Theme: The 90s... and beyond
Location: Ringberg Hotel
This is a con report about EAST, a furry fandom convention. It took place in the Ringberg Hotel, a former GDR-run hotel for farmers.
Henrieke and I left Vienna at 9:45 with a mostly empty car with all seats removed, since after the convention we would drive to Veldhoven to pick up some things. We had a great drive, not much traffic at all.
We stopped at the rest stop "Bayerischer Wald" for a while. They had nice pool beds outside so we rested a bit there and had some currywurst and popsicles.
Tabbie was also driving, and even though he drove off much later, he overtook us. We stopped in Erlangen so I could pick up a German SIM-card for my Nokia. We walked around a little bit in the city and got some donuts.
After some more driving, we arrived at the Ringberg Hotel at 19:20. Getting a parking spot was a bit tricky, but I snatched the very last one. I also met Claspo on the parking lot.
Back at the hotel, Tabbie was already waiting and got us a cart for moving our stuff to the room. We watched the opening ceremony there using the extremely modern internal television channel of the hotel. Henrieke noted that the charity guy kinda looked like Picard, and seconds later he ripped off his shirt to reveal a starfleet uniform, turns out it was Picard!
After the opening ceremony was over, we went downstairs to get our badges and conbooks from Shorty at ConOps. I said hi to Johny there, and Krauti gave me a convention t-shirt, which I made the design for.
On the way to the game room I ran into Zefiro. In the game room I met Flake, Eiliko and Fitz. Flake ran a thing where you could borrow a Sony Mavica and fill a floppy with photos, a super cool idea! I had my own Mavica with me of course!
Luno and Hiero were also in the foyer, suiting. I took some photos, then I checked out the outside areas. I met BBF and Shorty there. Tabbie was suiting.
We went back to the room and ate some leftover pizza from the day before, then I suited up as Baseball for a bit. Baseball roamed around in the lobby a bit, then he checked out the very loud roomparty in the room under our suite. BBF was there, and a Cee, a nice fella from the UK.
Baseball went to the lobby again for a while, but there wasn't too much going on, so he went back to the room again. Since it's been a long day with an exhausting drive, we went to bed at 2:00.
We got up at 10:30 and had some breakfast. Can you believe it, the breakfast buffet is open until 12? I wish all conventions had this. I said good morning to Krauti and Henrieke and I got ourselves some tasty American pancakes from the automatic pancake machine.
I finally got some reception with my Nokia 7110, turns out being on the top of a mountain doesn't mean you get a great signal. Henrieke went back to the room and I crashed the table of Zefiro, Mendra and Schma. We talked about technology and Linux (a really promising new OS) for a bit.
I went to the room for a bit, then to ConOps to get our badges exchanged, which were misprinted. I took some pics outside and ran into Cee. I met Tabbie, Nico, Eltho and Ingvar and we all hung out a bit in the sun. I sent some SMS on my mobile phone, then I went to the snack exchange with Tabbie at 14:15. Henrieke joined too. We met Koha, a nice guy from the Netherlands/Belgium/France.
After trying some delicacies, we went back to the room and chilled a bit and I took some ibuprofen. I went downstairs where reception was good, and I gave my 1991 Motorola International 3200 a try. And lo and behold, it worked! Despite being the first GSM handheld phone from Motorola, this things worked just fine! Eiliko and Fitz fixed up the battery for me in return for some art!
I chatted a bit outside with OtysPossum, who used my Motorola to make a call to his mom. Eiliko gave me a call, and the audio quality was great! I got a bit carried away chatting with everyone and spent a while talking with Eiliko, Fitz and Flake. I took so long that the "Speed fursuit building" panel was about to start. Henrieke, Luno and I agreed to be in a team there. Two other people whose names I forgot also joined us. The idea of the panel was that 4 teams had 4 hours to build a fursuit head out of scraps of foam and fur. The scraps were a bit small, which made things very challenging. We found some blue fur, Henrieke made up a design and we did our best. We used many sticks of hot glue and we all burned ourselves.
I took some breaks, and also peeked outside into the foyer, where the inflatables panel took place. When we were almost done with the head, I quickly jumped into suit, and Baseball paid a visit to the inflatables panel. Tabbie and Nico were there too, as well as several Sea Dragons! Henrieke took some photos. Baseball then went to check out the dance, which had great music!
I went back to the room, showered, then Henrieke and I went to get some food at the hotel bar. Sadly it turned out the kitchen had already closed at 21:00. That's the only downside of being stuck on top of a mountain I guess. Luckily I brought some cup noodles, so we had those on our room while watching the dance on the TV. I went down to room 320 a bit, where Nyhgault, the Guest of Honor and Shorty as well as Avalon were hanging out. I chatted a bit about drawing with Hyhgault, who also knew our friend Titash. I went to the lobby, there wasn't much going on. Johny was playing a great set though. I went back to the room and we went to bed at 2:30.
We has breakfast with Tabbie today, then we met up with Nico, who spontaneously decided to also come to the con.
He was nice enough to give us a ride to Rewe, so we could stock up on groceries. We bought some fruit, snacks and drinks, then went back up the mountain and stocked our mini fridge.
I went downstairs to offer some commissions. We took all our artist alley stuff with us, but there were too many things to do to even attempty at vending, so I figured I'd sit in the lobby a bit at least. Lemurrr ended up getting a commission, which took exactly as much time as I had before needing to stop for my next appointment. That was taking Baseball to the photoshoot. Krauti was nice enough to share his slot with me, and we got some rad photos taken there. Henrieke also took some with the Mavica and the Polaroid 600 camera I brought.
