Theme: Aloha Hawaii
Location: Maritim Hotel
Disclaimer: This is a report of EF mostly written for myself, documenting pretty much everything we did. If you are interested, it might give a nice idea of what EF is like!
Due to my dad still needing the car earlier, we drove off from Vienna at 9:30. The original plan was to depart at 8:00 since we would need about 8 hours and 30 minutes to get to Magdeburg. Sadly the weather didn't play along and it rained for about 5 hours of the drive, making it very exhausting. Usually I would switch with someone every few hours, but this time I was the only one with a license. We stopped at some Autohof and had some Schnitzel, soup and cutlet for lunch and I sketched in my daily sketchbook a bit. Also, at one point we made a short rest stop, and guess who we met.. Atkelar! Funny how we were at the exact same rest stop at the exact same time! We had a short chat and continued, we would meet again in a few hours anyway!
At 20:00, after over 10 hours of travel, we finally arrived and checked in at our room at the Maritim. This year we already booked a room there since we got really good rates on booking.com, which enabled us to already put our luggage on the room before the big rush. After dumping all our stuff to the room and parking the car, Titash lied down and we went down to the lobby, talking a bit with the (still relaxed) Cheetah, BBF, Reesa, Foxamoore, etc... BBF showed is the work in progress PPS intro, which was looking very promising! At about 1:00 we failed to keep our eyes open any longer and went to bed.
We got up at 10:30 and to our delight, the registration opened very early and was very quick so there was no long line at all. We quickly checked out and in again and greeted all the people who were arriving. We hung out a bit with Yotie and met Ekorren for the first time who is really fun! At 13:40 we went to City Carre with Yotie, Ekorren and Foxamoore. There we ran into Sithy, Okill and Leeuw who also joined us for lunch at Papaya. After lunch and some arting we went to Kaufland to stock up supplies for the con such as milk, bread, joghurt, fruits and instant noodle dishes. Most of the other time we spent in the lobby, drawing with Kougo, Yamavu, Ekorren, Yotie and Titash and having Colombian Snacks that Yotie brought.
For dinner we tried the food the hotel offered, a hot dog and a pretzel. Some time later we went to the pool area because I really felt like going to the steam sauna again. Sadly the hotel for some crazy reason removed the steam sauna and replaced it with very lame foot baths, so we just went swimming in ice-cold water for a bit and sat in the sauna. Also the pool was full of (some pretty adorable looking) giant inflatable animals. After that, we wandered around in the lobby and at some point ran into O'Wolf, who really wanted us for a report about the fursuit parade in the Zoo the next day for the German TV station MDR. We gave in and said yes, hoping it would go fine as MDR always did very nice reports in the past.
We got up at 10 and soon got a call from O'Wolf that the camera team arrived, so we tidied up the room a bit and welcomed them there. The interview went fine. They were also interested in the art we do and how it was related to the suits. After about 30 minutes of interview we got out Lindy and Hop and went to the front of the hotel to wait for the bus. Lindy and Hop interacted with the people who were waiting for the buses that went to the Magdeburg Zoo a bit, but the buses had quite some delay. So Lindy, Hop and the camera team already went to the zoo with the car, the other suiters and spotters arrived about 20 minutes later.
At the Zoo, the director gave a short speech, welcoming the Furries and being sad that EF will move away from Magdeburg in 2014. For the parade, he also dressed up in a costume! The parade went through a big part of the Zoo with many bystanders watching and many kids interacting. Lindy and Hop got some photos taken in front of banded ruffed lemurs.
After the parade and a great response by people, Lindy and Hop got a ride back to the hotel by the camera team and went back to the room. Being all hungry after the Zoo event, Henrieke and I tried to have lunch with Silverfox, Pokelai and some other Asians at Quilin. Sadly, the restaurant was closed between 15:00 and 17:00 and there was no time anymore to go out eating as I was supposed to prepare a part of the opening ceremonies with Titash and Pinky. So we just had a (surprisingly tasty) Maritim burger and got joined by Aatheus. After that we went to ConOps and waited for Pinky for a long time. At one point we found out she was busy with the GoHs and planned the opening ceremony stuff ourselves and told Pinky when she arrived. I got Baseball from the room and he and Titash were waiting back-stage for their appearance, with Henrieke helping out a bit in the dark back-stage area. The opening ceremonies started with a 20-minute video presenting the new hotel and each staff lead babbling a bit about their department.
Pinky introduced Baseball and Titash as official charity collectors. Titash and Baseball (utilizing a baseball bat) promptly started beating money that Titash specifically designed for this occasion out of the people on stage and gave it to Pinky. Andy Heath even wanted a Photo with Baseball because he liked his performance!
