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Texas Furry Fiesta 2023 Wrap-up!
2 years ago
Good afternoon fluffy fellas! Texas Furry Fiesta 2023 has come and gone for the year, and, even a week later, I still wish I was there! This convention ended up being not only a terrific experience, but an important one for myself as well, both as a furry and as an individual. TFF 2023 was a convention of firsts for me, and just like I have done for previous conventions I have attended, I wanted to make a wrap-up post as to why! Before I jump in, I've created a couple of albums of photos I had taken over the course of the convention. Please note that all of the photos in the album were taken with my phone camera, so I apologize if the quality is low. I've gathered the best photos I had taken (primarily of fursuiters, I know, big shock!) into these albums, so while they are large, they are not exhaustive. If you recognize any of the fursuiters in either of the albums, please let me know so that I can link their information appropriately!
Beginning with the first first of my trip, simply travelling to Dallas was a new experience for me! This was (almost) my first time travelling via airline, which was a bit of a mixed bag of experiences. Where I live at home, planes taking off and landing is something that I've simply grown accustomed to and have taken for granted for many, many years. It isn't until you actually travel from an airport for the first time that it becomes clear just how many people make flying a part of their regular routine, or how many people travel in and out of an airport at any given moment! The most exciting part about flying is absolutely the take-off and landing, where you can see, hear, and feel a huge metal fuselage becoming airborne turn from fiction to fact. The least exciting part of how I chose to get to and from TFF? The 4-hour layovers at LaGuardia Int. When travelling to a convention, with all the excitement and anticipation of the fun to be had stirring in your body, layovers become a furious game of hurry up and wait. That isn't even mentioning airport food prices... yikes!
I arrived at DFW airport on Wednesday afternoon, ahead of my friends and room mates for the convention,
afurryjinx and Cotton, the Otter. It had been a few years since I had last seen Jinx in person, and Cotton is someone I had never seen in person up until the convention! After gathering our things from the airport, we trekked to downtown Dallas via the public rail line. It was already evening by the time we reached the Sheraton, checked in, and unpacked. We settled into our rooms, and scoped out the convention space while setup was ongoing. After having dinner at the Hotel restaurant, late at night, we decided to hit the pool an hour before it closed. Perhaps not the smartest idea on our parts, as it was only around 40 deg. Fahrenheit (or 4 deg. C). We didn't stay in the water long, for icy-clear reasons.
Moving on to Thursday, our registration period wasn't open until 8PM, so we had a whole day to ourselves. The three of us decided to grab (a very expensive!!) breakfast at the hotel breakfast bar, grabbed some items at a local corner store to keep in the hotel room, then decided to head out to the Dallas World Aquarium. The line for the aquarium wrapped around the building multiple times, but thankfully moved relatively quickly. The venue was PACKED full of spring break travelers, students, and families. A continuous line of people flowed through the aquarium like a river, and while it was a bit chaotic, we managed to see all the exhibits (especially the giant sea otter for Cotton!) We also saw a fursuiter interacting with people and children at the Aquarium, whom I was able to get a picture of later on! After walking back to the Hotel, we awaited for supper time to roll around, and decided to go to a Pho bar nearby. This was my first time having Pho as well, and it was delicious! Our timing, however, left something to be desired. As we at down to eat, a large thunderstorm passed directly overhead downtown Dallas, drenching the streets with sheets of heavy rain. The rain only barely let up by the time we were finished eating, but we meant to meet a family member of Jinx's at a cocktail lounge nearby soon. Despite the downpour, we decided to book it to the bar, proceeding to get completely soaked in the process. Our clothes dried off while we got wet at the bar, and by the time we left, the storm had passed. My socks, however, were basically water shoes the whole walk back to the hotel. Looking back, I should have ordered a Pina Colada. Despite the convention festivities kicking off that night, the rest of the evening was rather uneventful for myself, because I decided to participate in Registration Linecon 2023. The line closed once it reached about 3 hours in length, which is also how long it took me to receive my badge. By that time, all of the 10PM panels I wanted to see had finished for the night, but I did at least get the chance to meet
FAUXHAMMER in person for the first time! He was, ironically, a staff member for registration that night as well :P.
