Theme: Aviators - Conquer the Sky!
Location: Estrel Berlin
Yotie, Henrieke and I left Veldhoven at about 9:30 to head to Berlin.
Luckily we didn't get into traffic at any point. When we stopped at a McDonalds, we met Vinnie, Kiguren, Dice and Kzarren. Turns out they followed us on Glympse. Just like last year, there was a Glympse group for EF again where everone could share their location during their journey to Berlin.
We arrived at the hotel at 17:00 and said hi to Atkelar. The lobby was already full of people, and the con wouldn't start for another 48 hours. Wow. The first night Yotie, Henrieke and I roomed together since I got us a separate, cheaper booking for that night. The hotel was smart enough to give us the same room that we would have during the con already.
After dumping our things on the room, we met CooperTom, his friend SaiBree, BBF, Kwisa and Yamavu in the lobby. Then we went to Edeka to stock up on some food and drinks, and some breakfast. Outside we also ran into Lisa and Scary. Back at the hotel I took the chance to go to the steam sauna with Yotie and Yamavu. Henrieke got her badge in the meanwhile. After that I went to ConOps to see how things are going. I talked a bit with NewEinstein and looked whether all the charity things were in order together with Yamavu. I went to staff registration, which took quite a bit since everyone else seemed to have the same idea. I met Itchigo, Sambers, Dibs and JakeR and had the chance to chat a bit with Luno. When I got my badge, I went to the hotel desk to pick up many boxes of stuff I got delivered to the hotel, mostly print jobs for charity. On our room, Henrieke started putting the charity pins on the little cards we got printed for them to get them ready for selling at the booth. Niminy joined and helped out with that.
Went to bed at 1:00 after taking care of a dumb allergy headache.
We got up at 9:00 and had some breakfast on the room since our booking for the first night didn't include the delicious hotel breakfast. After that, Henrieke had a long phone interview for some magazine. I went to check us in for our regular booking and helped Yotie move his stuff to his room in wing 4, which was a bit of a letdown, since he upgraded the room category from last year but ended up with a worse room. I went to ConOps to sort through charity supplies, then went back to the room to see if Henrieke was done. We went back down again to take care of charity things. We grabbed some wiener sausages at the staff buffet at 15:00, then I set up the charity booth together with Sniffer, Itchigo, SenGrisane, Loxy, Yamavu and Shorty. Henrieke worked on a Bommel comic on the room in the meanwhile.
Just when we finished setting up the booth, Shay arrived. He was the charity director this year. I quickly showed him around where everything was. I ran into Cody, Keenora and Huscai on the way to the room, then took a short break and set up the charity video player (A Raspberry Pi running a script from adafruit that loops videos from a USB stick). It played a collection of mostly lemur videos and would be later placed at the charity booth, connected to a big flatscreen TV. Mag joined later and we ended up watching some YouTube Poop. I had a quick bite at staff buffet with Henrieke and Yotie, then chatted a bit with Rotarr and checked out how art show setup was going, specifically the small charity part. Henrieke went back to the room after that, I wandered around a bit in the lobby and talked Ace and Noodles into attending Brabants Stripspektakel the weekend after EF. Henrieke had to work on a Bommel comic for the upcoming Stripglossy, so I figured this would be a good time to unleash wingy Baseball with the giant unpractical wings. Baseball flapped around in the lobby for a bit and was pulled aside by a medic, not for a medical emergency but because they were doing a photoshoot with every suiter they could find. After that, at 22:30, I went to Yotie's room and we played some Korg Gadget, hoping that other people would join. That didn't happen, so we went downstairs.
We sat a bit with Mag and Jym, and I ran into shorty who was nice enough to bring a bunch of stuff to EF that I ordered. I picked my things up from his room, and back in the lobby I ran into Kamuniak and Ethan. We talked a bit, then I went up to the room to find that Henrieke was still working on the comic. Went to bed at 1:30
We had breakfast at 10:00 with Mag and Henrieke went back to work on her comic. I set up the charity video player and found that there was no power at the charity booth, so I contacted everyone I could think of to figure out a solution. We also had a charity meeting in the presidential suite this morning.
Mag sat in the Artist Alley, and since there was a little bit of space, I got Baseball to join him. Baseball did 5 commissions with his giant pencil and then flapped back to the room again.
