In Bringing the West East, ANE 2026 Crowds Under the Stampede of So Many Furries

Select ratingPoorOkayGoodGreatAwesome

Your rating: None Average: 4 (1 vote)

Fursuiters bring inflatable horses to ANE 2026 for its theme of ‘Westerns’. (Flayrah/Eberra Wolf)

Boston saw thousands of furs congregate earlier this month, some donning cowboy hats, others putting on cowboy boots and throwing on ponchos. Anthro New England 2026: It’s a Western! brought a massive 7,284 attendees to the convention this year, pushing the square footage to its limit and outside the range of comfortable.

Masking requirements were relaxed this year. Only the dealer’s den, art show room, and gaming rooms were masks mandatory. In past years, the policy was that all convention spaces required a mask to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and other airborne diseases. Like last year, though, face masks were given out at the safety office, and Covid Safe Furs distributed N95 masks and tests on Thursday for those needing them.

ANE was once again bookended by the Hanover Insurance Group’s annual ‘Ignite’ conference and Mathworks’ Sales Kickoff. On Thursday, I spoke to a Hanover employee named Nancy, who noted that more furries were arriving on Wednesday evening as compared to last year, an indication that the convention was growing massively.

Activites, costuming, and connection

Further Confusion, on the opposite coast, again overlapped with ANE, and the two conventions appear to have a growing relationship because of it. The live ‘portal’—a conference call—to FC returned, but often was swapped out with a portal to VRChat. In VRChat, players could talk to ANE attendees in one half of the world, and Further Confusion attendees on the other. The world was split in two, each modeled to represent the respective convention’s theme.

This is also the second ANE that Flint Seska and Atlas Astral are co-chairing the convention. A married couple running the convention together, they have been in this position for nearly two calendar years. Both say they have some prior event experience. “We learned a lot our first year, to say the least,” Flint told me. “Nothing can truly prepare you for being a con chair your first year.” He added that “Overall, things just went a lot smoother this year, and I’m really hoping we can continue that momentum into next year.”

The Friday and Saturday night raves were extended to 4AM, an additional two hours. The Starbucks being open continuously from Friday to Sunday helped furs stay up ‘round the clock. While there is an ongoing strike against the coffee chain for its union-busting actions, the people working the counter are employees of the hotel union. Flint and Atlas assure the workers are well-compensated.

A group of attendees dressed up in Plants vs. Zombies costumes. (Flayrah/Eberra Wolf)

A highlight of the convention for me was a group of six cosplayers who dressed up as plants from Plants vs. Zombies. “It all starts from the Sunflower, they love doing group cosplays, and I love Plants vs. Zombies,” the Snow Pea Shooter said, who goes by Numa. “And I was like, What is not a better match made in heaven if we all dressed up as characters from Plants vs. Zombies? It was perfect.” One of them said he’s never played the game.

“We know each other from VRChat, and then we met each other, and then we started going to conventions together,” Pandan, who dressed up as the Sunflower, said. “We usually cosplay together.” They bought their costumes online and rendezvoused in Boston. Only four went to the Saturday night dance, as one was tired and the other feeling unwell.

“Everyone just starts screaming about how much they love Plants vs. Zombies,” Numa said. “There were several people that were actually ready to cry. I was surprised how many people loved” the game, Zephy, one of the Pea Shooters said.

Crowds, crowds, crowds

This convention, like all furry conventions, has surged in popularity since Covid. What began with 757 people in 2015 has grown nearly tenfold, and is the sixth largest furry convention in the world, according to WikiFur. Even from last year, it’s grown by 26%, but the space hasn’t expanded since ANE moved into its current venue—the Westin Boston Seaport Hotel—three years ago. Unsurprisingly, overcrowding was a big talk at the convention.

One attendee registered their badge to say “This town is big enough for all of us :3”, riffing on the Western theme. “Definitely in hindsight I do not feel like it is big enough for all of us,” the attendee reflected after I pointed it out.

A week before the convention kicked off, the convention put a cap on the fursuit photo for fire safety. The cap of 800 was calculated based on available floor space not taken up by the stage and AV booth, with considerations for a safe density of people in fursuits. “Fire code is based off of square footage,” Flint said, “so we have to minus all of that area in order to come up with the numbers that we come up with.”