Moving on to Friday, events began formally after opening ceremonies (which I stopped in for briefly,) and I had plans for the day I wished to fulfill! First and foremost among them, were to meet the two Starcane Arts fursuiters who were at the convention in person for the first time! I got to meet the adorable and friendly Grant, and the mischief-marking Rigel! We spent a couple of hours hanging out around the hotel together, and taking an impromptu photoshoot together in the hotel and in the park right across from the hotel. You can see the results of our labor in the second imgur album I linked above! After spending some time together, Grant and I headed to a panel about taking better #FursuitFriday photos with just your phone! I learned a number of new techniques specific to fursuit photo-taking, which I then was able to employ using Grant as a photo subject! After the panel I meet back up with Jinx and Cotton, and we made the executive decision to head to a local Irish Pub for dinner, as it was St. Patrick's Day! Unsurprisingly, the bar we walked to was overflowing with patrons. Thankfully we had time to wait, as a couple of Jinx's family members wished to meet us there. Finding a seat for all of us was a bit tricky, but we all managed to sit down and have a good pub dinner together. After escaping the commotion and walking back to the hotel, I went to attend an interesting panel of Demonology and its history throughout the ages. Spoiler alert: demons have been a lot of different things at many different points in time, but there have always been some very strange depictions of them! The day concluded with a brief trip to the dance in the evening before retiring for the night!
Saturday at TFF dawns, and Cotton, Jinx and I already have our plans for the day set. Jinx and I spend the morning and early afternoon getting tea, followed by a Magic: The Gathering Commander Cube on the Tabletop gaming floor, which was a lot of fun! We both got to take turns being the boogeymen of the table, quite exciting! Afterwards, I went to attend a panel on fursuit cleaning and care hosted by Aurora Bloom, who was one of the Guests of Honor for this year! (She mentioned that she would post the presentation from her panel somewhere, but I haven't found where yet.) Immediately following this panel, the three of us met up again to take the train to the next town over. We were invited to dinner with even more of Jinx's family members, where we spent most of our evening. Essentially, we went from one large, loud party to a smaller, homier one. Getting to meet Jinx's family was a real treat, too! By the time we arrived at the hotel again, it was around 11 at night. Jinx and I had to hit up one more panel for the night before bed: an appropriately timed bedtime story sharing panel, just like the ones you used to have in Pre-K! Except these bedtime stories were a lot more PG in nature, featuring titles such as "All my Friends are Dead," "Oh, the Meetings you'll go!" and "Go the F**K to Sleep." We were certainly tired from all the laughing we did afterwards!
Sunday was the last day for the con, and it still had a lot of life in it! On Sunday morning Jinx and I went to a Fursuit handling 101 panel. Unfortunately, it didn't last long, as the panel host wound up getting sick and couldn't show! Bummer, but con crud happens! Jinx and I spent the next couple hours playing Jumpstart for MTG, which chained nicely into the timing for the dance comp to start! The main event hall was so full of audience members that there had to be a crowd watching the monitors outside (which is where I wound up watching from, thanks AV!) Dance comps are always a highlight of cons for me, and while I have no experience with dance myself, watching all of the incredible choreography from story-telling dances to hyper-energetic flips and twirls, makes me want to give it a try myself someday! I'd love to be the kind of dancer that puts everyone who watches in a good mood, or better yet, gets people to dance along! I want to give a big shout-out to a couple performances in specific too: Luv Fursuitdancing (Who has a channel here! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCy.....vuigrL0OJEw9jQ), who was initially struck with stage fright, but gathered the courage to come out on stage and absolutely SLAY. That was a well deserved medal! The other performance I wanted to mention was the couples performance (whom I cant remember the names of right now, sorry, but their photo is in my album, and their dance is here: https://youtu.be/l878u-5aWZQ?t=5057) that had me choking up on happy tears because of how sweet it was. Great going to the both of you <3. As the dance comp came to a close, lots of folks got in their last chance to say their goodbyes, as Sunday is a common departure day. However, I got my chance to say that, and hello, to a long-time friend and artist whom I admire,
GarbyLion! We spoke all about the con and more for a good amount of time, with several hugs in between! For context, Garby is the artist who created the badge I have worn to the past few conventions I had been to, along with other pieces I've either received or commissioned. The badge was made several years ago, and her art style has changed significantly since then, but its still such a special gift to me <3 (Thanks again Fizzy, I hope to meet you again real soon!) The funny thing about our meeting is, we actually might have met a lot sooner! She was also at the Irish Pub on Friday with her friends, around the same time we were! Finally, after watching a bit of closing ceremonies, us three roomies went out to find some BBQ for dinner, and I gave us the update on closing ceremonies as we headed out. I was especially shocked to find that TFF is now the 3rd largest fur con by attendance, at a record 7300 people! It honestly didn't feel like even 1000 people were in the con space at any given time (except during Linecon 2023!) hearing numbers like that can really mess with your perception of a headcount! After some excellent brisket (and pie to boot!) We all headed back to the hotel, where the last thing we did together was attend the Dead Dog Dances for awhile before heading to bed. On Monday, my flight was due, so I said my goodbyes to Jinx and Cotton, and headed for home.
