Anthro New England to cap fursuit photo, requests line control staff in face of continued growth

The line for badge pickup at last year’s ANE on Thursday night. (Flayrah/Eberra Wolf)

Anthro New England will be capping the fursuit photo and has been in need of staffers to control lines. Announced the other night on a new page on their website, the convention said the photo will be capped to 800 fursuiters and be moved to Friday instead of the traditional Saturday. Throughout the past few weeks, the convention has also repeatedly asked for staffers, especially ones to work in line control.

A need for more helping paws

The convention will need more hands this year than last as the regional furry convention continues to grow. Numbers the convention provides show that it has been adding roughly a thousand new attendees each year since 2022. The total who attended last year's convention was 5,761, according to the convention. If a thousand additional furs show, it would increase pressure on the already-strained venue. The convention has added 2,200 people since beginning to occupy the same space three years ago—an increase of more than 60%.

Last year, by the time badge pickup opened Thursday night, the line for it spanned the hotel’s length and began looping back on itself. There is very little additional room for people to line up, unless the convention gets creative with the spaces the hotel has. And at peak hours for the elevator bank, the line for it got so long that it crossed a badge checkpoint.

Marshmallow, head of lines at ANE, instructing attendees in line for badge pickup last year. She will be reprising her role this year, under the umbrella of Safety. (Flayrah/Eberra Wolf)

The person running line management last year, Marshmallow, said she will reprise her role for a third year. Marshmallow’s department is under the umbrella of Safety. In an interview last year, she told Flayrah of ideas to implement for this year, but did not go into detail at the time. The convention did not respond to a request to make her available for an interview leading up to the convention.

Fursuit photo and parade

The convention counted 969 fursuiters in ANE 2025’s fursuit photo, meaning that the new imposed cap of 800 is well below the previous year. The Grand Ballroom, the largest single room in the venue, will continue to be the location for the photo. Those who pre-registered online and requested to partake in the photo—up to a limit—will receive a ticket at badge pickup, which can be freely exchanged. Fursuiters who opted in after the limit will be added to a waiting list.

The cited reason for the change was for safety, namely compliance with the Massachusetts Fire Code. The hotel provides a capacity chart online, and lists the Grand Ballroom having a maximum capacity of 1,500 people for a standing reception, the closest analogue to the fursuit photo. However, this does not take into account that the people inside are wearing elaborate costumes that restrict their movement and visibility. The fursuit parade itself will remain uncapped, but be changed to have attendees not in the fursuit photo wait in overflow areas.

If the weather is not suitable for a parade, both the parade and the fursuit photo will be canceled, and will not be rescheduled, the convention added in an FAQ section, opening the possibility that 2026 will not have a fursuit photo.

Fursuiters from ANE 2024 walk around the perimeter of the hotel where ANE is held. If the weather is poor, both the parade and photo may be canceled. (Mike Mintz via Furtrack)

Venue contract

Anthro New England: It’s A Western!, happening next week from the 15th through 18th of this month, will be the 11th annual convention since its first in 2015. It will be held at the Westin Boston Seaport hotel for the fourth year in a row, completing the currently-known venue contract.

The contract with the Westin was for two years, but extended for an additional two years, to 2026, according to Remy Gryph, the con chair from 2022 to 2024. Atlas Astral, a co-chair of ANE, declined to answer in an email if a new contract was signed with the Westin for future years, saying the questions came too close to the convention.

The Westin is connected to the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, but Remy recalled that the BCEC is prohibitively expensive for even its smallest offering. This then raises the question of what the convention will do next year with a rising attendance trajectory. Will they need to place a cap on attendance itself, or find ways to mitigate the pressures of it?