Furnal Equinox

Furnal Equinox (sometimes abbreviated as FE) is a regional furry convention held during the month of March in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Announced in 2009 and holding its first edition in 2010, it is Canada's largest furry convention by attendance.

Purpose and Operations
Furnal Equinox has aimed to promote the goal of showcasing the best local talent and attracting worldwide furry names by inviting two Guests of Honour to the convention every year, one from Canada and one from outside of Canada.

The name Furnal Equinox was conceived by founding member ShiroTora. The chosen name plays upon the convention's date in March, close to the beginning of spring (the vernal equinox). The convention has raised money every year for charity through its Charity Auction. The convention supported the Mississauga Humane Society from 2010 until 2015, raising over $33,000 for the MHS over six years. Furnal Equinox is operated by Anthropomorphic Events of Ontario, incorporated in the Province of Ontario as a corporation without share capital (NPO) since June 2009. Its current directors are as follows:
 * Scani - AEO President
 * Aaeden - Convention Chair
 * Draculion - Director of Experience
 * Kootenay - Director of Business
 * Olefin - Director of Operations

Origins and first year (2008 - 2010)
Prior to Furnal Equinox, there had never been a large, hotel-based furry event hosted in the Toronto area. (Camp Feral has run continuously since 1998 at a summer camp three hours from Toronto.) The Islington Furmeet, created in the summer of 2008 and taking place in Toronto's west end, was a recurring meet in the area that demonstrated the viability of large-scale gatherings. Through 2008 and early 2009, discussions regarding the feasibility of a hotel event took place on the TorFur Mailing List and the Ontario Furries forum. After initial faltering steps including attempts to determine date and staff members by vote, the discussion moved to a private mailing list in March 2009.

In June 2009, the convention formerly incorporated as Anthropomorphic Events of Ontario, with Pakesh De, Blindsight, Crassadon, Dan Skunk and Scani as its initial directors. Pakesh assumed the role of convention chair, with Blindsight joining later as a co-chair. The two would remain for the following five years. FE was promoted in its first year as "Toronto's First Furry Convention" and formally announced its name on July 1 (Canada Day), 2009.

In July 2009, Dan Skunk was removed from the organization's convention committee due to, in Furnal Equinox's view, irreconcilable differences with the remainder of the concom that were impairing the ability of the convention to continue.

Despite operating as a two-day event, the first Furnal Equinox proved to be a success, breaking the existing attendance record for a Canadian furry convention and exceeding all expectations -- including those of the organizers, who ran out of conbooks midway through registration on Saturday.

Controversy (2010)
Following the 2010 convention, Dan Skunk made a post on the Ontario Furries website, claiming to be unfairly prevented from helping with the convention and treated rudely by the chairs and staff. The complaint was subsequently deleted. Around the same time, an extended editing dispute between Dan and FE staff took place on WikiFur's Furnal Equinox page.

The dispute finally reached a head with the following events:


 * Dan removed Furnal Equinox's forum from Ontario Furries, and unsuccessfully called for a boycott of Furnal Equinox on the Ontario Furries web site.
 * Furnal Equinox and fellow Canadian convention What the Fur severed their relationships with Ontario Furries through official statements..
 * A number of other regional forums were created: CanadianFurries.ca, torfurs.com, and OntarioFurs.com.
 * Dan created a web page at furnalequinox.org to state his viewpoints.

The bans on Furnal Equinox staff and discussion were fully removed from Ontario Furries in 2013. In June and July 2015, Dan Skunk removed the content at furnalequinox.org and transferred the domain name to Furnal Equinox. As of July 26, 2015, the furnalequinox.org domain redirects to the main Furnal Equinox website.

Subsequent years (2011 - 2016)
After the 2010 convention, Arc, the convention's head of Security, joined the Board of Directors. By 2012, Furnal Equinox had doubled in size and expanded to a new wing of the Doubletree hotel. At the conclusion of the 2012 event, it announced a move to the Sheraton Toronto Airport Hotel & Conference Centre, where it remained until 2015. With additional growth in the past several years, recent conventions have seen the addition of additional programming hours on Friday, and other special events such as a hospitality suite, a fursuit dance competition, and a masquerade. After several years of working as publicity lead, Scani was announced as the new chair of the convention in July 2014, with Olefin also joining the board of directors. Blindsight, Pakesh and Shane remained on the board for an additional transition year before fully handing the reins to a new team in the summer of 2015.

At closing ceremonies for Furnal Equinox 2015, Keianza was announced as the winner of a logo competition that had taken place for the past several months. The new logo will be fully utilized for the 2016 convention.

(2017 - )
For 2017, Furnal Equinox moved to its new home of the Westin Harbour Castle, and has been there for all subsequent events.

At the end of the 2018 convention, Scani stepped down from the convention chair role, which was taken over by Aaeden.

Guests of Honour
Past Guests of Honour have included:
 * 2010 - Artists Heather Bruton and BushyCat
 * 2011 - Artist ZEN and Fursuit maker Firestorm Six
 * 2012 - Artists Dark Natasha and Marci McAdam
 * 2013 - Artists RedCoatCat and Rukis
 * 2014 - Artists Sabretoothed Ermine and Sandy Schreiber
 * 2015 - Artists H0rs3 and Xenotropos
 * 2016 - Artists Karine Charlebois and TaniDaReal
 * 2017 - Artist Likeshine and Fursuit maker Beetlecat
 * 2018 - Artists Patto, Rick Griffin, and Musician Fox Amoore
 * 2019 - Artists Moth Monarch, Cat-Monk Shiro, and Fursuit makers Don't Hug Cacti

Charities
(All figures in Canadian$)


 * 2010 - Mississauga Humane Society - $200
 * 2011 - Mississauga Humane Society - $4,000
 * 2012 - Mississauga Humane Society - $8,000
 * 2013 - Mississauga Humane Society - $6,000
 * 2014 - Mississauga Humane Society -
 * 2015 - Mississauga Humane Society - $9,001
 * 2016 - Story Book Farm Primate Sanctuary - $5,492.15
 * 2017 - After the Track Greyhound Adoption - $10,678.55
 * 2018 - Happy Ever Esther Farm Sanctuary - more than $6,000
 * 2019 - Pet Patrol - $12,060.99