Dogpatch Press

Fluff Pieces Every Week

Tag: party

Vote now! NorCal Furries shortlisted for Best Contingent award in San Francisco Pride Parade.

by Patch O'Furr

UPDATE: DEADLINE EXTENDED TO AUGUST 15!

Each June, millions of people see the San Francisco Pride parade. Hundreds of thousands of attendees cheer for over 200 contingents. For 2023, five contingents are shortlisted to win the Best Overall Contingent award. Northern California Furries have the huge honor of being one of the five.

You can help win big positive recognition for furries everywhere. Spread the message and get everyone you know to vote!

Voting Poll is here: https://forms.gle/QvVoPoBd82ajMcUV9 – Don’t wait, the poll is open until August 15.

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How to join San Francisco Pride 2023 with the Northern California Furries

by Patch O'Furr

For members who completed an RSVP

Photo: AniMajor

The SF Pride Parade – Sunday June 25, 2023 – General info at SFpride.org

Let’s go! The parade is on Market Street, from Embarcadero to the Celebration area at Civic Center. Spectators will be watching from 10:30 a.m. until late afternoon. ABC7 will be broadcasting the parade to watch from home.

Be there with 150 furries. Be there for the GO moment when the crowd roars. Hundreds of thousands of people will make the street your stage. Many furries will march and interact with watchers, while some will ride the float. It isn’t just for fun and photos, but also to say that we’re not going away. That’s Pride for LGBT people and allies, while we help bring the diversity of it all.

Northern California Furries first joined the parade in 2002, and last year marked their 20-year anniversary. This year brings more interest than ever. Thousands of furries will also join Pride events internationally — see other news and history in the Pride tag.

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Join now! Nor Cal Furries call for volunteers for the San Francisco Pride Parade on June 25.

by Patch O'Furr

What does Pride mean to you?

If Pride means being authentically yourself and refusing to hide, the San Francisco Pride Parade is one of the best places in the world. It’s so real when you’re there with a group, in the moment when they say GO, then you turn the corner onto the main parade route and the crowd roars. That’s how to BE.

The Nor Cal Furries will march with a parade float on June 25. (Furry is an interest that harmonizes with LGBT members, and many other interest groups participate.) Meanwhile, some people just found out that furries exist and want to attack them; for example, anti-LGBT law has forced Megaplex to restrict attendance due to power abuse by the government. This shows ongoing history where simply existing is an undebatable political statement. But people who oppose LGBT existence and think this is new activism don’t know that furries have been award-winning Pride marchers for 21 years. And the founders of Pride knew that just being there is winning. We can look forward to another 21 years of being there… but it won’t happen by itself.

It’s up to us and YOU. Nor Cal Furries can’t go without volunteer staff, so please answer or spread the call. If you can’t volunteer, come attend and tell a friend.

CALL FOR STAFF – SIGN UP HERE > https://forms.gle/Pb8n1UXDCTLNKaW6A

Let’s meet some of the team you can join (in no special order). Dogpatch Press asked each one: What does Pride mean to you, and why make this event happen?

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Fearless Furries Celebrate 20 Years at San Francisco Pride

by Patch O'Furr

Photo by AniMajor

Sunday, June 26 marked 20 years of furries at San Francisco Pride. (See the 2019 event and history or the Pride tag for more.) The Norcal Furries made a welcome return after no official parade marching for 2 years of a pandemic. They brought their own float, and it all came together so smoothly, it made an incredibly positive memory.

The biggest change from past years was no longer using rental trucks or Burning Man art cars. This year, Norcal Furries built their own float on a trailer. It was a wonderful asset. Using other people’s was always less than ideal (constrained by costs, time and logistics for loading/unloading, and even height with streetcar wires). All of that was easier under self management.

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Furries at Toronto Pride: “one of the largest marching groups of the entire parade”

by Arrkay

Welcome to Arrkay, a member of the Toronto furry scene (home of Furnal Equinox), and the bird who creates and produces Culturally F’d, a Youtube show that explores anthropomorphic artwork throughout history, culture and mass media. See Arrkay’s tag for previous stories. He’s sharing his story today by request of Patch who just marched with furries at San Francisco Pride. Here’s Arrkay’s on-the-scene report from Toronto Pride.

It was a terribly populated affair, with covid still ringing in the back of my head. Pride in Toronto was as busy as ever. Me and my partner just walked the street fair once, which was enough to satiate our curiosity and for me to buy some new sunglasses. It’s a strangely foreign feeling seeing this many unmasked people in one place.

Parade morning

My signs were made, and my flag was bundled up into my tricycle with water bottles, lunch, a vape pen of mint flavored cannabis and sunscreen. My outfit was a second-hand hyena agenda tank top, some compression shorts usually worn for fursuiting but with a complimentary jockstrap on top. I zip-tied a flag and protest signs to my trike. “Learn Queer History” and “Teach Queer History” with taglines “Always been here, always will be” and “No More Shit!” (a rallying cry from the 80’s bathhouse riots in Toronto).

Cardboard signs that read "Teach Queer History, always been here, always will be" and "Learn Queer History, No more shit!"

A crowd of furries accumulated near the group check-in site. Unfortunately it was nowhere near where we were supposed to muster. Not that it ultimately mattered, we wouldn’t be marching for a couple more hours. Navigating the dense crowd with a large orange trike was difficult, but everyone was generally polite and made way for our slow moving group of animal headed queers.