Henrieke was hanging up stuff in the art show while Baseball was running around in the lobby. Instantly, people got their wallets and tried to give him money, so he went back to ConOps, got his money bag and started collecting. Around 7, there was a flashmob announced at City Carre where suiters would dance in the mall and the mall management would donate 500€ to charity in return. Baseball went there, dancing a bit with Henrieke filming. Since the mall was very overcrowded at a time where only half of the suiters were there yet, Baseball went back to take a break.
Henrieke and I had dinner on the room and went down to the lobby a bit, then to the Artist Lounge which moved back into the really big room again, finally providing more than enough space for all the artists.
We art-jammed until around 1:30 with Ekorren, Kougo, Yamavu, Pokelai, etc. and went to bed at 2:30 after a round through the lobby.
We got up at 10:00 and visited the Dealers Den at some point. We also went into the art show again for a short bit as the setup was still ongoing and put our business card holders there. In the lobby, there was a surfboard set up for the Fursuit Gameshow. There were a bunch of kids in line, so after waiting a bit I gave it a shot and managed to stay on for quite a while on the hardest setting! The secret to it was of course keeping the center of balance exactly over the center of the surfboard, simples!
After that we went to Pizza Hut since they offered pretty good lunch deals. We were there with Kougo, Yotie, Lanakila, Lance and Ekorren.
Henrieke and me left early since we wanted to attend a "secret" panel for the PawPet Show staff, however when we arrived we found out that the panel was moved from 14:00 to 21:00 because most of the PawPet Show staff was still asleep. No surprise there as they were rehearsing until 8:00. We stayed in the lobby a bit and got to see the new charity lottery table. Since last year the lottery table was barely visible, Henrieke and I helped out a bit with me creating a design (which was wonderfully executed by Itchigo) and Henrieke creating a standee design.
Later we went to the "Puppetry for Beginners" panel by the GoHs then. It was very entertaining and also interesting, they also used the puppet that Jim Martin built for Henrieke for demonstrating techniques.
After the panel, we went to the room and got ready for the fursuit photo shoot. Henrieke took Tyler, who looked all nice and fancy thanks to Henrieke's work before EF, and I took Baseball.
They got some nice photos taken and then went to the lobby to collect some money for charity until the charity photo shoot with cute raccoons at 18:30. The charity people were really happy about all the money Baseball already collected.
At the shoot, someone brought a little bat they found on the street which was luckily fine and probably just a bit overheated. Henrieke and I managed to see it for a short bit after bringing Tyler and Baseball to the room. After dinner and hanging out with Yotie and Ekorren we sent Dog and Baseball to the fursuit group photo for a few minutes and then went on to the PawPet Show panel at 21:00.
It was basically a circle of people who all had to do with puppets, including the Swiss pawpeteers, the Pawpets UK people and us. Everyone introduced themselves and after that we discussed puppets. Andy Heath made some very nice compliments about the puppets that Henrieke (and I to some extent) built. I took some Polaroids and had the chance to talk to some people. The whole panel took about 3 hours.
When it ended, we went to the lobby to have a hot dog for dinner and sat at a table, chatting with Lance. A bit later we met Pinky and Andy Heath and joined them to look around in the Art Show a bit where I discovered that the one picture I put in this year had 4 bids already!
Henrieke wanted to tweet about something and discovered that her phone was gone, so she went back to the table but the phone was nowhere to be found, meaning some f****** a****** stole it, as it also didn't re-surface for the whole con. It pretty much killed the mood for this evening. We just talked a bit with Andy Heath, asked him if he wanted to try suiting which he politely refused and went to bed.
We got up at 10:30 and watched EF Prime for a bit, then went to the lobby and hung out with people a bit and took some Polaroids while waiting for the international snack exchange panel to start.
The snack exchange was nice as usual and much bigger than last year, offering tasty treats such as caramel cheese from Norway, pure ammonium chloride from Finland and chicken & waffle flavored chips from Australia. At one point Titash stormed on and emptied people's wallets for charity.
After the snack exchange it was time to get into suit for the parade, so Henrieke took Baseball and I took Tyler out. They collected some money before the parade started as many people from outside were already there to see the parade, and they were more than willing to spare a few Euro for charity after seeing lots and lots of cute critters. The parade moved very slowly as 6000 (!) people came to watch and blocked most of the route. All the kids had sparkles in their eyes and people of all ages really enjoyed the parade. Even the mayor of Magdeburg came and watched, telling TV crews about how much of a colorful addition Eurofurence was to the city of Magdeburg for the past years and expressing his regrets over us leaving. The parade route this year went past the Hundertwasserhaus and the Dom, offering many nice opportunities for photos. Luckily the organizers thought ahead and brought lots of water bottles for all the suiters.