Back in the lobby, Tabbie took a photo of Nico and Baseball in a giant GameBoy. Baseball went back to the room, I took a quick shower, packed up my GameBoy Colors and other stuff and went down again. I met Hiero and Jipho, then I checked out the Dealers Den with Henrieke. Henrieke and Tabbie both bought shirts with my design on them, I was flattered. We went back to the lobby and got some coffee and played some 1v1 Tetris. Then at 18:00 Tabbie and Nico joined and we had some dinner. Henrieke drew some cool art!
I took some photos with my GameBoy camera, but my memory was full. Luckily Isolectra on the next table had a GameBoy Printer he let me borrow for a bit to print my photos. After dinner, I went to the Pokémon panel with Henrieke. Pokémon is all the rage these days, my favorite is Charmeleon!
Eiliko even had the super cool Pokédex! Wish I had one of those.
Henrieke and I drew some Pokémon from memory and chatted with people there. Someone gave Henrieke a really nice little Lapras figurine.
Since it was dark already, I took my really fancy Sony beamer and N64 downstairs and set it up, projecting on the bar tent. We played some Mario Kart and Diddy Kong Racing with Henrieke, Kairan and Shorty there. BBF also dropped by. Hiero, Jipho and another friend of theirs also played a bit. I packed my things up again after a while and brought it to the room, then went back to the lobby where Henrieke was sitting with Agent, a really amazing artist we saw earlier in the Dealers Den. We sat together and chatted while Henrieke drew a picture of Martin the Marten, the inofficial hotel mascot.
I went downstairs to see Luno playing the guitar, BBF was also djing in the downstairs foyer. Then I went back to sit with Henrieke and Agent and we had a nice art jam. Tabbie and Nico joined as well, and some other people too whose name I forgot. We got a cocktail and did some trades, we also had a nice chat with the people at the front desk. Went to bed at 2:50.
We had some breakfast with Tabbie, then we went to the Dealers Den to say hi to Agent. We chatted a bit with him, then went to the room and packed the pool supplies.
Tabbie, Nico, Henrieke and I went to the super nice Ringberg pool, one of my favorite things about this hotel. I inflated my Sea Dragon and Dolphin and we had a nice time. There was also a music playlist where you could put requests in again, so I requested the Digimon Theme!
Jabari also joined later, we chatted a bit. Henrieke, Tabbie and Nico left, and I stayed to deflate the Sea Dragon. I went back to the room, Henrieke took a shower. Then it was time for the fursuit parade. Baseball joined, I took photos. There were some cute kids outside that had fun with Baseball, and Picard was there as well!
The weather was perfect and many people from Suhl came to see the parade. At the end, a group photo was taken. I met Shorty there, also Tabbie and Nico. I took some more photos, then Baseball and I went to our room. Shorty dropped by and I took some photos of him and the Herbert plush by Eligecos. Then I transferred some photos from my floppy disks to my laptop.
I went back down, met Tabbie and Nico and we got some food after waiting 30 minutes in a huge queue. We sat outside, and I wrote some SMS to BBF. Then Henrieke and I went downstairs to see Agent. I also chatted with Flake a bit.
We went up to our room to watch the closing ceremonies and the auction. Someone bought the fursuit head we made for a whopping 160€, for charity of course. Luno also came by our room, and we chatted about fursuit making of course. I made a drawing for Luno. Agent also dropped by. I got into fursuit and Luno left, and Baseball went to the dance. It was fantastic! I took a break on the room to take some ibu, then went back to the dance. Tabbie and Nico were there, Kazzador as well. I chatted a bit with Keenora in the fursuit lounge, and a girl who was telling me how this was her second con and what an amazing experience this was! I told her how I had my first con in this hotel in 2007, and that she should always cherish these memories!
Baseball went to the lobby and encountered a group of people doing aerobics. It's great that furries spread healthy habits! Baseball watched them and joined them for a but, then I went to the fursuit lounge and chatted with Luno and Hiero for a while, tyring to convince them to visit Vienna. We chatted some more outside, then Baseball went back to the dance. The music was really hard at that point, and my energy was depleted. Baseball said good night to BBF, then I took a shower on the room. I went back to the lobby with Henrieke, and we sat together with Agent, Tabbie, Nico and some other people who passed by. I said bye to Luno, and exchanged contact info with LeeTaiger. We went to bed at 2:00.
We got up at 9:00, packed and had breakfast with Greekyoshi, Tabbie and Cee. Tabbie was nice enough to take some of our stuff with him, as we needed all the space we could get in our car to pick up stuff from the Netherlands later.
We got out of our room shortly after 11:00, packed the car, said bye to people and left. On the way, we stopped at Kassel to see the Looney Tunes movie that Henrieke had done character designs for! It was great! Then we had a pan pizza at Pizza Hut and continued our journey.
We arrived in the Netherlands at around 22:00 and flopped onto our beds.
We went to the Veldhoven city center today. I was determined to get fermented herring, sadly the store was closed.
We got some drumsticks and kibbeling, then we sat at Brasserie Ludiek and has a Latte while sketching, my favorite!
What a great convention at the turn of the millenium! I hope all the images in this con report didn't break your modem, but I just had to post them all!