One of the groups we shouldered our way past was the New Democratic Party, with leader Jagmeet Singh visible with his pink turban.

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Furries return to the 2022 San Francisco Pride parade

by Patch O'Furr

Coming Sunday June 26, 2022

The SF Bay Area has the world’s most dense population of furries, but back in 2012, SF Pride didn’t have activities for the love of anthropomorphic animals. They had a parade contingent in 2002-2005, but it needed help to start again. (See a 2002 video or the Pride tag for more history.) 

Whose job is it to make it happen? Everyone’s. In 2012-2019 I was one of the organizers for award-winning floats in the parade, with hundreds of supporters and members. In 2019 (the second year to get an award) we won “Absolutely Outrageous” out of more than 200 parade contingents. The parade was interrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, but finally, it’s here again.

The Nor Cal Furries are going this weekend with a new trailer, built by @Zoren and @MrDisk0Dog and funded by community donations and volunteers to give everyone an experience to remember. (Funds still accepted, anything extra will pay forward.) Here’s how great it was in 2019:

PARADE INFO FOR THE FURRY CONTINGENT:

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A cheesy soundtrack for a furry pizza party

by Patch O'Furr

If you love pizza and furries, VOTE HERE for the Ursa Major Awards! Support furry creators from March 1-31. Love is the best topping.

There is 1970’s country music about pizza. I was obsessed when I found it. I must have played it 7 times in a row. It’s so joyful, who hasn’t inhaled steam from a fresh pizza in the car and been full of longing? I’m pie-ning for some now.

Is there other country music like that? Most of what’s around these days is about trucks and things that don’t fit lyrics about spending $3.99 for a 16-incher because you’re not a penny pincher.

I have no idea when it will be safe to have furry meets again, but when it is, there’s definitely going to be a furry pizza party at my place. It would be picking up where we left off. That was the last thing that happened here before the covid lockdown, after Further Confusion 2020. We only got one started and it was supposed to be regular. Hosting 15 local furries was a nice turnout for a small private low-key night. Just add pupperoni.

Have any plans yourself?

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Fundraisers open for Pride events with furries in San Diego, LA, and San Francisco

by Patch O'Furr

Furries return to San Francisco Pride – June 28, 2020 

Back in 2012, the weekend celebration of SF Pride didn’t have any activities with anthropomorphic animals. Maybe they would just stay in their dog houses, or sit on eggs and wait for their terns, or whatever they do alone. That seemed like a loss when the SF Bay Area had the worlds most dense population of furries.

Why shouldn’t they go to Pride? Companies, schools, and all kinds of interest groups do. Pride is a statement about love that any group can support. But they didn’t seem to have any activity since a parade contingent around 2002-2005. (It’s not well documented, but the original organizers told me about overcoming some of the most friction for it from other fans, in fear of fear itself.)

Whose job is it to make it happen? Everyone’s. That’s why in 2020, I can report 8 years of starting and helping to organize award-winning floats in the parade, with partners like @Zoren, @StevenTigeron and hundreds of supporters and members. They’re coming back with a newly purchased trailer to have for the future. Generous donations last year covered it, but now they need to build a float on it and give everyone an experience to remember.

You can help on GoFundMe. Donations are matched by Spottacus.

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Animal Farm: a furry fetish party at the Citadel in San Francisco, February 22.

by Patch O'Furr

Art by Alterkitten (Furaffinity / Twitter)

There’s so much news about politics lately. What kind of liberation will the next election bring? Does it make your mind wander?

At Animal Farm (formerly Wild Things), you can get liberated as heck. Get in that headspace where you’re a pup and let your paws wander on a furry friend. Consenting adults only of course. Come explore kink at a safe licensed club, with super cute furries, pet-players, trainers, and opportunity to go ALL the way.

In San Francisco, this is one of the only openly advertised, public-access furry fetish parties in the world. Shy newcomers are welcome! Dungeon monitors are there to help. Any curious visitor can get a healthy nonjudgemental sample, or go whole hog. Bring a partner into trying a new kink. Come find a new partner in the lounge where there’s just chatting, a counter full of snacks, and temptation beckoning you to the dungeon for a frisky good time.

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Animal Farm: a furry fetish party at the Citadel in San Francisco, November 30.

by Patch O'Furr

Art by Alterkitten (Furaffinity / Twitter)

It’s right after Thanksgiving, and have you had enough stuffing? Want more?

Until 2014, there were few or no openly advertised, public-access furry fetish parties in the world. Then San Francisco got Wild Things at The Citadel, a BDSM dungeon club. (Wild Things is now Animal Farm.) It’s an opportunity to visit a licensed, safety-minded, full-time venue in the middle of the city. Any curious visitor can have a healthy, nonjudgemental experience of an often-hidden layer of the furry community. If the media ever mentions it, it’s either “Gross! Consenting adults are having sex!” Or, they collaborate with furries to spread coy PR and euphemisms to deny it exists. If it existed of course THEY don’t do it!

That meant no access unless you score a private invite from the right people for the special convention room parties. If you don’t know them, or you’re shy or worried about that setting, you just have to feel left out. But now you can visit a safe club for it. The popularity of it shows how unreal the PR can be.

So, what really happens here?

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