Aurawra

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Aurawra
Aurawra banner.png
Other names {{{othernames}}}
Location
Website
Status Active
First iteration July 22 - July 24, 2022
Organizer(s) NSW Anthro Group[1]
Subject Convention

Aurawra is a furry convention held in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Its first instance was held 22 July- 24 July 2022.[2] After being announced at FurJAM 2019, the convention was originally planned to be held on 24-26 July 2020 but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic[3]

The convention is run by the staff of FurJAM and other organisers and helpers from various New South Wales Furry events.[4] The event was originally proposed to run alongside the external kink-focused night club event, The Pound.[5]

The name "Aurawra" originates from "bad advice from a dragon"[6] (specifically, the "-rawr-"), as well as references to "Au"stralia and the aurora australis.[7]

Aurawra has three mascots, Aster the Crocodile (who was named as a part of a community poll), Billiam the Bilby and Quortney the Quoll.

History[edit]

Aurawra has been hosted in the following locations. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic however, the convention was forced to delay its inaugural event three times between 2020 and 2021.

Year Dates Attendance Location
2020 24 - 26th July Postponed Novotel Sydney International Airport, Wolli Creek
2021 23 - 25th July
30th July-2nd August
Postponed Novotel Sydney International Airport, Wolli Creek
Novotel Sydney Olympic Park, Sydney Olympic Park
2022 22 - 24th July 324 [8] Novotel Sydney Olympic Park, Sydney Olympic Park
2023 23 - 25th June TBA Novotel Sydney Olympic Park, Sydney Olympic Park
2024 26 - 28th July TBA PARKROYAL Parramatta, Parramatta


Covid Delays[edit]

2020[edit]

Aurawra was due to run 24-26 July 2020 at Wolli Creek Novotel Sydney International Airport. Due to the worsening situation regarding the Covid-19 pandemic, registration was suspended temporarily on March 18, 2020. [9] Ultimately a week later, the first event was delayed due to concerns about the Covid-19 pandemic, with the organisers opting to push the event out to July 23-25, 2021. [10]

To honour the weekend, Aurawra hosted a digital event including a Digital Dealer's Den which featured the websites of several of their artists and advertised streams for the artists, as well as a Virtual Fursuit Walk inviting people to post their fursuit pictures and ending with a short video featuring fursuit dancers from FurStep, who are helping out with the Fursuit dance panel at Aurawra![11]

2021[edit]

A second delay occurred due to the con hotels contract as a quarantine hotel being extended with the NSW government, forcing them to change locations to the Novotel Sydney Olympic Park and delaying the convention run time till July 30th to August 2nd 2021.[12]

A third and final delay occurred when a particularly virulent strain of Covid caused lockdowns all throughout the Sydney and Greater Sydney region, causing staff to delay the convention forward to the next year, 22-24 July 2022.[13]

In lieu of running a physical event in 2021, a virtual streaming event took place on Twitch featuring streamers, artists and DJ's from around Australia. [14] Pins for people who volunteered their time for this event were designed by Meroaw and distributed at the 2022 event.

2022 - Year One: New Beginnings[edit]

Running from July 22-24, 2022, Aurawra was able to host its first in person event since its announcement three years prior. In the interest of community safety, several safety practices were put in place including limited attendee numbers, room capacities and mask requirements. No extra registrations were sold due to the already three years worth of backlogged registrations and no day passes were available to comply with hotel restrictions. The Guest of Honour was Mamath, who also designed a pin for sponsor registrants. Shirt art was designed by Znackish and a further sponsor bag item, a can cooler was designed by Carni. Pins for con volunteers were designed by ScribblyNoodle.

Due to wet weather, the Fursuit Walk was cancelled with the photo taking place within the panel rooms. Other hosted events include A Game-A-Thon, Smash-A-Thon, a variety of panels, the Dealers Den, a movie and games night, two dance nights, as well as charity auction and opening and closing ceremonies. The convention also introduced the idea of a sticker wall, which was a canvas on which attendees could add their personal stickers, which was later sold at the charity auction.

The next event was announced at the closing ceremony for June 23-25, 2023. Registration was opened at the same time, with the Sponsor tier selling out in twelve hours. [15]

2023 - Year Two: The Lost Empire[edit]

This event took place from June 23-25, 2023, remaining at the Novotel Sydney Olympic Park, Sydney Olympic Park. The Guests of Honor were KusakiDesu, who performed as a DJ during the Dead Dog Dance, and WickedInsignia, who created the poster for Aurawra's 3rd year. Both Guests of Honor ran a community panel for attendees to visit. Shirt art was designed by Meroaw, and a lanyard was designed for Sponsor registrants by Arinaca, and a sponsor pin was designed by previous year's Guest of Honor Mamath. Pins for convention volunteers were designed by Pumpkinpaws.

Other hosted events include A Game-A-Thon, Smash-A-Thon, a variety of panels, the Dealers Den and a single day Artist's Alley on, a movie, showing The Adventures of Tintin, A Pub Quiz night, A Games night featuring MTG tournaments and open play on video games setups in the games room, two dance nights, as well as charity auction and opening and closing ceremonies. Another sticker wall was provided by the convention again this year, which was a printed canvas with the convention's title on it for the convention attendees to stick their personal stickers to, which was later sold at the charity auction.

The closing ceremony featured an AR segment announcing the new convention during which the chairperson of the convention, Shadow, was shown transposed into a virtual space, which showed graphics relating to the announcement of the Aurawra 2024 theme. The next event was announced in this AR segment for July 26-28, 2024, at a new location at The PARKROYAL, Parramatta.