Baseball and Tyler went back into the hotel before the parade continued through City Carre, as it was time to take a break and get some candy and drinks in the fursuit lounge, which was awesome as always thanks to Mystifur's hard work! Since lots of by-standers of the parade went to the hotel to get more photos of the suiters, plenty of potential to collect charity money! Baseball and Tyler collected another truckload of money then until the charity lottery booth closed, which Baseball took over and offered sketches for 5€ for charity. Tyler took a break and I went downstairs again to look after Baseball, who already had quite a queue.
Even Uncle Kage got a drawing from Baseball and got inspired to also offer services at the charity booth. When Baseball was done, it was about time to get dinner, so Henrieke, I, Kougo and Titash went to House of Steaks which proved to be a bad choice as the place was packed. We waited about 30 minutes just to place our order and we stayed well over 2 hours in total.
When we went back to the hotel, we went to take a look at the Fursuit Gameshow and watched Yotie popping balloons. The game show was nicely themed this year, featuring little animated sequences between the games with art by Yamavu, Animation by Atkelar, Music by Luchs and dubs by MaxGoof.
After the game show, we went to the room and got Baseball down who visited the Artist Lounge and drew in Titash's sketchbook. No further memories from that night, I guess we were all really tired and went to bed early. In the meanwhile, Uncle Kage got very drunk and raised a lot of money for charity.
Got up at around 10:30 and had breakfast. We didn't really plan on going to the group photo but decided to do it in the last-minute. Thanks to our clocks being off and the elevator stopping in every single floor we barely made it!
After that we went to Lance's panel about fursuit materials which was interesting as always. we also brought our fursuit heads to show people our way of construction and discuss it. Lance was also auctioning off all the materials he brought for charity. Seriously, Lance is one of the nicest guys ever! I got my hands on some anthron fleece, Wonderflex and NFT fur. In the same room, the voice acting panel started at 14:00, so we went outside for a bit and had a Maritim burger with Titash and took some Polaroids, then we went back to the panel which was interesting too and motivated me to try voice acting sometime. Maybe my voice isn't a lost cause after all!
After the panel, we brought the suit heads back to our room and went to the police to file a theft report about the stolen phone. Not that it would change much, but I at least wrote down serial number and IMEI of the phone which would help getting it back just in case it would ever be found in a raid. When we got back to the hotel, it was only one hour to the official start of the PawPet Show, so I and Titash decided to raise some more money for charity. Baseball and Titash collected some money in the lobby and then claimed the charity table one last time to offer sketch commissions, which went very well. In fact there were much more people wanting commissions than they could draw, even though the delay of the PawPet Show gave them even more time than originally planned. At one point the seating finally started, so I got out of suit and went to the PawPet Show, which deserves its own chapter in this report!
The PawPet Show started with Pinky announcing the not-final charity sum of 15.000€ (which would turn out to be 19.307€ in the end) to the women from the charity, who had to cry when she heard it.
We sat behind Lance and next to the super nice charity people! The PawPet Show itself started with super epic music by Foxamoore, who is a really amazing artist and super nice person. It was also exciting to see Monica, the puppet that Tioh, Henrieke and I built being played! The show was very nice again and the creativity with the special effects and everything was once again amazing! The story was really nice too, but I wouldn't want to spoil it here for anyone who hasn't seen it! During the first 15 minute show break I quickly ran to the fursuit lounge, suited up, collected a bag of money, ran back, got out of suit and made it to my seat about 5 seconds before the show started again. In the second break I decided to not do that again but rather went to the room to make some instant noodle soup for Henrieke and me. At the end of the show, Henrieke and I were called on stage for helping out with stuff. As usual, I felt a bit misplaced as most of these people push countless of hours into this show and compared to that, my contribution was much less. I am thankful that they appreciate everything we did so much though!
After the show we talked to the puppeteers a bit and then walked around in the lobby. We walked into Andy Heath, who promised that he would come into the Artist Lounge later. Henrieke went there already while I decided to take Baseball out one last time for a donation run, which was much harder whichout his bat, which some not so nice people took without asking earlier and managed to get a hole in there. After Baseball went to sleep, I joined the others at the Artist Lounge. Andy Heath was already there, discussing puppet building and drawing together with the others. Henrieke was lucky enough to get an original Andy Heath sketch!
At around 4:30 we finally went to bed!