Overall, I was in Dallas for 5 days, and for the entirety of TFF 2023. This convention had a lot of firsts for me, from my first time flying to my first time being at a furry con for the entire duration, and overnight, to trying new food, and meeting several friends for the first time in person! Not only that, but this officially marks the furthest I've been from home. My New Years resolution for 2023 was to try to travel more outside of New England, and I couldn't be happier to have started the year by attending TFF 2023 and fulfilling that resolution! I am always going to treasure this experience, and the people I met on my trip here. I'd like to extend, a big, BIG thank you (and a hug!) to Jinx, Cotton, Grant, Rigel, Faux, and Garby, whom I couldn't have been happier to meet, and to finally be able to put a faces to the names of folks I wanted to get to know. You guys really helped make TFF 2023 that much more special to me!
As for the rest of the year, I still need to think about where I want to go as far as other cons. There are a ton out there, and while I wish I could attend them all, I only have so many vacation days to spare to do so, especially for ones that need a flight to catch! For now, I know I plan on going to Furpocalypse 2023 in October, and for the whole duration as well! I will let you guys know where else I plan on going as far as fur cons go for this year as things develop! In the meantime, if anyone wants to story swap about TFF 2023 or talk about other cons in the near future, feel free to reach out to me!
Misc List of places and restaurants I went to in Dallas, for future reference:
- Dallas World Aquarium
- The Berni Bean Coffee Company (Upscale Coffee & Tea)
- Sapa House (Vietnamese)
- The Pecan Lodge
- The Crafty Irishman Public House
- The Mitchell (Cocktail Lounge)
- Emporium Pies
Ringgar's TFF 2023 album: https://imgur.com/a/MsjhmQ5Starcane Arts TFF 2023 album, assembled by Ringgar, feat. Grant and Rigel: https://imgur.com/a/IXjPn16Beginning with the first first of my trip, simply travelling to Dallas was a new experience for me! This was (almost) my first time travelling via airline, which was a bit of a mixed bag of experiences. Where I live at home, planes taking off and landing is something that I've simply grown accustomed to and have taken for granted for many, many years. It isn't until you actually travel from an airport for the first time that it becomes clear just how many people make flying a part of their regular routine, or how many people travel in and out of an airport at any given moment! The most exciting part about flying is absolutely the take-off and landing, where you can see, hear, and feel a huge metal fuselage becoming airborne turn from fiction to fact. The least exciting part of how I chose to get to and from TFF? The 4-hour layovers at LaGuardia Int. When travelling to a convention, with all the excitement and anticipation of the fun to be had stirring in your body, layovers become a furious game of hurry up and wait. That isn't even mentioning airport food prices... yikes!
