Hello friends and fluffs! I have just returned home from Anthrocon 2024, where I stayed in Pittsburgh from July 3rd to the 7th! Anthrocon is (as of writing, the, more on this later!) Largest furry convention in the world, and has a legendary status amongst conventions. History was made there this year, and I am so grateful to have been there to be a part of it! Not only that, but this is my very first Anthrocon, and is a convention I had always wanted to go to for years, even very early on into my foray into furry! After attending Midwest Fur Fest last year, I believed I had some understanding as to what I was getting in to when attending such a massive convention, but my expectations were exceptionally exceeded! While convention events are primarily contained to the David Lawrence Convention Center and adjoining Westin Hotel, the truth is that the spirit of the convention extends well across Downtown Pittsburgh! With that said, allow me to share with you the activities of this circular wolf, along with my friend and roommate for the convention,  afurryjinx, that occurred at such a sprawling event!

Before we begin, I spent most of my time at the convention in suit! As such, I do not have many of my own photos to share, so I am on the hunt for photos of Ringgar taken by others! If you have or know of any photos or video of Ringgar floating around, I would appreciate seeing it! In addition, most of the interactions I had with friends at the convention, unlike previous ones, were very brief and primarily in passing, due to the large (and especially expansive) style of this convention. If you met me and I haven't mentioned your name here, I apologize. Do feel free to send me a message on one of the socials linked on my home page if you and I did meet though!

If you have or see any photos of me or with me in them on any social media site or Furtrack, please send me a message and let me know! Thank you!

Ringgar's Anthrocon 2024 Photo Reel!


We decided to take the trip down to Pittsburgh by car, waking up just past midnight on Wednesday morning and hitting the road around 2 A.M. The drive down was actually very smooth at this time of night, with traffic only picking up in volume when we were already 7 hours into the trip, just an hour and a half away from Pittsburgh! We were able to watch the sun rise in the rear view mirror as we drove down, and despite the length of the drive, it was an enjoyable one! If I wasn't on the highway, I would have liked to have taken a photo of that sunrise! We arrived in the city around noon, and after a little stress in city driving, made it to the hotel. We were able to secure a room at the Doubletree for this convention, which I'm happy to report was overall a smooth and unproblematic stay! We unpacked in the room, and made a plan to explore the city while waiting for our third room mate, Zephyr Cyenta! Shuttles were not running on Wednesday, so we walked over to the convention center to try to see the layout. We weren't allowed inside of course, but we were able to inspect the surrounding streets, and of course, the waterfront! We walked west down the waterfront, and crossed over to the waterfront on the northern side of the Ohio river. From there, we walked up along the waterfront, passing PNC Park where the Pirates play, the Andy Warhol Museum, several memorials and dedications (seen in the album I've linked above!) and eventually winding up at the Carnegie Science Center. The Science Center was hosting an event that explored the science and process behind creating a Pixar film, which we attended, also seeing a couple of fursuiters already there at the exhibit! I particularly appreciated seeing how each step in the process of animating was followed. I'm not an animator, and while I know (some) of these steps, it was nice to see how they fit together in the overall process! After visiting the exhibit, we walked back to the waterfront on the southern half of the river, into Point Park, and then into Market Square on the way back to the hotel. I was particularly impressed by Market Square, as it was essentially an all-encompassing food destination for downtown, with every kind of cuisine you could ask for packed into one and a half blocks! After reaching the hotel again, we went to grab Zephyr once he arrived, and made plans to head to Pizza Parma for dinner. This pizza join was completely in to the convention, converting themselves to "Furryland" for the whole duration of the con, including a new menu, decor, and staff uniform! I believe this restaurant is the best example of how the city essentially transforms to welcome furries at Anthrocon. As I mentioned before, Anthrocon extends in spirit beyond the convention center, and it is largely in part due to the residents and businesses becoming welcoming to furry clientele, as Anthrocon brings a substantial amount of customers to town! After dinner the three of us returned to the hotel, where we went swimming in the hotel pool after some time before retiring from a very long, yet very eventful Day 0!

