Eurofurence


 * This page is about the convention. For the typeface family, see eurofurence (font).

Eurofurence (commonly also EF), is a European furry convention, the largest outside the United States and the longest-running furry convention in the world. It was founded in 1995, and Eurofurence 24 in Berlin, Germany had 2911 attendees.

It is typically held in summer and located in various places of Germany, but it has seen other countries as well, notably Sweden, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. Eurofurence 12 was held at the same venue as the Eurofurence 11, and Eurofurence 15 marked a return to the Ringberg Hotel in Suhl, Thuringia for the third and final year in succession. Since Eurofurence 16 in 2010, the convention has been held at the Maritim Hotel in Magdeburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. In 2014, Eurofurence returned to Berlin, taking place at the Estrel Hotel, the largest hotel in Germany.

Programming
Since Eurofurence 12, Eurofurence has run five days from Wednesday to Sunday. Early arrival and late departure options are offered for those who want to stay another night or two. There are several main events that are held every year, often on the same day and time each year. Popular main stage events are the Opening Ceremony, Uncle Kage's Story Hour, the fursuit dance contest Enter the Arena, a fursuit game show, a concert by Fox Amoore or Foxes and Peppers (depending on Pepper Coyote's availability) and the pawpet show. The pawpet show is a furry hand and rod puppet performance, produced and performed by a mixed crew of Eurofurence staff and attendees. It is written as a feature-length stage show, mixing comedy and drama, with music, added sound effects, special effects and more recently also prerecorded video footage inserted between the scenes. The Big Blue Dance follows the pawpet show and is the last event of the convention. It is a dance event held in the main dance hall by BigBlueFox and other DJs, and often continues throughout the night. Light effects, live mixed background animations and other atmospheric effects are also present.

On the final (departure) day of the convention, a Dead Dog Party is held for those who want to relax and wind down while preventing post-con depression. In earlier years, a group photo of all those attending the convention was taken on Sunday morning. However, it was moved to an earlier day as many congoers were not able to get out of bed so early after the Big Blue Dance the previous night. It also posed problems for people wanting to depart early in the morning, who had to miss the photo.

Art and merchandise
For the duration of the con, the dealer's den is available for attendees to sell merchandise of varying sorts. Since Eurofurence 17, two dealer's dens have been available, as the single one could no longer handle the demand.

There is also an art show, where attendees can look around for art and make bids for pieces they would like. About half-way through the convention, the art show is closed and the art auction is held to sell the pieces to the highest bidders. The auction is conducted by Uncle Kage.

Fursuiting
There are several events and other facilities for fursuiters. There is always a headless lounge available, which is an area that only fursuiters can enter where they can freely un-suit and relax. The lounge is normally full of fans and other cooling equipment to help the fursuiters cool off. During most of the convention there is also a official fursuit photoshoot, where fursuiters can have pictures of their fursuits taken by a team of professional photographers.

Besides Enter the Arena, a second dance contest Paws on Fire has been established. It is a dance battle style contest also known as Floor Wars at other furry conventions and takes place on the second (or club) stage.

Finally, a fursuit group photo is traditionally taken on Saturday, followed by the fursuit parade which fursuiters and non-fursuiters alike are invited to participate in. Since fursuit attendance has been steadily rising over the years (reaching 400 in 2011), the parade is now held entirely outside, and in Eurofurence 17 the parade took place in the city streets of Magdeburg.

EF Prime
EF Prime is a tv channel which broadcasts an information and entertainment during Eurofurence on the internal hotel TV system. It launched in 2007 during EF 13, and airs information about EF-related events and hotel facilities. In between, it shows furry and furry-related shorts, clips and shows as well as clips that aren't furry related, yet popular among the fandom. A live twitter feed is being shown during the whole time where tweets, directed at @EF_prime, being shown as well as changes in programming and announcements.

At EF 17, EF Prime got its own mascot, a computer generated wolf named Spikey Wolf. He was introduced in a video parody of Eminem's "My name is" and is voiced by Shay. Spikey highlighted the days timetable on EF Prime on daily base and also provided in numerous quotes during live events.

Responsible for EF Prime are:
 * BigBlueFox (program schedule, content management, on-air design)
 * Athesis (playout and twitter software)

Daily Eurofurence
The Daily Eurofurence is a newspaper published during Eurofurence, reporting all kinds of events from the prior day. The 'newspaper' consists of various articles, some cartoons, an occasional cross-word puzzle and the updated timetable for the convention.