I arrived at DFW airport on Wednesday afternoon, ahead of my friends and room mates for the convention,
afurryjinx and Cotton, the Otter. It had been a few years since I had last seen Jinx in person, and Cotton is someone I had never seen in person up until the convention! After gathering our things from the airport, we trekked to downtown Dallas via the public rail line. It was already evening by the time we reached the Sheraton, checked in, and unpacked. We settled into our rooms, and scoped out the convention space while setup was ongoing. After having dinner at the Hotel restaurant, late at night, we decided to hit the pool an hour before it closed. Perhaps not the smartest idea on our parts, as it was only around 40 deg. Fahrenheit (or 4 deg. C). We didn't stay in the water long, for icy-clear reasons. Moving on to Thursday, our registration period wasn't open until 8PM, so we had a whole day to ourselves. The three of us decided to grab (a very expensive!!) breakfast at the hotel breakfast bar, grabbed some items at a local corner store to keep in the hotel room, then decided to head out to the Dallas World Aquarium. The line for the aquarium wrapped around the building multiple times, but thankfully moved relatively quickly. The venue was PACKED full of spring break travelers, students, and families. A continuous line of people flowed through the aquarium like a river, and while it was a bit chaotic, we managed to see all the exhibits (especially the giant sea otter for Cotton!) We also saw a fursuiter interacting with people and children at the Aquarium, whom I was able to get a picture of later on! After walking back to the Hotel, we awaited for supper time to roll around, and decided to go to a Pho bar nearby. This was my first time having Pho as well, and it was delicious! Our timing, however, left something to be desired. As we at down to eat, a large thunderstorm passed directly overhead downtown Dallas, drenching the streets with sheets of heavy rain. The rain only barely let up by the time we were finished eating, but we meant to meet a family member of Jinx's at a cocktail lounge nearby soon. Despite the downpour, we decided to book it to the bar, proceeding to get completely soaked in the process. Our clothes dried off while we got wet at the bar, and by the time we left, the storm had passed. My socks, however, were basically water shoes the whole walk back to the hotel. Looking back, I should have ordered a Pina Colada. Despite the convention festivities kicking off that night, the rest of the evening was rather uneventful for myself, because I decided to participate in Registration Linecon 2023. The line closed once it reached about 3 hours in length, which is also how long it took me to receive my badge. By that time, all of the 10PM panels I wanted to see had finished for the night, but I did at least get the chance to meet
FAUXHAMMER in person for the first time! He was, ironically, a staff member for registration that night as well :P.Moving on to Friday, events began formally after opening ceremonies (which I stopped in for briefly,) and I had plans for the day I wished to fulfill! First and foremost among them, were to meet the two Starcane Arts fursuiters who were at the convention in person for the first time! I got to meet the adorable and friendly Grant, and the mischief-marking Rigel! We spent a couple of hours hanging out around the hotel together, and taking an impromptu photoshoot together in the hotel and in the park right across from the hotel. You can see the results of our labor in the second imgur album I linked above! After spending some time together, Grant and I headed to a panel about taking better #FursuitFriday photos with just your phone! I learned a number of new techniques specific to fursuit photo-taking, which I then was able to employ using Grant as a photo subject! After the panel I meet back up with Jinx and Cotton, and we made the executive decision to head to a local Irish Pub for dinner, as it was St. Patrick's Day! Unsurprisingly, the bar we walked to was overflowing with patrons. Thankfully we had time to wait, as a couple of Jinx's family members wished to meet us there. Finding a seat for all of us was a bit tricky, but we all managed to sit down and have a good pub dinner together. After escaping the commotion and walking back to the hotel, I went to attend an interesting panel of Demonology and its history throughout the ages. Spoiler alert: demons have been a lot of different things at many different points in time, but there have always been some very strange depictions of them! The day concluded with a brief trip to the dance in the evening before retiring for the night!
Saturday at TFF dawns, and Cotton, Jinx and I already have our plans for the day set. Jinx and I spend the morning and early afternoon getting tea, followed by a Magic: The Gathering Commander Cube on the Tabletop gaming floor, which was a lot of fun! We both got to take turns being the boogeymen of the table, quite exciting! Afterwards, I went to attend a panel on fursuit cleaning and care hosted by Aurora Bloom, who was one of the Guests of Honor for this year! (She mentioned that she would post the presentation from her panel somewhere, but I haven't found where yet.) Immediately following this panel, the three of us met up again to take the train to the next town over. We were invited to dinner with even more of Jinx's family members, where we spent most of our evening. Essentially, we went from one large, loud party to a smaller, homier one. Getting to meet Jinx's family was a real treat, too! By the time we arrived at the hotel again, it was around 11 at night. Jinx and I had to hit up one more panel for the night before bed: an appropriately timed bedtime story sharing panel, just like the ones you used to have in Pre-K! Except these bedtime stories were a lot more PG in nature, featuring titles such as "All my Friends are Dead," "Oh, the Meetings you'll go!" and "Go the F**K to Sleep." We were certainly tired from all the laughing we did afterwards!
