Furrydelphia returns in 2025 with a new night market and newfound financial stability

More than 3,000 furries descended on Philadelphia, PA, this weekend for Furrydelphia 2025. (Eberra Wolf)

3,777 furries came out to Center City in Philadelphia this weekend for the ninth annual Furrydelphia. Held again in the Sheraton Philadelphia Downtown hotel, this year’s theme was ‘Hoagiecon’, a spin on the east coast convenience store chain Wawa’s annual Hoagiefest.

MAJIC Records, a BIPoC music collective, was the Guest of Honor at this year’s Furrydelphia. Consisting of BlackMajic, Jaylaflame, Hidama, TheKitoDiet, FlyToTheNight, Gozi, and friends, it was started by BlackMagic at Midwest FurFest in 2021. MAJIC Records also helps run Digital Revolution Festival (DigiFest), a musical event held at various furry conventions.

At their Saturday morning panel, BlackMajic and other members recalled their history in the furry fandom and how they ended up joining MAGIC Records. Jaylaflame, for instance, told the story of how he and BlackMajic met on a basketball court when they were pre-tweens and later became furries. They also hosted a plug-n-play session Friday morning where artists shared their music, gave feedback, and networked.

Last-minute, an additional Guest of Honor was added: TEMG, a young artist and game developer, who came with his family.

‘Wuwu’

Furrydelphia’s theme this year parodied Wawa’s Hoagiefest. (Eberra Wolf)

Scattered throughout the convention space were references themed around Wawa. In the convention store, T-shirts and hats mimicked the ‘Wawa’ logo that read ‘Wuwu’, and replaced a flying goose with a prancing fox. “I think we just thought it would be funny,” to parody the company, Drayne, the co-founder and chair, said in an interview. “And Wawa is such a classically Philly thing.” This is the second time directly paying an homage to a company: two years ago the theme was “Flat Pack City,” parodying IKEA.

Two cardboard cutouts from Hoagiefest were around the convention space, and attendees were invited to stickerbomb them. “I genuinely have no idea [who brought them]; they kind of just showed up,” Drayne said. There was also a mock convenience store trash bin that people could enter for photos, made by Furrydelphia’s prop department.

Love for Wawa was abundant at the convention. A location for the convenience store just two blocks away was packed with furs buying food, including the eponymous hoagie. Hoagies—another name for a sub sandwich—were introduced to the chain’s pre-made offerings beginning in 1970, the same year the company opened a location in Philadelphia, according to Axios. Continuing the theme, one panel light-heartedly pitted fans of Wawa against fans of a competing chain, Sheetz.

A new night market

New to Furrydelphia was its night market, called ‘The Terminal’. Attendance was capped, and people had to pick up timed tickets from a ‘SHEPTA’ booth. At the night market, fursuiters danced in cages onstage, vendors sold adult items, attendees wore risque clothing, and a mobile bar from the hotel served drinks. The music played by the DJs in the main ballroom next door was piped in.

The night market is themed on the historical Reading Terminal nearby the Sheraton. ‘SHEPTA’ plays on the name of the local transit system SEPTA, which serves the greater Philadelphia area. In a sad coincidence, the Sunday during the convention began large scheduled cuts to SEPTA service due to Republicans in the state legislature and in Congress denying the system sufficient funding.

The amount of tickets available—200 for each hour—was deliberately a conservative cap. Next year, the convention intends to increase the amount of people let in based on levels from this year. Across the five, one-hour timeslots available, all 1,000 tickets were given out a couple of hours before the event started.

Charity

Sloan Ferenchak is the lead of the Philadelphia chapter of DanceSafe. The organization has chapters that go to events with harm reduction tactics and informational pamphlets. (Eberra Wolf)

DanceSafe enjoyed its second year as Furrydelphia’s chosen charity. DanceSafe is a chapter-based non-profit providing education, drug testing, and types of protection to people going to parties and raves. The non-profit, which was founded in Colorado in 1998, set up a booth where attendees were offered earplugs, condoms, lollipops, and informational postcards on substances and consent.

Sloane Ferenchak is the chair of the Philadelphia chapter of DanceSafe, and said that it had a great first year as the new Furrydelphia charity in 2024. “They reached out to us, and we knew some people in the community that went to this event [Furrydelphia],” Ferenchak said. “They were looking for a new charity and wanted to have more harm reduction at the event, just knowing that substance use happens.”

Previously, Furrydelphia raised money in support of Bella-Reed Pitbull Rescue, which closed in late 2023 for lack of volunteer help. They needed a new charity to fill the void, and DanceSafe was recommended by a staffer who overlapped with the festival scene.