2024 - Third Edition: Mountains of Mayhem[edit]

This event is scheduled to take place from June 26-28, 2024, at a new location; The PARKROYAL, Parramatta. Registration will open for the event on July 14th, 2023.

Themes[edit]

Year Theme Description
2022 New Beginnings This year we'll be exploring the unknown and voyaging into uncharted waters to experience new adventures and exciting new discoveries! We hope you can join us for our Maiden Voyage![16]
2023 The Lost Empire We’ve reached the end of our maiden voyage, now what treasures wait in store for us as we explore into the unknown?[17]
2024 Mountains of Mayhem We hope you're able to join us again next year for Aurawra 3rd Edition: Mountains of Mayhem! So ready your equipment, grab your dice bags, and we'll see you soon![18]

Charity[edit]

Year Charity Amount Raised Notes
2020 WIRES Postponed A range of charities that would support those affected by the 2019–20 Australian bushfires were selected by Aurawra staff with the final choice being decided by community vote. [19]
2021 WIRES $1,005[20]
2022 Twenty10 $6,978.35[21]
2023 The Gender Centre $13,562[22]

References[edit]

  1. "NSW Anthro Group is proud to announce Aurawra, a full-scale, three day convention held from the 24th to the 26th of July 2020 at Wolli Creek." - Aurawra, Twitter (21 September 2019)
  2. Schedule - Aurawra
  3. Unfortunately due to COVID-19, we will have to postpone our 2020 convention until July 23-25th, 2021. All registration will be automatically transferred and we're working with the hotel to move all booked rooms to next year.- Aurawra, Twitter (23 March 2020)
  4. Staff - Aurawra
  5. We're proud to announce that @ThePoundSydney will be running alongside Aurawra in 2020! We hope you're ready for a rocking time of dancing and fun at the only Furry Night club event in Sydney! - Aurawra, Twitter (October 12, 2019)
  6. A lot of you are surely wondering “Why is it called Aurawra?”. It’s because we took bad advice from a dragon. Don’t trust dragons, they’re insidious and sneaky. - Aurawra, Twitter (24 September 2019)
  7. Aurawra. Retrieved 17 October 2019.
  8. We almost forgot to say, our first year had a fantastic 324 registrants and staff! We're excited to be doubling that number next year! - Aurwara, Telegram (September 12, 2022)
  9. In light of the new regulations, we are now in negotiations with the hotel and our other suppliers to discuss our options in order to take the safest course of action. In the meantime we'll be suspending purchases of any new registrations until we have confirmed our heading. - Aurawra, Twitter (March 18, 2020)
  10. Unfortunately due to COVID-19, we will have to postpone our 2020 convention until July 23-25th, 2021. All registration will be automatically transferred and we're working with the hotel to move all booked rooms to next year. - Aurawra, Twitter (March 23, 2020)
  11. Here’s a thread of what you can expect for the Aurawra 2020 Digital Weekend... <thread> - Aurawra, Twitter (July 24, 2020)
  12. Due to ongoing covid fears the NSW Government has extended a contract with the Novotel to quarantine Air Service Staff over the dates of our convention. We will now be hosting Aurawra 2021 at the Novotel Sydney Olympic Park from 30th July to 1st of August. - Aurawra, Twitter (May 12, 221)
  13. Hello Explorers, With the resurgence of a particularly virulent strain of the COVID virus in Sydney, in the interests of the safety of all our attendees, we are planning to postpone our event until 2022. We will automatically be rolling over all registrations to the new dates. We have already made arrangements with the hotel, and a new date for 2022 will be announced shortly. - Aurawra, Twitter (June 29, 2021)
  14. Hey there explorers, We have some fun stuff planned for the online weekend of (June [July 30 to August 1) including art, games, DJ's and even a movie night. The schedule should hopefully be published by the end of the week so you'll have an idea of what you can look forward to.] - Aurawra, Twitter (July 19, 2021)
  15. it actually only took 12! Our last one sold out at 6:44am this morning, and rego opened around 6pmish! - Aurawra, Twitter (July 25, 2021)
  16. Aurawra is happy to announce the theme for 2020's convention; New Beginnings! This year we'll be exploring the unknown and voyaging into uncharted waters to experience new adventures and exciting new discoveries! We hope you can join us for our Maiden Voyage! - Aurawra, Twitter (January 12, 2020)
  17. We’ve reached the end of our maiden voyage, now what treasures wait in store for us as we explore into the unknown? We’re proud to announce Aurawra Year 2: The Lost Empire! Registration open now: http://Aurawra.org/store - Aurawra, Twitter (July 24, 2022)
  18. Thanks for coming to Aurawra: The Lost Empire. We hope you're able to join us again next year for Aurawra 3rd Edition: Mountains of Mayhem! Registration for next year will be opening on the 14th of July, 2023. So ready your equipment, grab your dice bags, and we'll see you soon! - Aurawra, Twitter (June 25, 2023)
  19. Aurawra will be supporting those affected by the NSW fires, and we need your help choosing how we do so. See here for more details on how we’re choosing our charity this year: http://Aurawra.org/charity - Aurawra, Twitter
  20. Virtu-Aurawra event donation page
  21. We're proud to announce that due to the generous donations from our community at Aurawra we have raised $6978.35 for Twenty10
  22. We're proud to announce that, as a result of the generous donations made by our attendees, Aurawra was able to raise a total of $13,562 for The Gender Centre.

External links[edit]


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