History
The Eurofurence has been held in the following places over the years:

Themes
Eurofurence 8 was the first Eurofurence convention to have a specific theme. The theme is represented in the art and signs displayed in public and in some events such as the pawpet show. There are also often events specific to the theme, such as at Eurofurence 17 which had a Tai Chi panel and a martial arts performance to go with its Chinese theme.


 * 8 (2002): "Furry Intelligence Agency"
 * 9 (2003): "Cunning Little Vixens"
 * X (2004): "EFX: The Movie" - at the movies
 * 11 (2005): "Songs of the Old Ages" - the middle ages
 * 12 (2006): "The Hounds of Blackwhite Castle" - detective stories
 * 13 (2007): "The Unlucky Thirteen" - casino
 * 14 (2008): "Horrorfurence: From Dusk till Dawn" - horror stories
 * 15 (2009): "1001 Arabian Nights" - the Middle East
 * 16 (2010): "Serengeti" - Africa
 * 17 (2011): "Kung Fur Hustle" - China
 * 18 (2012): "Animalia Romana" - the Roman Empire
 * 19 (2013): "Aloha Hawaii"
 * 20 (2014): "CSI Berlin"
 * 21 (2015): "Greenhouse World"
 * 22 (2016): "Back to the 80s"
 * 23 (2017): "Ancient Egypt"
 * 24 (2018): "Aviators - Conquer the Sky!"
 * 25 (2019): "Fractures in Time"
 * 26 (2022): "Welcome to Tortuga - On the High Seas"

Guests of Honor
Eurofurence has had a guest of honour almost every year since Eurofurence 5 in 1999 (except for Eurofurence 6 and 9). The following list provides an overview of guests so far:


 * 5 (1999): Lisanne Norman, author of the Sholan Alliance series of books
 * 7 (2001): Lisanne Norman; Lee "Chairo" Strom, fursuiter, puppeteer, and member of the Further Confusion organising team since 1998; Mark Merlino, co-founder of ConFurence, the original furry convention
 * 8 (2002): Dr. Samuel "Uncle Kage" Conway, Chairman of Anthrocon, the world’s largest furry convention
 * X (2004): Timothy Albee, creator of Kaze: Ghost Warrior
 * 11 (2005): Heather Alexander, Celtic Folk/World Rock Musician
 * 12 (2006): Dark Natasha, furry artist
 * 13 (2007): Lance Ikegawa, costume designer; Steve Gallacci was scheduled to appear, but a last minute emergency forced him to cancel.
 * 14 (2008): Watts Martin, science fiction writer in the early days of the furry fandom, and Steve Gallacci, creator and publisher of Albedo Anthropomorphics
 * 15 (2009): Jimmy Chin, furry artist and fursuiter
 * 16 (2010): Stan Sakai, comic author, creator of Usagi Yojimbo
 * 17 (2011): Jim Martin, puppeteer for Sesame Street
 * 18 (2012): Peter S. Beagle, fantasy author
 * 19 (2013): Warrick Brownlow-Pike, Andy Heath and Iestyn Evans, puppeteers from ‘The Mongrels’ the hit BBC comedy
 * 20 (2014): author Kyell Gold, artist Ursula Vernon, fursuit acrobatic performer Sardyuon, and the crew from Sofawolf Press.
 * 21 (2015): musicians Rhubarb the Bear and Cosmik
 * 22 (2016): Dorothy Hearst, author of The Wolf Chronicles
 * 23 (2017): Pepper Coyote and Clockwork Creature
 * 24 (2018): Joaquin Baldwin, animator and director
 * 25 (2019): Alector Fencer

Charity
Since 2007, Eurofurence has had a dedicated charity for each convention, often animal sanctuaries or other animal welfare organisations. Donations are collected during the convention, and there are often one or more paid events, the profits of which go to the charity.


