Brasil FurFest

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Brasil FurFest

Location	Santos, São Paulo, Brazil
Website	https://www.brasilfurfest.org/
Status	ongoing
First iteration	9-11 September 2016
Organizer(s)	Brasil FurFest
Charity	SOS Vida Pet Litoral - https://www.facebook.com/sosvidapetlitoral/
Subject	Furry
Resources	Photos, videos, reports: Brasil FurFest resources

Brasil FurFest, or BFF, is the first hotel-based furry convention to happen in Brazil. It was first held over September 9-11, 2016 at Mercure Santos Hotel, in the city of Santos, Brazil.^[1].

The latest edition of Brasil FurFest was held July 19-21, 2024 and received "over one thousand" attendees.^[2]

The next iteration is scheduled to be held from July 25-27, 2025 at Sheraton Santos Hotel. Brasil FurFest is a member of the FLEF, group of Brazilian furry events. The convention's slogan is "Amigos para Sempre" (English: "Friends Forever").

1 History
2 Location
3 Programming
4 Board of Directors
5 Sister Cons
6 References
7 External links

History[edit]

**Brasil FurFest** (edit)

Brasil FurFest 2016
Brasil FurFest 2017
Brasil FurFest 2018
Brasil FurFest 2019
Brasil FurFest 2020
Brasil FurFest 2021
Brasil FurFest 2022
Brasil FurFest 2023
Brasil FurFest 2024
Brasil FurFest 2025

Brasil FurFest staff
Brasil FurFest guests of honor

BFF announcement at Furboliche

Fursuit Parade at BFF 2018

Furboliche (São Paulo's Furry bowling event) founders had the idea of organizing a furry convention in Santos back in 2014. Proposed name was "Confursão" (abbreviation for Convenção Furry de São Paulo, Portuguese for São Paulo's Furry Convention). Due to lack of experience, they decided to postpone the convention and started Furboliche instead, to acquire know-how and to understand the dynamics of local furry fandom.

After Brazil's camping-based furry convention Abando announced 2016 would be its last year,^[3] the staff of Furboliche decided to review their plans. They announced they would start a hotel-based furry convention, to prevent Brazil from lacking any multi-day events. Proposed name "Confursão" was withdrawn and it was replaced by "Brasil FurFest" to avoid similarities with a famous furry room in anime cons called "Confuria".

Official announcement of Brasil FurFest was done on February 13th, 2016, at Furboliche 5 event. Before traditional fursuit raffle, the staff showed BFF's logo and announced the convention would start as a crowdfunding with a goal of R$ 6,000 (around US$ 1,500) for the basic costs of renting conference rooms and producing conbook, badges and other stuff. Further goals for crowdfunding campaign were later presented for adding more conference rooms or renting party bus in case of bigger donations. Videos and pictures of the location were presented in the several screens of the Bowling Place and all Furboliche staff members were using buttons with Brasil FurFest logo. Before the announcement, a Facebook page was made and teaser videos in Portuguese, Spanish and English were published.^[4]

First crowdfunding goal of Brasil FurFest was reached in barely 13 days. In an official announcement on the social networks, the staff of the convention confirmed the event for the proposed dates. At the end of crowdfunding campaign, all additional goals (that introduced more structure, rooms and activities to the con) were reached and R$ 15,390 (approx. US$ 3,850) were pledged. After the end of the crowdfunding, regular sales of tickets stated at the convention's website.

In April 24th, 2016, BFF's staff announced the theme for the event: "Peludos em Santos" (Furries in Santos) - a joke with the name of a very famous Brazilian Rock song called "Pelados in Santos" (Naked in Santos). Guests of honor were announced in the same day.

Brasil FurFest 2016 happened as planned in Mercure Santos Hotel and gathered 169 furries (among them 54 fursuiters) from 5 countries (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Paraguay and USA) setting a new milestone for the furry fandom in Brazil: to have a hotel-based furry convention in Brazil with panels, workshops, dealer's den, artist's alley, fursuit parade , fursuit games and parties. Brasil FurFest was also the first furry event in Brazil to have a charity campaign, helping street animals from the city of Santos.

Second year of the convention had several improvements compared to the first year from logistics to organization. BFF 2017 started on friday night with the opening ceremony and the night rave, and for the first time Charity Auction was made to boost donations to the charity campaign. Brasil FurFest 2017 recevied 287 furries from 9 countries, surpassing Furboliche as the biggest furry event in Latin America at the time.

The growth of the event was important to boom the anthropomorphic culture in Brazil and in South America. In the first three years, the number of attendees increased near to 3 times, bringing together furries from almost all states of Brazil and from 11 countries in total (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, United States, Germany and Scotland)

In the 2018 edition of Brasil FurFest had the largest audience recorded by the event gathering 431 furries from 8 countries, a 50% increase over the previous year. The charity campaign set the record for the event and grossed R$ 12,359.45 (US$ 3,160.90), earning nearly five times more than in 2017. The fursuit parade also reached its highest number with 115 fursuiters. BFF 2018 was also first edition to have an cellphone (Android) app with schedule, maps and other relevant information about the event and the first year to have the flag of Megaplex at the Main Events Room, representing the sister con partnership both conventions started in 2018.

During closing ceremony of Brasil FurFest 2018, the staff of Furcamp, a new Brazilian camping con that happened for the first time in March 2019, introduced the event to the public. Just after Furcamp's presentation, Brasil FurFest team revealed its new slogan: "Friends Forever".

Brasil FurFest celebrated it's 4th iterarion featuring a urban theme called Furtropolis, a furry city in Brazil. The event gathered 571 Furries from 8 countries. BFF 2019 featured first Foxes and Peppers show ever to happen in Latin America. Fursuit Parade was not held for the first time due to bad weather. During the closing ceremony it was announced that Brasil FurFest 2020 would have "A Haunted Hotel" as theme and Uncle Kage as guest of honor.