The cap was executed poorly. The formal announcement came too close to the event, and a miscommunication between the convention and their print shop led to the convention hastily printing tickets the night before. The tickets were given out at badge pickup to those who registered early enough and checked a vague checkbox, notably before the change was publicized. In the end, the attendees with tickets in hand didn’t fill up enough of the room; fursuiters without tickets were let in to reach capacity, making the exercise pointless.

Thursday night’s badge pickup line stretched across to the other end of the hotel, with regular attendees waiting for two hours or more. The line completely doubled back on itself, not visible behind the people closest to the camera. (Flayrah/Eberra Wolf)

Lines were more tightly controlled by the convention’s burgeoning Safety team. Far more stanchions—the name for poles with rope—were placed around. Whereas previously the stanchions were only in the ballroom holding registration and con ops—and the prefunction hallway beside it—now they were used throughout the hotel. Lines were quite long and would be far more chaotic without them, as demonstrated last year.

The big line returned, which took the same shape for Thursday night’s registration line as it did for the rest of the weekend’s line for the vendor hall. The regular attendees waited in a line that sprinted across the hotel lobby and down a set of escalators to the Grand Ballroom hallway, where it then completely doubled back on itself. It was longer and, unlike last year, the vendor hall always stretched much farther, with all of the extra attendees wanting in. The line was a permanent fixture throughout the weekend; even on Sunday afternoon, the line to get in stretched far. Another problem was that the big line was unmarked: Was this the line for registration or the dealer’s den? “The dealer’s den line was longer this year than it had been in previous years,” Kat , the head of the safety department and president of the board of directors, said. “We did not expect that, so we didn’t really expect that we would have a need for that type of signage.”

Thursday night’s badge pickup line was adjusted, making additional use of upstairs space for several hours to create a separate express line for Sponsor tiers and above. “Last year, one of the major issues that we had was the Sponsor line was larger than we expected it to be. We were routing it [in front of] Laugh Boston and past M.J. O’Connors, and it started to spill into the [lobby’s] Birch Bar, which is obviously a problem,” Kat said. “That’s not convention space, that’s the hotel’s space. They have non-attendees that use that space.”

The artist’s alley in the vendor hall. The line to get in was long, even on Sunday. (Flayrah/Eberra Wolf)

More staffers were hired to continuously tend to the lines, carrying tall sticks with ‘Line ends here’ printed at the top. (Last year, they only held printed pieces of paper.) Even with the extra measures to alleviate the flood of people, lines regularly reached a maximum capacity. Staffers had to announce this, turning people away and telling people to come back later.

Making matters worse, an escalator, critically used in Thursday night’s registration line, broke down twice, stranding hundreds of furs on the concourse level. The only alternatives were to wait for a single elevator, or walk outside in the freezing cold to the other side of the hotel. The escalator broke because the escalator’s sensor malfunctioned and tripped, Kat said.

The line for the elevator bank to hotel rooms extended even further than last year, and had a marked second line for fursuiters and people with accessibility needs. There did not appear to be a time when this line was empty.

Such a large attendance was more than what the convention had projected. The convention knew it was continuing to grow, like other conventions, but the actual figures were above what was predicted. A lot of people still register the day they arrive.

“We were tracking about this sort of increase in registration attendance, but it still baffles me in how much we still got. 7,280-something is ridiculous,” Fital Shell, the co-head of registration, told me. “Everything went as smoothly as we could. There’s always going to be hiccups of what we planned versus what happens in reality, but we are able to adapt and overcome most of those situations, just thankfully having the staff that we do.”

“We actually have a pretty good model to predict the final attendance number,” Wes, the other co-head of registration said. “Obviously it’s difficult to know that very early in the process. But as we get into the final months of preparation before the convention, we can really start dialing that number in.” The percentage increase year over year wasn’t too surprising, but day-of registrations on top resulted in the surprise.

As for what Wes and Fital can do, the registration team wants to be able to open the registration room earlier, but is at the whims of the event preceding the convention. After last year, it was hoped that their ballroom would be given to the convention early, but that didn’t happen this year. It “would be a huge boon” if the registration team could acquire a space for registration on Wednesday, Wes, another board director member, said.

