Midwest Furfest Day 2

[altivo]

Made it to the greymuzzle breakfast, which was combined with the Military Furs. I would have thought this a rather odd pairing, but the overlap between the two groups is substantial. Enjoyed some extended discussion with animist and innerwolf and saw each of them several more times during the day as I attended sessions in the spirituality and arts and literature tracks. Also got to talk to xydexx briefly, which was a pleasure, and see his handsome new ring. (Yay!) My best wishes and congratulations to him and to rigelkitty.

The sessions on furry literature and animals in the tarot were fun, the therianthropy session was very interesting. But... obviously music is a very broad topic with many different tastes. Personally I was disappointed by the furry music session, though I have heard a fair amount of furry music that I really, really like.

There were 108 in the fursuit parade, all well done. Bravo! But no equines. As I mentioned yesterday, one okapi, a few bears, and also one deer, one dragon, and one bat. All the rest were felines, canine/lupine/vulpine, or raccoons.

Spent money in the dealer's room today, some of which went for gifts so I can't describe them yet.

My tail is holding up well, despite lots of abuse including catching it (only the long hair, not the ouchy fleshy part) in the car door tonight. Still planning to go back tomorrow for one more greymuzzle session, a couple of other panels, and the Sunday puppet show, since I missed today's version due to panels. Off to bed now...

Comments

[dakhun.livejournal.com]

Interesting notes on the con. :-)
BTW, are the greymuzzle meetings really associated with that LJ community, or are they just for any older furs? I'm subscribed to greymuzzle and I haven't seen a peep on there about MFF.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

As far as I know, there's no one-to-one connection. I first heard about greymuzzle from animist who was involved with the events, but not the organizer. He was chair of the Spirituality track of panels, of which I attended and enjoyed several sessions.

For MFF purposes at least, the Greymuzzle events were defined as "open to all, and directed at furs over 30." Over 30? Good grief, I guess we need another group for furs who can get the AARP discount. (I can.)

I attended and very much appreciated all three Greymuzzle events at MFF. They helped me to feel less out of place in a crowd that was obviously made up mostly of twenty-somethings.

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

No equines? I thought I saw Phar (not pharwarner) the zebra there. Maybe she wasn't in the parade?

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Perhaps you did. I missed her then. I was looking out especially for other equines, but didn't find many. xydexx of course, and Chestnut, who I don't know but who did show up at a panel I was at, and Inflatable Zebra (who carried around an inflatable donkey much of the weekend, but I don't know if he has an online presence.)

Unika was there with her okapi suit, which is quite a gorgeous work of art and looks almost as stripy as a zebra. But okapi are closer to giraffes than to anything else.

[rigelkitty.livejournal.com]

I don't know what the hell happened, xydexx said he met you, but I missed you somehow, sorry. :/

BTW, Unika, the okapi, isn't a 'her'. :)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm not surprised we missed each other. I only saw Xydexx twice in that crowd. I know you were real busy with the gaming and the DJ stuff, and the latter would tend to put you on the other side of the clock from me. But we'll meet sometime, I'm sure, and I look forward to it. :)

My apology to Unika then, if he should read this. I simply made the bad assumption based on Romance language standards, -a being feminine and -o being masculine. It's not a reliable thing and I know that perfectly well. The okapi suit is still gorgeous, though. I'm envious of it.

[dakhun.livejournal.com]

There don't seem to be any more furries in my age range at the current-day 1000+ attendee furry cons than there were in my age range (at the time) at the few-hundreds attendee furry cons when I started attending them nearly 10 years ago. And there are probably even less. So I agree that it is a good thing that there are events for older furs. It's been about 2 years since I was at a furry con, and there were no Greymuzzle events that I was aware of at that one.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Goodness. If your birthdate on your LJ profile is accurate, there are plenty of furries your age give or take a couple of years. My observations on the distribution of age groups at MFF was something like this:

Teens and Twenties: Hanging about in the hallways, at entertainment events, probably gaming and the dances which I avoided.

Thirties and Forties: This age group is likely where many of the really hard-working organizers fit. Very busy. The gophers, the panelists, the track leaders seemed largely to be drawn from this age group. Many more were avid participants in the educational and panel sessions.

Fifties and up: The real greymuzzles. My own age group seemed to be enthusiastic participants in the panels, and some panelists and leaders. Many had come into furry conventions late like myself, but were none the less excited for all that.

Where do the fursuiters (10-12% of total attendance) fit in? I don't have a real feel for that, other than that because of the cost of fursuits, most are probably in the 30 or older groups.

On the whole, I should think you'd find plenty to do at MFF. Sorry you didn't make it this year, I would have enjoyed meeting you. :)