Revisiting Rainfurrest: what can we learn about limits of a growing fandom?
by Patch O'Furr
Everything was happy and peaceful with the furries, until… Overflowing hot tubs damaged the Rainfurrest hotel. The con’s current status is still seeking a new venue. There’s been much public discussion about bad behavior leading to this.
Separate from that drama, there was an issue about organizing their dealer’s room in 2015. High demand vs. limited capacity made pressure to compete for tables. Rainfurrest decided to manage it with a new Jury Selection process that left many feeling shut out. The same issue has happened across many cons.
For dealers, the pool is feeling crowded. For everyone else, more crowds makes more strangers with weaker links to keep peace. It’s a village vs. city situation.