While I sadly wasn't able to hang out with all of you for very long on Friday night, I am extremely glad that I was still able to attend your Furtopia meet-up for at least a little while. I just had an
extremely busy con with *way* too much that I wanted to do, and as a result I zipped into the hotel room where you were having the meetup in the short time that I had between "2 the Ranting Gryphon's" stand-up comedy routine and when the "MLP Party Panel" started. My whole MFF weekend was like that-- zipping in and out between various panels, shows, organized events, room parties, and other things, all the while barely stopping even to eat or sleep. Heck, here it is Tuesday night already and I still feel as if I was run over by a bus after that marathon of activity-- I have a feeling that I have only just begun to recuperate from last weekend (and I don't even drink)!
Looking back on last Friday night and how things ended up playing out, in retrospect I probably should have stayed hanging out with you guys instead of leaving your get-together early to go to the "MLP Party Panel." While that MLP panel was an absolutely blast at both MFF 2011 and MFF 2012, this year legal threats from Hasbro absolutely neutered what the panelists were allowed to say, show, and do, which just decimated that panel and sucked the life straight from it. *sigh* That panel was actually
depressing, and not in any way a party at all! Way more "Pinkamina" than "Pinkie Pie," you know?
My convention experience itself, while overall positive, did have its ups and downs, with highs and lows sometimes happening in the same day. I think that one of the largest contributing factors to that is just how huge Midwest Furfest is getting. When I first started attending Midwest Furfest 11-years ago it had only 748 attendees. My two most memorable Furfests, 2004 and 2005, had 885 and 1066 attendees, respectively. When the con was smaller in size like that it just took
far less time to do things-- there was only one artist alley room instead of four, the art show and the dealer den were both half the size, and there were fewer programming tracks to have to choose between. And while at first glance that all may seem like a Bad Thing, the truth is that it gives you a chance to actually
do it all, *and* still have plenty of time left over to relax and hang out with all of your out-of-town friends.
When I first attended Anthrocon in 2009, that con had 3776-attendees. I thought that number of attendees was absolutely
huge at the time, and I found the massive size of the con and the sea of its attendees to be absolutely exhausting! As Sheeta reported above, Midwest Furfest had
3825-attendees this year, which is 49 more than were at the overwhelming experience that I had at Anthrocon! And yet, I *still* try to do all the things that I used to do at Furfest a decade ago, except that there are now more programming tracks, the dealer room and the art show are twice the size, and the artist alley is now four-times the size... No wonder I end up running around like crazy all weekend with no time to eat or sleep!!! Now don't get me wrong-- I love Midwest Furfest! It's located so close to me that it is nearly on my doorstep, and it was my first furry con and the con that I have attended more than any other. But boy oh boy has it gotten big! And that just makes it so much harder to coordinate with other people-- apparently several of my friends showed up there but I missed them completely, never happening across them in that sea of people in acrylic fur and dog collars! In future years I may have to find another one of the smaller nearby furry cons to start going to as well so that I can get that smaller con cozy atmosphere back!
My grey-muzzle-like griping about ever-increasing con-size aside, once again it was nice to see all of my fellow Furtopians again. As always when I run into Sheeta my wallet suddenly became thinner and I ended up with still more of her incredible MLP:FiM-themed buttons! I think I bought 5 of them this time? Apparently I just can't resist them!
And while I see Shim all of the time at local LAFF events, seeing him again is never a bad thing. And I ended up talking about machine language programming and microprocessor architecture with redyoshi49q until like 3 or 4 in the morning one night... That's never a bad conversation! LOL! And I saw the ever-talented Furtopia member and tail-maker Lascivus_Lutra in the dealer's den and picked up my first-ever tail that I had commissioned from him this year! That's right-- I have been going to furry cons for 11-years now, and up until 4-days ago I never had or wore a tail... I just ease into these things slowly I guess! At this rate I will finally get my very first fursuit at Midwest Furfest 2023!
So yeah, my over-scheduling myself and con-size complaints aside, it was still overall a very fun con! In any case I look forward to attending Midwest Furfest again next year, and hopefully my schedule will work out better next time so that I can spend the entire duration of the Furtopia member meetup with you guys instead of having to dart in and out like I ended up doing this year!
