![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Anthrocon 2019
Jul. 10th, 2019 01:08 pmFrom July 3rd to July 8th, I was once again in Pittsburgh for Anthrocon. I shared a room at the Westin with Marauder and Joey Gatorman.
The biggest improvement I noticed this year was the change in the fursuit parade route. The parade now skips the dealers' den; it goes down to street level and ends in Hall D, conveniently next to the public meet-and-greet. Short and sweet. Only issue is they didn't have volunteers or staff to prefill cups with water at the destination hall, so lines of fursuiters had to wait at the water dispensers after finishing the parade. So there's a bit of room for improvement next year.
As usual, the Anthrocon schedule was full to the brim with all kinds of events and there wasn't a dull moment the whole weekend. I went to whatever interested me, which ended up being a mix of talks, shows, meet-ups, and how-to panels. At the sewing panel, I made a puppy squeaker keychain. Also played Jackbox, Are You A Werewolf, and Rabbit Island. The panel that I found the most interesting though was "The Blind Side", in which 3 blind furries shared stories and answered questions about how they found the fandom and how they live in a sighted world. Of course, there were the usual questions about whether a blind person sees anything in a dream and how a sighted person should and shouldn't interact with a blind person, but there were also things I hadn't thought of, such as leaving at least one light in the house on at night, even if they really don't need any lights, so the neighbors don't think that the house is unoccupied.
Overall, I thought this Anthrocon went very smoothly. The only issue that irked me happened on Sunday night at the Dead Dog Party. At the stroke of midnight, someone from the Westin came and ordered us to vacate the hotel conference levels. I thought that was rather abrupt and rude. At the time, I was resting in the fursuit lounge on the 3rd floor and had only been there a few minutes, so it was a bother to have to quickly suit up again and head to the elevators. In previous years, the dance would shut down promptly at midnight but we could still hang out in the area for a while after that. I'm not sure what the issue was this time, unless the hotel really needed the area early Monday morning.
The biggest improvement I noticed this year was the change in the fursuit parade route. The parade now skips the dealers' den; it goes down to street level and ends in Hall D, conveniently next to the public meet-and-greet. Short and sweet. Only issue is they didn't have volunteers or staff to prefill cups with water at the destination hall, so lines of fursuiters had to wait at the water dispensers after finishing the parade. So there's a bit of room for improvement next year.
As usual, the Anthrocon schedule was full to the brim with all kinds of events and there wasn't a dull moment the whole weekend. I went to whatever interested me, which ended up being a mix of talks, shows, meet-ups, and how-to panels. At the sewing panel, I made a puppy squeaker keychain. Also played Jackbox, Are You A Werewolf, and Rabbit Island. The panel that I found the most interesting though was "The Blind Side", in which 3 blind furries shared stories and answered questions about how they found the fandom and how they live in a sighted world. Of course, there were the usual questions about whether a blind person sees anything in a dream and how a sighted person should and shouldn't interact with a blind person, but there were also things I hadn't thought of, such as leaving at least one light in the house on at night, even if they really don't need any lights, so the neighbors don't think that the house is unoccupied.
Overall, I thought this Anthrocon went very smoothly. The only issue that irked me happened on Sunday night at the Dead Dog Party. At the stroke of midnight, someone from the Westin came and ordered us to vacate the hotel conference levels. I thought that was rather abrupt and rude. At the time, I was resting in the fursuit lounge on the 3rd floor and had only been there a few minutes, so it was a bother to have to quickly suit up again and head to the elevators. In previous years, the dance would shut down promptly at midnight but we could still hang out in the area for a while after that. I'm not sure what the issue was this time, unless the hotel really needed the area early Monday morning.