Due to the Novel Coronavirus pandemic, Brasil FurFest staff announced in May 2020 that they were going to postpone the convention to 2021 and host BFF Night in August 1st, a livestream with several activities on Youtube. In June 2020 it was announced theme "A Haunted Hotel" would be changed due to the death of three Brazilian furries in just two weeks. In april 2021, a new postponement was announced and next BFF under the theme "The Fantastic Candy Factory" is scheduled to happen again at Mercure Santos Hotel from May 13th to 15th, 2022. In addition, it was announced that an online event, called BFF Online, would be held on July 16th to 18th, the dates on which 2021 event would be held. After the news of Mercure Hotel closure in July 2021, BFF 2022 was moved to Sheraton Santos Hotel and new dates were announced: From July 15th to 17th, 2022. Brasil FurFest 2022 had 872 attendees and at the Closing Ceremony it was announced that Brasil FurFest 2023 will be held again at Sheraton Santos Hotel with theme Furry University.

Events[edit]

#	Year	Theme	Dates	Attendance	Fursuit Parade Count	Guests of Honor	Location	Charity Amount	Charity Organization
1	2016	Furries in Santos	Sept 9-11	169	48	El Ranno and Latin Vixen	Mercure Santos Hotel - Santos, SP	BRL 435.45 (USD 119.02)	MAPAN
2	2017	Furries in Space	Aug 25-27	287	107	Igor Cebarros and Felipe Marcantonio	Mercure Santos Hotel - Santos, SP	BRL 2,668.10 (USD 841.67)	SOS Vida Pet Baixada Santista
3	2018	Lights! Cameras! Furries!	Aug 17-19	431	115	Crash Azarel and Fox Amoore	Mercure Santos Hotel - Santos, SP	BRL 12,359.15 (USD 3,160.90)	SOS Vida Pet Litoral
4	2019	Furtropolis, Brazil	Aug 23-25	571	Parade cancelled due to weather	Pepper Coyote and Zeng Tiger	Mercure Santos Hotel - Santos, SP	BRL 11,000.00 (USD 2,669.90)	SOS Vida Pet Litoral
5	2022	The Fantastic Candy Factory*	Jul 15-17	872	184	Uncle Kage	Sheraton Santos Hotel - Santos, SP	BRL 33,570.69 (USD 6,107.46)	SOS Vida Pet Litoral
6	2023	Furry University	Jul 14-16	911	205	Ash Coyote	Sheraton Santos Hotel - Santos, SP	BRL 26,574.13 (USD 5,548.30)	SOS Vida Pet Litoral
7	2024	Haunted Hotel	Jul 19-21	1121	281	Telephone	Sheraton Santos Hotel - Santos, SP	BRL 31,000.00 (USD 5.575,74)	SOS Vida Pet Litoral
8	2025	Heroes & Villains	Jul 25-27	TBA	TBA	Aurora Bloom	Sheraton Santos Hotel - Santos, SP	TBA	SOS Vida Pet Litoral

The 2022 theme "A Haunted Hotel" was changed due to the death of three Brazilian furries during the year of 2020 and returned in 2024.

Online Events during the Coronavirus Pandemic[edit]

Brasil FurFest was not hosted at the hotel during the Coronavirus Pandemic. Online events were organized instead.

Year	Theme	Dates	Attendance	Fursuit Parade Count	Guests of Honor	Location	Charity Amount	Charity Organization
2020	BFF Night 2020	Aug 1	1,935 (YouTube single viewers)	141 (pictures)	None	Youtube and Discord	BRL 7,300.00 (USD 1,390.00)	SOS Vida Pet Litoral
2021	BFF Online 2021	Jul 16-18	244	109 (pictures)	None	Hopin	BRL 26,000.00 (USD 4,975.22)	SOS Vida Pet Litoral

Media[edit]

Report made by TV Tribuna/Globo at BFF

A Fursuit Parade picture was featured in the cover of September 10th edition of A Tribuna, biggest newspaper in Santos region, and a full-page report about the event and the fandom was published. A Tribuna and TV Tribuna (local affiliate of Globo, biggest TV network in Brazil) also featured the convention and furries in their newsy portals. [1]
The local affiliate of Record TV network made a 3-minute report about the event and fursuiters in the noon newscast of September 12th. [2]
O Estado de S.Paulo, second biggest newspaper in Brazil, sent a reporter to cover the event and a podcast about furries was later published in their website.
The Brazilian version of Vice published an extensive report about Furry Fandom and Brasil FurFest in September 22nd, 2016. [3]
Balanço Geral SP, a newscast of Record TV made an extensive report about the Furry Fandom in July 14th, 2017. After the report, the show host received in the studios some staffs of Brasil FurFest. [4]
Jornal da Tribuna Noon Edition, from TV Tribuna, affiliate to Globo, showed a report in August 28th, 2017, featuring Brasil FurFest among other geek events held in Santos region at that weekend. [5]
One of the biggest news portals in Brazil, R7.com, made a big report on the furry fandom during Brasil FurFest 2019. The story that featured videos, infographics and picture album was posted in the Estúdio section of the site on September 20th, 2019. [6]
Biggest Brazilian news portal UOL made a report about Brasil FurFest 2022 featuring some of the attendees as main characters for the story. [7]

Location[edit]

Since 2022 BFF have been hosted at Sheraton Santos Hotel in Santos, near Sao Paulo, Brazil. The venue is located in a corporate complex with mall, supermarket and other facilities. Previously the convention happened at now closed permanently Mercure Santos Hotel inside Clube XV-Office complex, in front of the Boqueirão Beach. All hotel rooms had sea views.