We got up at 11, had breakfast on our room and had Yotie and Ekorren over for lazing around. In the lobby, we hung out a bit and met Pokelai. Also Silverfox was running around, getting wasted on Febreze. We once again tried to have lunch at Qilin and this time we succeeded. We went with Yotie, Ekorren, Silverfox, Pokelai and 3 other people. We exchanged sketches and had tasty asian food while Silverfox was poking wool.
Back at the hotel we gathered people together as I really wanted to have all my characters out at the same time again. Thanks to Sithy as Tyler, Rotarr as Dog and Yotie as Baseball that was possible again! Ekorren and Okill were spotting and taking photos. The group of critters was roaming around in the hotel lobby a bit, then went out across the street for some nice group shots and - of course - collecting money for charity.
After all the photos, we all took a break in the fursuit lounge and then went back to my room. Thanks to everyone for helping me out with that again! The rest of the day we mostly spent in the improvised Artist Lounge. The hotel was nice enough to let us use the room that was the former Dealers Den. There were a lot of people there and it was nice and relaxing!
Since there was no time to get dinner, I got some more instant noodles from the hotel room and we ate at the Artist Lounge while chatting with Masada a bit and encouraging him to draw. At one point I went downstairs to check out the Dead Dog Party and get some beer. I met Pinky who told me the good news of the charity sum being over 17.000€ with still even more money coming in. At the Dead dog party downstairs all hell broke lose (in a good way) when ace started DJing. He chose the most awesome 90s party music possible and people started going crazy. I can easily say that this was the BEST DEAD DOG PARTY EVER. I hardly ever saw so many people in such a good mood in one place, this was definitely the highlight of the con! I couldn't let Baseball miss out on this. Actually, Baseball's original name was "Party Bat", because he loves to party! Once Baseball was down in the lobby, he immediately was bound to the dance floor as there was no other option with such nice music. Baseball danced with everyone, including the ever-cute Mulder. It was extremely hard to not-dance considering the amazing mood everyone was in. I could try really hard to describe the positive atmosphere at that party, but you will just have to find out yourself sometime. Also, the ever-fabulous Jym drew Baseball some amazing gift art! At one point, Henrieke was also done in the Artist Lounge and Titash wanted to create a Tritash Paradox, so we went to the room and somehow managed to get Titash, Titash and Titash together. Titash, Baseball and Titash went to the lounge again, roaming around a bit. Baseball danced a bit more with Lisa and Wolfy-Nail and after about half an hour it was time to stop suiting. Back on the room we heard the most amazing rendition of "Take on me", sung by about 200 drunk Furries, beautiful!
Henrieke and I went back to the Party once more, saying good-bye to most people as we wouldn't have much time the next day. At around 2:30 we finally made it to bed. Honestly I could have partied all night, but sadly I had quite a drive ahead of me and we also didn't pack anything yet.
Monday morning is definitely always the worst at EF. We always try (and fail) to start packing early, so under a lot of time pressure, we managed to somehow stuff everything into Ikea bags before 12, dumping everything in the lobby where Ekorren and Titash waited and got the car from our parking spot that was a 10-minute walk but free of charge.
Since this was the last year in Magdeburg and we so far failed to go to the Zoo (not counting the suit outing on Wednesday), we decided to spend a few hours at the Zoo this time. Ekorren and Atkelar also joined us, which was really nice as Monday usually is a very sad day. This time we managed to do something really nice for once! We still got discount at the Zoo with our EF badges, and due to the meerkats being right at the entrance we spent quite a while there.
The rest of the zoo was really nice too, after a short break to have some lunch there we saw some asiatic lion cubs, adorable!
Also we saw kangaroos and best of all, lemurs. They only had three ring-tailed lemurs but the great exhibit made up for it. They were very curious about Titash and started poking and grooming him, which enabled us to take some really nice photos.
At 16:00, it was time to leave. We stayed much longer than planned but it was definitely worth it! We just quickly filled up the tank at 1.37€/l and got some drinks, then dropped off Ekorren and Atkelar at the Maritim again, waving one last sad good-bye to the amazing hotel that was home to this great convention for the past 4 years. The drive was luckily nice this time with perfect weather and hardly any speed limits, making it a perfect chance to play some DnB in the car. We took a few breaks and once lied down a bit in the sun on the beach towel I brought and enjoyed the evening sun. Around 10, we arrived at Henrieke's house, had a warm welcome by her parents and Nana, ate some lasagna and went to bed.
This concludes my EF report for this year! It was a blast as always! Thanks to everyone who is involved in making this happen every year and thanks to all the nice people we got to hang out with
