Here is a little write-up about my vacation in May!
As we traveled through the wastelands of Fallout New Vegas to return to our home in Las Vegas, I found myself reflecting upon our road trip to Biggest Little Fur Con in Reno, Nevada.
Some definitions before we continue:
A furry convention is a convention, or large gathering, for people in the furry fandom. It is similar to something like Comic-Con, but with a much narrower focus. Furries are people that have an interest in or are fans of anthropomorphic characters (think about characters like Bugs Bunny or Zootopia‘s Nick Wilde). A fursuit is a costume that represents an anthropomorphic character, usually commissioned from someone with a particular expertise for such things or self-made.
An eight hour road trip each way, there isn’t much that could be said about things that occurred to and from the convention. Though I did devour all the road snacks thanks to the munchies. We arrived too late to do anything Thursday Night into Friday Morning, so we went to bed. Friday morning, I got up early to go get my registration picked up after exploring the hotel floors with one of my hotel room mates. Following that, I queued up for the first Dealers’ Den opening. I was amazed at the lines. If it weren’t for being a sponsor and being able to get in sooner, I wouldn’t have bothered.
There were lots of vendors and cool sights but I went straight for booths I was interested in. I found a printed body pillow cover I really liked at Brae’s booth and some other goodies throughout. Swapped rooms so that we ended up with two queen beds instead of a king and rollout bed then went to a panel and a party afterwards. Though the party was fun, it was too crowded so I eventually ducked out and went to bed.
Saturday morning, back to the Dealers’ Den to give another look at some stuff I was sleeping on. I ended up picking up a couple new things I didn’t notice the first time around too. I picked up a Bowser poster, a Smash Bros-inspired board game and an adult coloring book. I had to buy two more for friends at home after sharing how hilarious the coloring book was. Lots of wandering until I lined up 15 minutes early for BLFC: The Musical. It was delayed for half an hour and had a rock band to play before them on top of that, so I was getting antsy while I waited.
The rock band, Run Definitely Run, was great but you could definitely tell nobody in the room had ever been to a rock concert before or heard of this band. I felt bad as most of the audience sat stoically through the rock concert to see what they came to see. The musical, One Weekend (aka BLFC: A Musical Tail), itself was great. However, it did have its issues. The visuals in the background were missing because the screen on stage was out of order, not enough fursuiters to act out the important roles, audio mixing leaving some sections hard to hear, etc.
The performers did the best they could with what they had and many live only moments made the experience even more entertaining, however I do wish the CD cast had all made it to the production. The Live cast wasn’t bad, but hearing the two versions was weird to me and I’d rather have a consistent cast. The musical was long but entertaining and I could relate with some of my convention experiences, especially finding myself relating to Thistle. Great vocals and the miming of the fursuiters were a highlight. You can actually catch the video capture of the musical below if you are interested.
After the lengthy musical, I was tired and went to bed. On Sunday, I went to another party and caught bits and pieces of some other happenings, but not a whole lot else going on. Finally, on Monday, we returned home from the road trip. Reflecting on it, I don’t think I had much Post-Con Depression. Also referred to as PCD, it’s typically the crash from returning to your day to day life after having a blast at a convention. I did have a lot of fun with new experiences and finally meeting people I had only chatted with online before, but when I lay it all out here I realize how little I actually did this year.
I think the highlights for BLFC for me will always be their themes and the more relaxed atmosphere versus conventions trying to be way too politically correct and squeaky clean. Not saying cons like that are bad but I don’t find strict events all that fun or relaxing for me.
One thing I will say is despite being angry that they moved the shirts to Patron level, I did enjoy their Sponsor level swag and priority access to things was worth it. I loved having priority access, free drinks at a restaurant using the convention cup, etc. I wish more cons would do stuff like priority access and restaurant freebies, stuff I can enjoy at the con, as part of their upper memberships instead of sending home a bunch of random swag.
Hope I can make it next year! Thanks to the staff at the con and hotel as well as the attendees that make a con a con!
