Furry conventions take place around the world, and they’re getting bigger. Last year’s Anthrocon in Pittsburgh broke records with over 17,000 attendees.
(Ethan Sandweiss, WTIU News)
When people think of Indianapolis, they think racecars. Furries? Not so much. But last weekend was the biggest showing ever for IndyFurCon. Over 2,000 participants turned out at the Wyndham Hotel – 15 percent more than last year.
They attended meetups, lectures and panels, sold art and played board games.
The furry community comes from diverse places, but they’ve got one thing in common: a love of anthropomorphic cartoon animals. Think Wile E. Coyote and Zootopia.
The opening panel at furcon was well attended by furries in and out of suits. (Ethan Sandweiss/WTIU News)
Lead operations director at IndyFurCon Jake Bunny (who referred to himself by his furry name) said he knows they look like an odd group. That strangeness is part of how attendees break down barriers and feel more comfortable expressing themselves.
“I admit it can be a little weird at first, but I find people rolling around with Harley Davidson jackets, in thousands, showing up in the middle of nowhere South Dakota kind of weird,” Jake Bunny said. “But hey, you do you.”
Jake Bunny is a professional pilot and former race car driver. He’s also a furry. That means he’s adopted a furry persona – or fursona – to use online and at the con.
Jake Bunny got into furry 26 years ago as a collector. In the early days, he said the community was mainly men in their 30s involved in tech. The community has grown more diverse since then, but furries in IT are still very common. (Katy Szpak/WTIU News)
“It gives you opportunity to express something that you may not normally be able to express in any other format,” Jake Bunny said.
“We are, for better or worse, becoming more mainstream,” Jake Bunny said. “We have more references in pop culture and movies and social media and just general media as a whole, and it's becoming more well known.”
Director of marketing Bandrik speaks at a panel. (Katy Szpak/WTIU News)
Jake Bunny has been in the community since 1997, after watching the Looney Tunes comedy Space Jam. Early internet forums led him to early furry meetups, and 14 years ago he got together with his friends at a pizza party to create IndyFurCon.
One of those friends is Storm Gryphon, the convention’s chairman.
“The joke is that someone told us online we weren’t capable of doing it,” he said. “You never tell a group of furries that they're not capable of rising to a challenge.”
Storm Gryphon is one of IndyFurCon's co-founders. Like other members of the leadership team, he hails from Indiana. (Katy Szpak/WTIU News)
Turns out there’s a lot of people like them. Furry conventions take place around the world, and they’re getting bigger. Last year’s Anthrocon in Pittsburgh broke records with over 17,000 attendees.
Jake Bunny and Storm Gryphon said they’ve met other furries by chance in places from Warsaw, Ind., to Kiev, Ukraine.
“We have to have a team of over 100 staff and volunteers to pull this off, and it takes at least eight months of meetings,” Storm Gryphon said.
Two dragon furries enjoy a moment of rest. (Ethan Sandweiss/WTIU News)
Furry fandom is often — but not always — associated with kink.
Although furry culture is nonsexual for many people, a survey by IU professor Justin Lehmiller at the Kinsey Institute found that nine percent of US adults had fantasized at least once about dressing as a furry during sex. Only one percent reported experiencing the fantasy often.
But daytime events at IndyFurCon stay PG. Dozens are on topics that might have nothing to do with furry.
Conventions provide a chance for furries to meet up with online friends who they may see just once a year in person. (Ethan Sandweiss/WTIU News)
In a sense, these subgroups are the convention. In contrast with other fandoms, furries use the community as a gateway to other interests such as music, art or even racing.
“If you're looking for fellow artists, car nerds, graphic designers, IT professionals, this fandom presents endless opportunities to uplift you and open doors for careers and friendships that will last a lifetime,” Storm Gryphon said.
Anecdotally, Jake Bunny said he knows furries who found jobs and advanced their careers with the help of the community.
Indy Furcon 2024 featured two marketplaces: Artists Alley and Dealers Den. The den included 32 daytime vendors and nine nighttime vendors. (Ethan Sandweiss/WTIU News)
But at the center of the con are the crafts. Vendors sell stickers, accessories and art, but the most iconic and expensive merchandise are fursuits: physical representations of a fursona.
SurDerg came dressed in a dragon fursuit, a surprisingly common creature in a community that reveres fluffiness. He has identified as a furry for 15 years and finally purchased a fursuit at the end of 2022.
“To me, SurDerg is just an alternative version of myself if I were just a dragon,” he said through his mask in a matter-of-fact tone. “When I wear him, I feel like I'm just more in tune with my true self.”
SurDerg ordered his first custom fursuit at the end of 2022. Many fursuit vendors work on commission, tailoring their products to the fursonas of their patrons. (Katy Szpak/WTIU News)
A little less than a quarter of attendees came to the con with a fursuit. Some furries just aren’t as interested in suiting up. And a custom fursuit is a major investment.
SurDerg paid $4,000 for his. They can run $6,500 or more.
“But the biggest thing is that when you put that deposit down, it just feels amazing. When you’re like, ‘I'm actually going to do this,’” he said.
A group of furries reconnect. (Ethan Sandweiss/WTIU News)
Custom suits can be fragile, requiring careful handling. They can also get extremely hot. Participants recorded the temperature under a mask at Anthrocon reached 129 degrees.
“Recognizing those levels of heat exhaustion and heat stroke is very important, because when you're suiting sometimes you don't recognize those factors,” SurDerg said.
The con provided a headless lounge for furries to recover from long periods under the mask. Posters on fursuit safety were displayed prominently and there were multiple panels dedicated to suit maintenance and safety.
Wearing a fursuit can be physically taxing, and people who suit up often remove their mask for breaks. (Ethan Sandweiss/WTIU News)
Ultimately, though, most furries are here to make friends. For a community that interacts mainly online, cons give them an opportunity to express themselves and make connections in a friendly environment.
“I think that's a big part of the draw — that I don't have to impress people about me if I don't want to,” Jake Bunny said. “I can put on this fake character, or fursona, and go with that.”