On a small rotating postcard shelf were a variety of educational material on drugs and alcohol, written by specialists at the national organization and revised every few years. The lollipops, Ferenchak explains, are for keeping the mouth moist during some trips, and to keep a drug user from biting on the inside of their mouth. The organization conducts work on the ground for active harm reduction, which is why she joined.

“It’s all peer-to-peer education—virtually and in-person,” Ferenchak said. “We have satellite chapters across the country that will service festivals, conferences, cons, a variety of music events—any community that is affiliated with music.”

The national organization is searching for a new executive director. Mitchell Gomez had, for several years, held that position until May of this year when its board of directors “decided to make an executive leadership change to align with the evolving priorities of the organization.” An interim executive director, Jessica Breemen, has been serving since.

“Everybody is so kind,” Ferenchak said about Furrydelphia. “We love this community. We really want to be in more sex-positive communities, but also just more communities that don’t get enough services, [communities] that experience stigma.”

Furrydelphia pledged matching donations to DanceSafe for donations made during the closing ceremonies’ “make it rain” event. Last year, the convention raised $11,500 for the chapter, and this year $22,500.

‘A friend of the furries’

Shay’s Steaks, cooking cheesesteaks on the corner of the block, was flooded this weekend with furries from Furrydelphia. (Eberra Wolf)

On the same block as the Sheraton is a high rise with a small cheesesteak restaurant on the bottom floor: Shay’s Steaks, a “recrafted” version of one started decades ago. Owned by Jackee DiClaudio and ran with the help of her husband, Scott, it opened at the start of 2024. The restaurant is a spiritual successor to the one that Scott’s parents opened for decades.

Last year, when Furrydelphia returned, furries patronized their establishment, to the excitement of Scott. He enjoyed their company, and helped one attendee get his purple and blue lion fursuit back.

Wearing a “this is my human costume” T-shirt bought from the dealer’s den, Scott socialized with furries who packed the tight, windowy space the restaurant leased. Hung on a window was a large printed photograph of five fursuiters behind Scott taken from the year before; the one wearing a full fursuit has their paw on his head.

This year, the restaurant offered three hoagies for a price cheaper than the regular cheesesteaks—all fairly spicy. They were created with the help of Vance Lion, the fursuiter whose fursuit got lost. Scott DiClaudio was often in the restaurant chatting up customers, sometimes tossing bags of chips to them. Vance, on Saturday, was in his fursuit behind the counter.

Scott was enthusiastic about Furrydelphia returning for 2025. “I’m a friend of the furries,” DiClaudio proclaimed.

From the red into the black

Drayne co-founded Furrydelphia in 2016, and has been the chair since. (Eberra Wolf)

The convention started out in a suburb northwest of Philadelphia in 2017, serving an area that had once had furry conventions. In 2010 and 2011, Fur Affinity: United was twice held in a suburb southeast of Philly. A decade before that, Anthrocon served the Philadelphia area in the early 2000s before moving west to Pittsburgh.

Drayne, the chair of the convention, co-founded Furrydelphia in 2016. “I had no idea how to run a furry convention,” he said in an interview, and went with the first hotel contract he was offered—without negotiating and without shopping around. “Big mistake; wish I had not done that.”

The convention overestimated how many people would book rooms at the hotel, and underestimated attendance from commuters, leaving the convention on the hook for those unused rooms, Drayne explained in a panel about running conventions. In addition, it was not immediately obvious to the organizers of Furrydelphia that the service charge and state taxes did not factor into the final figure the hotel gave.

Year one put the convention underwater, and Drayne took out a personal loan for $42,000 to keep the convention afloat. “As far as finances are concerned, the convention and me are one and the same,” Drayne said in the interview, meaning that he’s responsible in the end for unexpected charges. He added that he was paying it off from his paycheck until 2020, when Furrydelphia as an organization was able to make the monthly payments.

Revenue from the convention increased over time as it grew, allowing the convention to continue while paying off its debt. By the end of Furrydelphia 2024, registration sales were enough to make the non-profit solvent. The convention held off on paying down entirely, allowing it to have some liquidity. Having money on hand allowed Furrydelphia to quickly put money up front to assist in spinning up a sister convention held earlier this year (whose startup costs were kept to a minimum, applying lessons learned from 2017). This was the first convention that Furrydelphia hosted with positive financials. The partial matching pledge to DanceSafe was decided because of this.

Attendees had many positive things to say about the convention. Furrydelphia will return to the same Sheraton next year for Spirit Howl-o-Ween in 2026.