Wildlife/fantasy artist Nambroth (Jennifer Miller), artist, costumer and sculptress Miss Monster (Melita Curphy), and fursuit builder and artist FirestormSix (Den Barrett) were interviewed last weekend at Midwest FurFest's "Meet the Guests of Honor" panel, hosted by Takaza and Perro.

First, they were asked to identify themselves, and the name of their microphones . . .

FirestormSix: I'm FirestormSix. My microphone is Spike.

Miss Monster: I make stuff in my basement, and it's awesome. My microphone is Applejack.

Nambroth: Nambroth, Jennifer Miller, I'm cool with either. I draw fantasy and wildlife professionally full time. I have Rainbow Dash.

Takaza: What brought you into the fandom?

FirestormSix: Basically the artwork, I started seeing the costumes a few years later; my first commission was six years ago, then I started getting a interest in building things, 4/1 2 years ago did a Dakota Wolf.

Nambroth: I got the Internet when I was 14 and was really into Gargoyles. I didn't know it was furries. I got into Yerf without realizing what I was doing, it was just "the animal people" to me.

Chicago radio station WBEZ's Jason Marck and Eilee Heikenen-Weiss today broadcast their experience of MFF 2011 on morning program Eight Forty-Eight. [tip: Iggy & Idlewild]

The eight-minute segment focused on the motivations for fursuiting, and featured interviews with Woody, Atara, Ford Shepherd and convention chair Takaza J. Wolf. Other topics included whether furry was a fetish, and the convention charity, which left with over $18,500 (video).

So a huge part of it is this kind of kid-like, unbridled joy. [...] The whole thing felt like good clean fun ... there's an overall air of [...] innocence, inclusiveness, belonging ...

Jason said he found the fandom by accident, stumbling across WikiFur while looking up Japanese comic books. MFF attracted 2600 fans this year, including 574 parade fursuiters.

Midwest FurFest 2011 is less than three months away, and as the dog days of summer come and go we're getting ready to "Get Our Kicks" for the twelfth edition of MFF, celebrating the history and lore of The Mother Road, Route 66! This year we are welcoming as our Guests of Honor two talented artists: Thornwolf and Rick Griffin (creator of the webcomic Housepets!). We've got a lot to tell you about, so here we go...

Videographer Curt Pehrson gives an overview of the fandom with help from niteskunk, based largely on interviews from seven furs at Midwest FurFest 2010. [poizencat/fursuitlounge]

Read on for some highlighted quotes.

Midwest FurFest 2010's guests of honor – Vantid (Amber Hill), Redstorm (Alexis Rudd, aka The Blue Hyena) and Kipper Otter – kindly allowed me to record their answers in the "meet the GoH" panel, hosted by MFF chairman Takaza. So here they are!

Midwest FurFest 2010 occurred last weekend, with 2285 attendees, including 413 in the fursuit parade. 388 art show pieces were sold (of 1121 on offer), bringing in over $12,000, while $11,347 was raised for their charity, Castaway Pet Rescue.

Two guests for next year were announced – Rick Griffin, creator of Housepets! and Thornwolf. The convention is accepting suggestions for a third guest, as well as a theme.

A researcher at the University of East Anglia thinks animals should not just be seen as "fair game" for filmmakers, but should be granted similar privacy rights as humans.

Dr. Mills says animals sometimes withdraw from "public" areas, and appear to want privacy:

When confronted with such 'secretive' behaviour the response of the wildlife documentary is to read it as a challenge to be overcome with the technologies of television. [...] The question constantly posed by wildlife documentaries is how animals should be filmed: they never ask whether animals should be filmed at all.

The story came a day before the release of an amateur documentary from a group attending Midwest FurFest in 2008 and 2009, including covert footage of furs in their natural habitat.

Midwest FurFest 2007, the third largest furry convention in the world, broke it's own record in 2007, drawing a crowd of 1,689 furs - almost 1,000 more than it's nearest competitor Furry Weekend Atlanta, which recorded 762 attendees in the same year.