Sunday was the last day for the con, and it still had a lot of life in it! On Sunday morning Jinx and I went to a Fursuit handling 101 panel. Unfortunately, it didn't last long, as the panel host wound up getting sick and couldn't show! Bummer, but con crud happens! Jinx and I spent the next couple hours playing Jumpstart for MTG, which chained nicely into the timing for the dance comp to start! The main event hall was so full of audience members that there had to be a crowd watching the monitors outside (which is where I wound up watching from, thanks AV!) Dance comps are always a highlight of cons for me, and while I have no experience with dance myself, watching all of the incredible choreography from story-telling dances to hyper-energetic flips and twirls, makes me want to give it a try myself someday! I'd love to be the kind of dancer that puts everyone who watches in a good mood, or better yet, gets people to dance along! I want to give a big shout-out to a couple performances in specific too: Luv Fursuitdancing (Who has a channel here! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCy.....vuigrL0OJEw9jQ), who was initially struck with stage fright, but gathered the courage to come out on stage and absolutely SLAY. That was a well deserved medal! The other performance I wanted to mention was the couples performance (whom I cant remember the names of right now, sorry, but their photo is in my album, and their dance is here: https://youtu.be/l878u-5aWZQ?t=5057) that had me choking up on happy tears because of how sweet it was. Great going to the both of you <3. As the dance comp came to a close, lots of folks got in their last chance to say their goodbyes, as Sunday is a common departure day. However, I got my chance to say that, and hello, to a long-time friend and artist whom I admire,
GarbyLion! We spoke all about the con and more for a good amount of time, with several hugs in between! For context, Garby is the artist who created the badge I have worn to the past few conventions I had been to, along with other pieces I've either received or commissioned. The badge was made several years ago, and her art style has changed significantly since then, but its still such a special gift to me <3 (Thanks again Fizzy, I hope to meet you again real soon!) The funny thing about our meeting is, we actually might have met a lot sooner! She was also at the Irish Pub on Friday with her friends, around the same time we were! Finally, after watching a bit of closing ceremonies, us three roomies went out to find some BBQ for dinner, and I gave us the update on closing ceremonies as we headed out. I was especially shocked to find that TFF is now the 3rd largest fur con by attendance, at a record 7300 people! It honestly didn't feel like even 1000 people were in the con space at any given time (except during Linecon 2023!) hearing numbers like that can really mess with your perception of a headcount! After some excellent brisket (and pie to boot!) We all headed back to the hotel, where the last thing we did together was attend the Dead Dog Dances for awhile before heading to bed. On Monday, my flight was due, so I said my goodbyes to Jinx and Cotton, and headed for home.Attack of the Summary!Overall, I was in Dallas for 5 days, and for the entirety of TFF 2023. This convention had a lot of firsts for me, from my first time flying to my first time being at a furry con for the entire duration, and overnight, to trying new food, and meeting several friends for the first time in person! Not only that, but this officially marks the furthest I've been from home. My New Years resolution for 2023 was to try to travel more outside of New England, and I couldn't be happier to have started the year by attending TFF 2023 and fulfilling that resolution! I am always going to treasure this experience, and the people I met on my trip here. I'd like to extend, a big, BIG thank you (and a hug!) to Jinx, Cotton, Grant, Rigel, Faux, and Garby, whom I couldn't have been happier to meet, and to finally be able to put a faces to the names of folks I wanted to get to know. You guys really helped make TFF 2023 that much more special to me!
As for the rest of the year, I still need to think about where I want to go as far as other cons. There are a ton out there, and while I wish I could attend them all, I only have so many vacation days to spare to do so, especially for ones that need a flight to catch! For now, I know I plan on going to Furpocalypse 2023 in October, and for the whole duration as well! I will let you guys know where else I plan on going as far as fur cons go for this year as things develop! In the meantime, if anyone wants to story swap about TFF 2023 or talk about other cons in the near future, feel free to reach out to me!
Misc List of places and restaurants I went to in Dallas, for future reference:
- Dallas World Aquarium
- The Berni Bean Coffee Company (Upscale Coffee & Tea)
- Sapa House (Vietnamese)
- The Pecan Lodge
- The Crafty Irishman Public House
- The Mitchell (Cocktail Lounge)
- Emporium Pies
taradinocassat
~taradinocassat
I was the Aquarium Foxxo :D
Ringgar
~ringgar
OP
That's right!! I was happy to see you at the Aquarium interacting with folks! I'd like to do the same eventually :D