Day 1 of the convention opens with Jinx and I grabing bagels for Breakfast and heading down to the con center for registration. An hour and a half before registration opened, the line for preregistration already extended down the street and wrapped well around the convention center. Thankfully, we were early enough earlier in the year to grab a sponsor badge, so our wait time was cut down significantly. Registration was one of the pain points I heard about frequently at the convention, and with the weather outside reaching 90 degrees Fahrenheit and sunny, it is easy to understand why. Now that we were able to go into the con center, Jinx and I walked around each of the floors to get a better understanding as to the layout of the con center, since this was the first time ever being here for us both. Once we were comfortable with the layout, we took the shuttle back to the hotel, put on our fursuits, and went back to the con center for a little bit of early fursuiting! Unsurprisingly, there were not many people in the con center yet as most were in registration, so we only stayed briefly before heading back to the hotel again to unsuit and grab our MTG decks. We then went to the Westin to play Magic The Gathering together, and after playing for a few hours, decided to grab dinner at a bar in Market Square called Whisky B's. Unfortunately, I had missed all of the panels I had planned on attending during the duration of playing Magic and grabbing dinner, including opening ceremonies, but I accepted that I couldn't do everything at once like I have at other conventions before (though I still wish I could!) We returned to the hotel, where we were greeted with the arrival of a friend at our room,  Tenact! Tenn is someone I met by random luck at Furpocalypse 2022, and it was (almost) random luck that brought us together again! Because Thursday was the 4th, the three of us planned to go to Point Park to watch the fireworks go off amongst the populace, but there was one slight issue: torrential rain, that started the moment we were going to walk out the door of the hotel. Instead, the three of us watched the fireworks from the T.V set in our hotel room, which was a decent enough replacement. I was already in fursuit at the time, so I am glad we decided to wait out the rain, which fell for only around 40 minutes. Once the rain concluded, I suited up to travel to the con center again, with Jinx following to handle for me. At this time of night, the waterfront became very populated, and boileroom sets were a common sound near the shuttle drop-off under the con center. I was able to act around like a goofy wolf like usual, but I was primarily focused on getting acclimated to navigating the con center in suit (and in the heat especially.) I did get to see one of my fursuit family members as well, who was staff at the convention this year: Sitherie! Though the sun had gone down, the humidity ramped up due to the rain, and I did not feel well because of it. I decided to retire for the night around 10, though if the weather had cooperated, I would have stayed longer!

Our story for Friday starts around 9, where Jinx and Tenn and I decided to meet at a local Waffle joint called Waffles, Incaffinated for breakfast (which was very crowded, and for good reason, the food was great!) I had planned to attend a couple of panels that occurred during the middle of the day: Public Fursuiting Etiquette hosted by @Astra_Fur, and Fursuiting 101 hosted by  Nexus_Folf! For the etiquette panel, I had hoped to learn some planning tips for going to public places to fursuit, and this panel delivered on exactly that. If Astra decides to host this panel again, I would recommend other fursuit owners attend! They broke down advice for public suiting as well as how to handle difficult situations in suit in public! Gale's Fursuit 101 panel focused on acting in fursuit! This is a panel that Gale has done for many years and has quite a history of going off the rails at several points, and this time was no exception. While I wasn't invited to be an example fursuiter for the audience, I did get the opportunity to perform for the crowd there as well, acting like a pirate by turning my goggles into a makeshift eyepatch! Beyond the crazy antics, this panel was genuinely helpful in helping me realize just how much more fun and memorable dynamic poses can be when having my photo taken in suit, something I'll try to put into practice in the future! This was my first opportunity to attend this panel, as Gale been able to do this at other conventions I had also been to previously, so I am very grateful to have been able to attend. If the opportunity arises again, I would love to be an example suiter for the audience, because if there is one thing I love more than anything in suiting, is making people smile! After these two panels concluded, I had a bit of energy left in me to walk around the dealers den (which, if you intend to purchase something, is as awkward in suit as you might expect) before returning to the hotel to meet up with Jinx again for dinner. We went to a local bar called The Warren for dinner, which both of our picks for favorite dinner location that we went to during the con! (We've only just scratched the surface when it comes to food destinations in Pitt of course, but we only had so many days for dinner!) Their menu features drinks, tavern food, and surprisingly, sushi! I'm confident this is a bar I will return to when I next get to visit Pittsburgh. To close out the day, I suited up one more time to head back to the convention center. Here, I sauntered up to the rooftop for a Starcane Arts fursuit family meetup with all of my other fursuit family members who were attending the convention this year! Four of these folks, Hannu the Vernid, Axel the Husky, & Ripley & Dandy the fox, I had met at other conventions before, but this was my first time meeting other family members, such as Felix the Purple Fox, Laurence the DeerFox, and B4d the Kaiju, I had never met in person up until this point! Internally, I was thrilled to meet them, but the heat and humidity from standing outside on the roof in full suit was stifling to my outward excitement. I did cry a little when I saw them all. This adopted family is nothing less than a blessing to be a part of, and I'm thankful to get to know so many people from different walks of life, all connected by a (very fuzzy) thread. After we took our photos, Hannu, Laurence, Axel and I went to the headless lounge to cool off together, and Hannu and I walked around the waterfront together afterwards as well (Where I also met Tenn again, heh). Once it turned around 11PM, I decided to head back to the hotel to give Ringgar some TLC and to conclude Day 2!