This doesn't match up to last year's exponential growth of 36% however, following the cancellation of Conifur Northwest, with this years convention reporting only a 16% growth on last year.

At ninety minutes to midnight, the Hyatt Regency Woodfield's main atrium - newly accented with eerie colour-shifting LEDs - is packed with furs, tails and fursuits. Old friends greet one another with smiles, laughter, and a more-than-occasional hug. Midwest FurFest 2007 has arrived.

Registration opened promptly at 7PM, with badges flying off the printers as fast as staff could call the names out. A total of 649 were registered by the end of the day.

As has become customary, Thursday's early arrivals were greeted with a sweet treat, along with a variety of tasty toppings. Somewhat less customarily, the treat consisted of sweet mashed potato. Regular mash was also provided, along with pitchers of kool-aid.

While the official schedule doesn't start until Friday, a combination quiz and betting game was in progress down the corridor. The question of the day: "How fast is a speeding cheetah?" (Answer: 65 miles/hour.)

Midwest FurFest released information about the convention theme and guests for honor today. The convention also announced its newly-revamped website at www.furfest.org.^[1]

The convention theme is to be "Critters on the High Seas", which could include pirates, sailing ships, and all things nautical.

The Guests of Honor include artists and illustrator Cara Mitten, artist, illustrator, and costumer Jill0r, and author Will Sanborn.

Midwest Furry Fandom board members voted yesterday to expand Midwest FurFest's hotel room block from 300 to 350 rooms on the convention's busiest nights, Friday and Saturday. All the new hotel rooms will be king-size, as the con had already booked out every double room in the building.^[1] These measures are likely a reaction to Midwest FurFest 2006, which experienced a 33% increase in attendance over the previous year.^[2]

BJ Buttons and Cobalt after the fursuit parade

Welcome to GreenReaper's con report for Midwest FurFest 2006! I was looking forward to this one. Midwest FurFest 2005 was my first furry convention - my first fan convention of any kind - and it had been exceedingly good. You can read more about it in my previous con report. Since then, though, I'd visited ConClave 31 and Anthrocon 2006, each with their own charms. Would I find MFF somewhat lacking now? Read on to find out . . .

Midwest FurFest
Hyatt Regency Woodfield
Schaumburg, Illinois
November 17 - 19, 2006

Midwest FurFest is happy to announce that the theme for MFF 2006 will be: Midwest FurFest County Fair!

We are also proud to announce our Guests of Honor for 2006:

We are pleased to welcome the talented artist Heather "Kyoht" Luterman. Kyoht's work has been featured by Australia's National Dinosaur Museum, and Scholastic, the world's largest publisher of children's books and media. You can see more of Kyoht's work at her website, http://www.kyoht.com

We also welcome Whitefox (aka Whitey Fawks), noted costumer and co-owner of Arend Studios (http://www.arendstudios.com). You can find examples of Whitefox's work at any furry convention, and he has created numerous retail, nonprofit, and sports mascots.

Finally, we are happy to be joined by Jen Seng (aka Spunky). Jen is a talented artist and cartoonist whose work has been featured by Sofa Wolf Press, among others. Her work can be found at http://www.toonapalooza.net
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Midwest FurFest is a production of Midwest Furry Fandom, Inc.
For more information go to http://www.furfest.org

As this was my first furry convention, I decided to write it up in a little more detail than I would do otherwise. Read on to see what a con virgin thought of Midwest FurFest 2005. You should also read KinkyTurtle's MFF 2005 con diary, which is far funnier than mine! :-)

Midwest FurFest Newsletter: November 2005

It's only three weeks until Midwest FurFest and everyone is working hard to make this our best convention yet!

In This Issue:
The Hotel Is Filling Up Fast
Last Chance To Mail In Your Registration
Programming: We've Got A Busy Weekend For You!
The Dealers Room Awaits Your Money
Artists Alley: Bigger and Better Than Ever!
Call For Puppeteers
Exciting Doings In The Video Room