ConFuzzled 2013



ConFuzzled 2013 was the sixth iteration of the British convention ConFuzzled, and was held from May 30th to June 3rd, 2013. The theme - "The Middle Ages: A Mediaeval Fayre" - was announced on the ConFuzzled website at 8pm BST on August 24, 2012. Due to feedback, the organisers decided to extend the convention by a full day, with the convention running events starting from the Thursday evening rather than Friday evening. The first Guest of Honour was announced as writer, illustrator and author of webcomic Dangerous Cute, Melissa "Gab" Douglas, and on November 9th, 2012, the second Guest of Honour was announced as author Kyell Gold.

Location
The convention returned again to the four-star Hinckley Island hotel in Hinckley, Leicestershire. During the closing ceremony on Sunday it was announced that, in order to handle the increased growth levels, ConFuzzled was relocating again to the Birmingham Hilton Metropole for 2014.

Registration
On 29th August 2012, it was announced that registration would be opening at 2000BST on September 5, 2012.

Registration options for 2013 were the same as for 2012, with attending only and residential tickets, both of which could be upgraded with "plus" and "sponsor" options for an extra £15 or £50 respectively.

The basic "attending only" ticket was reduced slightly from the 2012 price to £70. The basic residential ticket changed in that the price depended on both the number of beds and the number of people sharing the room, with costs varying between £240 and £310 per person (inclusive of breakfast and access to the hotel gym and pool), though some of the increase is likely also due to the increase in the duration of the convention from four days to five.

An "inclusive meal" option was negotiated with the hotel, with 3-day and 4-day wristbands available for purchase, entitling the wearer to one bar snack, one meal and one drink per day (in addition to breakfast), however this was later changed for a "meal card", offering discounts on 2, 4, 6 or 8 meal packages.

Registrations made and paid for before 9th January 2013 received a £10 discount.

On February 5, 2013, it was announced that the main hotel was completely sold out (apart from the option of a camp bed in certain existing rooms). An overflow hotel (the Hilton Leicester, located 10 minutes away) was announced, offering a specially discounted roomrate. Free transport between the hotels would be available. Residential registration closed at 2000 BST on April 8, 2013.

On March 4, 2013, the addition of Pet Passports for ConFuzzled was announced, where each residential guest (of the main hotel) could bring one pet each for £15. Initially the Pet Passports were to be for cats and dogs, but there was community feedback, the policy was reviewed and about 3 hours after the first announcement it was announced there would be no passports for pet cats.

Registration fully closed on May 20, 2013, and the final attendee statistics showed a total of 872 attendees had registered from 25 different countries - a 20% increase on the previous year.

Charity
On December 19 2012, it was announced that the charity for 2013 would be STA Ferret Rescue (a branch of the British Federation of Ferret Welfare) On 16th June, the final total was revealed as £11,484.