Saturday was an oddball of a day. It started out with a tremendous string of bad luck. Jinx and I searched the nearby area for breakfast, walking to 3 separate locations only to find that they were either closed for the holiday weekend or overbooked. When we resolved to get breakfast at the hotel restaurant, it had just turned 10:30, which means the hotel restaurant was closed to shift over to lunch. Defeated, we just had yogurt and granola for breakfast, after which we decided to suit up to head to the con center for the Fursuit Parade! Before the convention, I had decided to procure a cooling vest in preparation for (what I thought would be mostly outdoor) events such as this, so I decided to give it a first real test run during the parade. This was the intent, anyway, but fortune was still not on our side. From walking into Hall C at the con center for line up to leaving it to enter the parade took about an hour and a half. By this point, I was hurting a little bit from standing or sitting in suit in one spot almost the entire time, and not only that, but the cooling vest I intended to test had melted during that duration. At least it kept me cool in the lineup, I suppose! The parade itself only lasted around 10 minutes, and the time we spent outdoors was very brief. Despite this, I did my best to strut my stuff (energy level permitting at that point) and put smiles on the faces of all the onlookers! I think I gave around 70 high fives in that parade, and most importantly to me, a hug to a small child who asked for one. Despite everything, I still think it was absolutely worth it (though I'll plan to arrive earlier for large conventions like this to, hopefully, cut down on the line wait in the future!) I had intended to attend the block party immediately afterwards, but my energy was drained from all the waiting in full suit at that point, so instead Jinx and I travelled back to the hotel, where I donned a poodling partial to head back to the con center for the block party on Penn. Ave. for a brief duration before heading to a place called the Yard in Market Square for dinner. The one thing I can say about the Yard is to prepare for a significant amount of cheese to be added to your diet. That is all :P. After dinner, we walked back to the hotel, where after resting briefly I full suited again to return to the last couple hours of the block party. Once the block party concluded, I moved back inside to goof around in suit and attend the dances that night, before returning to the hotel late to get ready for the last day of the con!