 * 13 (2007): Waldzoo Offenbach, raised €1814
 * 14 (2008): National Fox Welfare Society, raised €3509.69
 * 15 (2009): Tierpark Suhl, raised €2938.53
 * 16 (2010): Gnadenhof Emmrich, raised €5771.15
 * 17 (2011): Raubkatzenasyl, raised €8720.55
 * 18 (2012): Far from Fear e.V., raised €13,253
 * 19 (2013): Wildtierhilfe Fiel e.V., raised €19,307
 * 20 (2014): Stiftung Fledermaus, raised €21,081
 * 21 (2015): Wildtierhilfe Fiel e.V., raised €32,000
 * 22 (2016): Painted Dog Conservation, raised 43,045€
 * 23 (2017): Sieben Katzleben, raised €40,089
 * 24 (2018): Lemurs of Madagascar, raised €41,000
 * 25 (2019): Foundation Lutreola, raised €42,105.37

Organization
Eurofurence 1 was first organized in 1995 by Tes-Tui-H'ar and unci, neither of whom are now involved with running the convention. In 1997, Sven "Cheetah" Tegethoff, took over as convention chairman of Eurofurence 3 and has chaired nearly every Eurofurence since then. Eurofurence 4 was organized and financed by Samarindus, who found a location for the 1998 convention in the Netherlands with the help of Naros.

Later in 1998, Eurofurence e.V. was registered as a social organization in Germany to operate the convention annually from Eurofurence 5 in 1999 to the present day. However, it is not limited to any specific location, and has many international members among its staff and members. Since 2009, Eurofurence e.V. has their own flags, banners and posters with the logo.

Current staff
For Eurofurence 25 (2019), the core members of convention staff, and their areas of responsibility, are as follows:


 * Cheetah — Chairman
 * Nightfox — Vice Chairman, Consite Relations
 * Loewi — Chief Financial Officer, Director Registration
 * AmurUssuri, TiBoth, Akulatraxas - Directors Programming
 * Dingo, KittehBit, Gyroplast, Venture — Directors of Security
 * Darkwing — Director Convention Operations
 * Cairyn, Blue_Panther — Directors Art Show
 * AlphaKi, Twice — Directors Dealers' Den
 * doco, Vulniir — Directors Convention Store
 * Arahn — Director Guest of Honor Relations
 * Sniffer — Director Charity Relations
 * Jaryic, Kamikaze, garra, Haku — Directors Stage
 * Mendra, Krauti M. — Directors Stage Projections and Visuals
 * BigBlueFox, KwisA — Directors Video Team
 * Atkelar, Shorty — Director Fursuit Photoshoot
 * Mystifur — Director Fursuit Support
 * Tigerseye — Director Fursuit Badges
 * Blueberry, Jorinda - Directors Press and Media Relations
 * o'wolf — Director Community Communications
 * draconigen, Streifi — Directors Website
 * Snow-wolf — Director, Chief Editor Conbook
 * Luxen — Director, Chief Editor Daily Eurofurence
 * Jason Blake, Dhary — Directors Decorations
 * Zefiro, Luchs — Directors IT
 * Honigeintopf, Winged Neko — Directors Telecommunications
 * Royen — Producer Opening and Closing Ceremonies
 * Stripe — Producer Dead Dog Party
 * Faolan — Producer Paws on Fire

Whilst these are the "key" members of staff, there are many more volunteers helping to make the convention a success by doing such tasks as leading events, setting up the stage and art show, tear-down and pretty much anything else that needs to be done.

Quotes and trivia

 * "Anthrocon may be the biggest fur convention in the world, but Eurofurence is the best." &mdash; Uncle Kage, EFX (2004)
 * "EF kicks ass! In Fact there is not enough ass in the entire US for this con to kick!" &mdash; Uncle Kage, EF 12 (2006)
 * "I am chairman of the largest furry convention in the world, but I personally believe that the best furry convention is right here." &mdash; Uncle Kage, EF 13 (2007)
 * "I command three of the largest hotels, in one of the largest cities in the USA. I would trade all of them away for one Ringberg." (a.k.a. "Goodbye, Ringberg Hotel") &mdash; Uncle Kage, EF 15 (2009)
 * "This is our second year in the Maritim hotel. And with 1066 registration we are officially booked out." &mdash; Nightfox, EF 17 (2011)
 * "...additional notice. We would like to ask you: to NOT fursuit in the pool. The filters clogged up with fur and water overflowed in to other areas. And although the hotel manager though it was very cool. We still have to ask you to not do this." &mdash; Nightfox, EF 17 (2011)
 * "The past week has been a wild ride for the reg team - during first 6 days, we have received nothing short of 1150 registration requests - which once again marks a new record in EF history." &mdash; Cheetah, pre-EF18 (2012)