CanFURence 2025
| 1416 words
It's been several month since I attended CanFURence for the 2025 season, so I figured it was time to write up a blog post detailing my experiences at the convention this year!
Here's the thing though; with my surgery having happened just 2 months ago at this point, I knew going into this con that things would be different this time around. I was able to fursuit a little bit, as you'll be able to read about in a bit, but even that had to be cut down to a minimum as my body was still exhausted from the healing process of the major surgery I went under back in June. I still had fun at the convention of course, but I needed to accommodate for the fact that my body was more run down than usual.
Without further adieu, let's get into the summary of my weekend in downtown Ottawa!
Friday
- I got to the hotel around 12pm-ish, and got access to my room almost immediately after checking in. Upon seeing me with my rollator walker, the person checking me in offered me an accessible room, which I decided to take this time! Usually I don't request an accessible room any time I'm at a hotel for a convention since I'm not a non-ambulatory wheelchair user, but I decided that I'd try it out this time, and I'm very glad I did! Afterwards, I'd go to pick up my pre-reg and accessibility sticker.
- I ended up coming across a few friends that I'd sit and talk with, before heading upstairs to the penthouse for the inflatables panel. It was my first one, and while I didn't get to take many pictures, it was still really cute and awesome seeing everyone's inflatables! I really hope I can become a collector sometime in the future.
- Afterwards, I met up with a few other friends who invited me to their hotel room to chat for a bit and decide what our next plans were.
- Sometime between this and Fursuit Charades, I started to feel really ill. I took an edible thinking it would help me, but it didn't, and I ended up spending the entire time a the event feeling like I was about to pass out. The panel itself was really fun to watch, but I do wish I had the opportunity to participate. Maybe next year though....
- Sometime in between events, I met up with a friend and we ended up being invited to a room party. We didn't stay for very long though, since my friend wasn't feeling too well. I stayed with her for a bit to make sure she was doing okay, before I went back to my hotel room to get something to eat.
- Afterwards, I met up with another friend of mine who I was meeting for the first time, and we ended up smoking weed together outside the hotel before going to the first DJ set. I believe it was a throwback Eurodance/dubstep set which was fun, but I agreed with my friend that it was a bit hard to dance to.
- Eventually I'd go back up to my hotel room at around 11pm to go to bed.
Saturday
- Started Saturday by eating, showering and getting ready for the day. I believe I met up with another friend and we talked for a bit before we went to the dealer's den.
- Eventually met up with the friend who gave me the weed the night before, who ended up giving me another joint. We would hang out together outside and dance a little bit, since there was a DJ playing music just outside the hotel.
- Afterwards, I got ready for the furwalk, which actually happened this year thanks to the weather being decent! It was a lot of fun getting to walk around downtown Ottawa and getting the big picture with all the fusuiters at the end, but I have to admit that it was exhausting and I was physically in shambles afterwards. I don't think the heat was the issue because it was pretty mild outside, but I don't think the exhaustion I was feeling from my surgery recovery helped any.
- After dropping my fursuit off, I'd meet up with a group of friends to have some dinner at a Japanese ramen restaurant, which was super delicious! I ended up getting a vegetarian miso with a Tomomasu watermelon-flavoured drink. Everything was super tasty, and I've been thinking about going to my nearest location ever since...
- Not much happened for the rest of the night- we meant to go to the shibari panel but other things got in our way, and before we could go to the raves that night, I ended up getting too tired and sore from everything and decided to call it a night. I'd get to my room around 10 to 11pm, and crashed hard for the night.
Sunday
- Got ready as usual and took one last look at the dealer's den and bought any last minute stuff before checking out of my room at around 11am, with the majority of my stuff being kept behind the check-in desk.
- I went to the electronic music panel to kill some time before my last scheduled events of the weekend. Admittedly I nearly fell asleep a few times during it- not because the panel was super boring or anything, I was just that exhausted from everything I put my body through the past few days.
- The final panel of the weekend was the live Art Fight panel hosted by an acquaintance of mine, which was actually so fun and I hope they have it again next year!! We were separated into two teams (cats vs. dogs) and then paired with someone to "battle" against where we drew each other's fursonas. Since I was paired with one of the people I went to get ramen with, we decided to draw each other's sonas eating ramen!
- My group decided to go to their hotel room to chat before going to swim at the pool for a bit (I didn't go swimming because I never pack my swim gear, since I always forget that there's even a pool there). I had to leave shortly after though, and ended up coming back home sometime in the late afternoon.
And that was pretty much my whole weekend! I spent more of my time hanging out with other people than I did attending con events, but I'm more than okay with that. Plus, I find that once you see certain panels at a con, then they're going to be the same every year, and I personally don't feel the need to see certain events every single year. I find that cons for me are becoming an excuse for me to hang out with my friends, both locally and from out of town, and I don't see an issue with that since that's how I enjoy my conventions!
In the future, I hope to be able to attend Furnal Equinox 2026 (which actually just recently opened pre-registration as of typing this), and I'll be sure to visit CanFURence every year, so long as it exists! I also may have some opportunities in the future to attend some other Canadian conventions too, like Fur-Eh! and Calfurry, but I'm not 100% sure when these will be able to happen. Otherwise, I'm excited for my future endeavours in the furry community, and I hope that CanFURence continues to grow like it has been these past few years!