behind the scenes of relating with the city?

I’m curious about the planning to put the parade on a public street for the first time, which seemed like a huge success with 5000 watchers, and coverage on NPR.  Is this a standout moment that might define furry for a while to come?

Many movements have finite life spans- they break out, flourish for a while, then become old and played out.  Some may come back with a neo-version in the future. Do you forsee any ways that furry may jump the shark?  Or do you sense that it stands apart from trends to keep thriving on it’s own terms?