On Sunday morning, it felt like the con had gone past in the blink of an eye. I wasn't ready to let it go just yet, and I resolved to make it a fun one! Jinx and I had breakfast in the hotel room because I wished to attend the Fursuit Games that Sunday, which was held earlier at 11 AM! Once I was in full suit and at the con center, I had made it just in time to join the orange team. There were enough participants for 10 teams of 8 fursuiters, and 3 games for each team to play: Connect 4, Ring Toss (!!!) and Cornhole! Our team didn't win (mostly due to our lackluster ring toss performance, hahaha!) But I still had fun! One thing that did puzzle me however is that the Fursuit Games were being held at almost the same time the Dance Competition was. This really cut down on the audience for the games, which had an especially noticeable difference compared to the Fursuit Games I had been in at other conventions. There was plenty of space for participants, but the seats for spectators were mostly empty. I intend to give some feedback about that when the time comes! After the games, I had time to head to the Dealer's Den one more time, and to go back to the same room the games were played to attend Sylox's Fursuit 101 panel! Unlike Gale's panel, this panel focuses more on the basics of acquiring, wearing, and safety in a fursuit, which also had a lot of audience input! This was mostly information I had learned from my own fursuit experiences in the past year, but the panel was well attended, and I am grateful that Sylox put together a place for open discussion on fursuit basics! I returned to the hotel after this, but only briefly to rest and take care of my suit, before Jinx and I went to the closing ceremonies. I went to the ceremonies in partial while Jinx went in full suit! Closing ceremonies to me, was one of the most notable parts of the convention, not only for the wrap up, announcements, and numbers, but because I got to be a part of furry history. To be more specific, in the span of about 15 minutes, the attendees of the con raised over $9,000 for the charity this year, Gray Paws Sanctuary, to cap off the total charity donation to be over $100,000, which was the very first three figure charity number raised solely by attendees! To top all of that off, Anthrocon also broke the (at the time of writing) record for largest furry con attendance at 17,639 attendees, and had 3371 fursuiters (which also explains why the parade was so long!) When these numbers were announced, especially watching the charity goal being raised live, I teared up a bit. Anthrocon has a legendary status among furry conventions, and this is even more evidence of being just that, which I am eternally thankful to have been a part of. After closing, Jinx and I went to the Terminal, a strip of businesses and restaurants on Penn Avenue NE of the con center, which is a direction we hadn't gone yet this con, and had dinner at a brewery called Aslin Beer Co. Once we finished dinner, we returned to the room to suit up together one last time at the convention center, took photos off the balcony on the second floor of the con center, and walked around to say our goodbyes to friends (and some hellos to strangers!) before returning to the hotel around midnight. The drive back home Monday was not as smooth or pleasant as the drive down, considering we were driving in 100 degree Fahrenheit weather, but that was unavoidable, so there isn't much to say about it!


Exiting the Anthrocoaster!

My first Anthrocon was incredible in so many ways, and occasionally zany as well! Watching a city district change for furries is an experience you can't find anywhere else on Earth! To say Anthrocon is a big deal for the furry community, and for me personally, is an understatement. I was there for five days, and I barely scratched the surface of what Anthrocon has to offer. A couple of things I have learned from my experience there is that Anthrocon is a convention that really requires trips for multiple years to truly understand and experience the scope of it all. Its size can be both a blessing and a curse, being big enough to find something to do at every corner, but also being so big that it is hard to find friends naturally. Due to the spread out nature of the several hotels, if you want to meet someone, the best way to do that is to plan a place and time to meet ahead of time. It is entirely possible that you may know a friend is going, but never wind up seeing them, as happened to a couple of folks I know who were attending. I also recommend planning for activities outside the convention in advance. One of the highlights of AC for many folks is the ferry trip, which I wasn't able to secure tickets for this year. The next time I go, I absolutely will though! When it comes to the convention itself however, it is OK to go in either with light plans or no plan at all, because when it comes to large conventions such as this, plans and timing can change on the fly. If you do have a plan in place, make sure you build in time for the shuttles, because you WILL NOT want to walk around in the July heat for long, unless you are fewer than a couple blocks away from the con center. These are just a handful of the things I learned, and I hope they will be useful to you as well!

Thank you to all of the staff and volunteers who make this legendary convention possible! Thank you to all the friends I saw there that made this first AC special to me! The amusement park has wrapped up for the season, but I will bet that another Anthrocon will be in my future, with even more fun in store! Finally, thank you for reading!

My next major furry convention will be Furpocalypse 2024! I hope to see you there!