A safety staffer, wearing a high-vis vest, giving instructions on Thursday night. Some attendees did not like how safety staff made announcements. (Flayrah/Eberra Wolf)

Some attendees reacted negatively to the staffers managing lines. “Safety just seems more anal,” one attendee, who at one point staffed the convention, said of the line control. “I’m just walking around, and I hear safety … yelling right in my ear … that’s not cool.” Another compared them to drill sergeants. (Safety staff were trying to keep one intersection in particular moving, which some attendees did not like.)

“Unfortunately when you have to use a megaphone to talk over a crowd, there’s gonna be a little bit of that,” Kat said in response to these complaints. “Our staff have to raise their voices to be heard over people because there’s a dull roar at all times,” but she adds that she wasn’t present at every place all of the time. She urges attendees who have something to say about lines and crowds to send in feedback via the general info@anthronewengland.com email. “We take all feedback that we receive into account. We read every single email that we get, and we make sure that we’re listening to the attendees whenever we’re planning for future years.”

There are about 115 people in Safety, with a large portion, about 45, working specifically line control. There was a big push on social media to hire people leading up to the convention. “I very firmly believe in not overworking my staff,” said Kat. “I would much rather hire [for example] 50 people to work 5 hours a day each than 25 people to work 10 hours a day each.” The call for additional staffers was successful, and grew the workforce in the days and weeks leading up to the convention.

Two areas of concern for Kat are the elevator line that goes into the panel room hallway on the main floor, and when the big line overflows to the Grand Ballroom prefunction. “There’s no real better place to put that line and route” the big line, she said.

A former ANE staffer stated this is a problem faced by all conventions: “Cons are getting too popular. Furry cons don’t know how to do well with spaces,” comparing Furry Weekend Atlanta to the Dragon Con that takes place in the same space but managing crowds much better.

The leadership of the convention is very aware of the issue. “We are about at the limit of what we can handle in that space,” Kat said. “We are aware that we have space constraints; we are aware that we are going to continue to grow. We are looking into options for additional space.”

Convention leadership says they are looking for additional space, but did not immediately say what. Flint and Atlas teased in the closing ceremonies that there are plans, but adding that information will be released later in the year.

Guests of honor

Left to right: Pararacoon, guest of honor liaison; The Stupendium; Rito Bandito; Flint Seska, a convention co-chair; and Sleepy Stag Suits. (Flayrah/Eberra Wolf)

This year were three guests of honor: Sleepy Stag Suits, a fursuit maker who crafted the convention’s mascot Copley; The Stupendium, a nerdcore musician and YouTuber; and animator Rito Bandito. The video wall in the lobby played an animated Western short created by Rito and 30 other people.

“We had The Stupendium & Friendium concert this year, which was an absolute blast,” Flint said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many people be that interactive with the musicians on stage before. It was an absolute, just hyped event. I loved it. For a Sunday event we were very pleasantly surprised to see the amount of people there.”

Wings of Dawn, seemingly renamed Wings Rehabilitation Center, finalized its third year with the convention. “It’s bittersweet,” Flint said. An animal-centered replacement charity has already been picked out for next year, the con chairs told me. Queer Scouts returned, and will have its last year in 2027. The charities had a more front-and-center presence in the vendor hall, and both held small workshops over the weekend. Wings Rehabilitation Center brought some animals for artists to make drawings of. Queer Scouts brought materials one night to make little terrariums. $50,000 was split between the two charities from donations congoers gave.

According to eyewitness accounts, the artist and creator of Homestuck Andrew Hussie attended ANE. Students from Northeastern University’s television station also came by Saturday to interview furries.

“I’d say, you know honestly given the staff and resources that we have, I’d say we handled everything kind of to the best that we could given what we’ve got, if that makes sense,” Flint said. “I know obviously the elephant in the room” is crowding, he added. Putting aside the crowd for a moment, “I was actually quite proud of my team.”

Anthro New England 2027: Sleepytime will return next January from the 14th to the 17th. The Westin has been secured for two consecutive years, for 2027 and 2028, the convention chairs told me. Flint hopes to step down from running the convention after next year’s ANE, and says there is a protege to replace him as a co-chair.