ConFuzzled

ConFuzzled is a UK convention to celebrate the genre of anthropomorphics, or furry fandom. ConFuzzled UK is registered as a private company limited by guarantee, no. 06185967 (incorporated 27 March 2007).

History
Planning for ConFuzzled started in 2005, after several people from the UK furry community became frustrated by a lack of prior organization. This group decided to organize a furry convention, based upon their experience with furmeets. The convention has received help and advice from Chairo, Cheetah, Kiran Lightpaw, and Timduru.

Confirmation of the venue was announced on the website in February 2007; the same month further details of the convention events were also announced, along with the unveiling of the website and logo. The ConFuzzled Forum and FAQ opened on May 12, 2007. ConFuzzled Focus, a magazine-style newsletter started on 29 October 2007. FurbleFox was the chairman of the convention up until November 2009, when he officially announced his resignation. The remaining staff elected Matt Lion as the new chairman, with Dingotush as vice-chair.

The convention was initially held in the YHA Manchester, before moving to the Britannia Country House Hotel in 2010 where it remained till 2011. For 2012, it was announced that the convention was to move to the Barceló Hinckley Island Hotel in Leicestershire, where it was held for two years. Starting in 2014, the convention is hosted at the Birmingham Hilton Metropole.

Attendance level
From an initial 136 attendees in 2008, ConFuzzled has grown rapidly such that as of 2011, with an attendance of 499, it became the second-largest furry convention outside of the United States (second only to Eurofurence), and the 14th-largest worldwide. As of May 2017, it was the 9th-largest worldwide, with 1645 attendees. Due to the COVID-19 Novel Coronavirus pandemic the convention was unable to take place physically in 2020, however attracted around 6,500 unique viewers during the virtual convention weekend.

Mascot
ConFuzzled's mascot is Brok, a black and white badger with a top hat and an affinity for cookies; he has his own Twitter account. Brok was officially unveiled on June 20, 2007 as the convention mascot. He was designed by Josef "Tabbie" Zsapka.

Regular events
As well as many of the events found common to most furry conventions (Fursuit games and dance competition, GoH and Charity events, etc), ConFuzzled runs a number of regular unique events each year.


 * Pub Quiz : Formerly the WikiFur Pub Quiz, attendees form in to teams of no more than eight people and answer questions provided by a host on an answer sheet. The questions often link to the theme of the convention but can also cover general knowledge, history, geography, music and pop culture. Answer sheets are exchanged and teams mark each other's answers with the winning team getting tokens for a free drink at the bar.


 * Frankensuits : Attendees are given basic supplies of fur offcuts, materials, cardboard and other odds and ends; hot glue, sticky tape and tagging guns, and given one hour to build (generally horrific and humorous) fursuits with the winner for the 'best' suit sometimes given a prize. All the suits that are completed are then welcome to take part in the fursuit parade that immediately follows.


 * MotorFurs : Car and bike enthusiast furries gather with their vehicles to show them off.


 * Jym's Gameshow : A parody of a popular British gameshow hosted by Jym. Despite being done on a very low budget, the stage event features two teams playing for joke prizes while keeping accurately to the format of the original gameshow being imitated, complete with sound effects, music and graphics on the stage screens. Previous conventions have seen this event parody Family Fortunes (as Family Furtunes) and Catchphrase (as Catchfurase) twice.


 * The Pawpets UK show : The Pawpets UK team's annual 90 minute stage show, written and performed exclusively for the convention.


 * Yard Sale : A special sale at the end of the convention in the Dealers Den for convention event and Pawpet show props, signs, memorabilia, old stock, and other items from the convention that would otherwise have been thrown away. There is also a last chance to buy charity items or extra convention sponsorship items such as t-shirts. Profits for everything except for sponsorship items are given to the convention's charity.

Retired Events
Previous years featured several events that appeared every year. However, these ones are now discontinued.


 * Sponsor Buffet : A special lunch for convention Sponsors with extra special or themed food catered by the venue. A musical and/or fursuit performance is often provided for entertainment.


 * Banner Brawl : Presented at both ConFuzzled and Eurofurence, two teams of three male and three female artists are given a large shared canvas and provided randomly selected prompts by the hosts to create a scene without prior knowledge or being able to see the other team's canvas. The audience get to choose the winning canvas, with an on-going score kept from one convention to the next. Both canvases are placed in the Art Auction for charity.