I went back to the Artist Alley with some of the things we had with us for selling and sold 2 patches of Henrieke. Then I had to arrange a taxi to pick up Eden from the airport. She is a lemur researcher and one of our four people representing our charity at Eurofurence. The hotel concierge told me it would cost a ridiculous 80€ to pick her up, even after asking for referring me to a cheap taxi. So I did it myself and called the first airport cab company I found which cost a more reasonable 30€. I watched the opening ceremony on the room with Henrieke, then we picked up Eden from the hotel entrance and arranged the room for her. We let her settle down a bit and went do ConOps to print some signs for the art show. We ran into Lance on the way, always a nice surprise! After Eden unpacked a bit, we gave her a little tour of the convention, also showing her one of the many dances at EF. They played great cheesy 90s music!
After that we all went to Yotie's room, playing some Mario Kart until Iris, Jelco and Niels arrived. They were 3 lemur researchers from the Netherlands, also representing our charity. They have never seen a furry convention before, so it was funny to look at their faces once they walked on the lobby where even at midnight a lot of animals walked around. We got them checked in, gave them their badges that I arranged earlier and met up with them again after they settled on their rooms to also give them a quick tour of the charity booth, ConOps and the staff buffet.
They went to bed after their long journey, I stayed in the lobby a little longer, chatting with O'Wolf about the adventures of the press team accomodating Hella von Sinnen, a famous german comedian who decided to check out Eurofurence. I went to bed at 1:45.
We had a breakfast with most of the charity team and the charity representatives at 9:00 so we could introduce everyone. After that I went with Jelco to his room, picked up supplies they brought and set up the booth.
I made sure Iris knew where the room is where she held her first panel and then tried arranging a pinboard to hang up educational posters about lemurs. The hotel wanted to charge us 35€ per day for a simple pinboard, luckily ConOps came to the rescue and supplied one they had in storage. At this EF, for the first time, I organized a fursuit maker mingle. The first time I saw an event like this was at Further Confusion, and I loved it. It is basically just a little social for fursuit makers to talk about building suits and bring creations and material samples.
I think about 30-40 people showed up, including Lance, Tioh, Yamavu and Luno, who all brought interesting things to see. We talked for quite a while and I got a good look at Luno's fully 3d-printed fursuit head, very interesting! I brought Baseball's big-winged bodysuit for anyone interested in building unpractical giant wings as well as a collection of foam samples. After that it was time for the fursuit parade. I quickly went to the room and got Baseball with his big wings. Baseball just made it to the group photo, then the parade started right after. Baseball met his good friends Mausie and Eddie there, always a nice surprise.
After flapping through the entire parade and saying hi to the charity people, Baseball exchanged his wings for smaller ones and collected some money for charity until 14:50. I went to look for Henrieke, then we went to the staff buffet for some Leberkäse. (literally translated liver cheese, a type of pressed sausage made of who-knows-what). After that I went to my room to pick up some drinks, then we met up with Mag, Jym, Eden and Yotie on Yotie's room. We watched the dance competition and figured out after a while that adding different music greatly enhances the viewing experience. Ethan joined as well, and after the dance competition ended we all played some Quiplash.
Ethan and Jym left after that and we played a bit of "A fake artist goes to new york", a fun drawing game that Yotie brought. After that we went down to suit a bit. I got out Baseball and Eden got to be Dog. Baseball and Dog went to the dance to look for Iris and Jelco, but they were sadly too late.
In the fursuit lounge, we ran into Yotie, dressed up as Yotie as well as Mag, dressed up as Yotie. I chatted a little bit with Carbine, then Dog and Baseball went back to dance a bit to Djem's great 90s/00s set. Baseball still dropped by the inflatable panel only to find out that his favorite sea dragon was deflated.
, visibly upset by a deflated Sea Dragon](./photos/2018-08-24_001912.jpg)
, holding a pink inflatable kangaroo (designed by Arin)](./photos/2018-08-24_002251.jpg)
He got to check out the less-cute-but-still-cute orange sea dragon and the Kangaroo that Arin recently designed. After giving some hugs to Aphinion, Baseball went back to the room. Henrieke, I and Eden chatted a bit on the room and Yotie dropped by later as well. We went to bed at 2:00.
Got up at 5:00 to take care of a stupid allergy headache. Usually at one point at every EF allergy decided to punch me in the face, and the dry air from the AC makes things worse. After popping in some painkiller, I slept some more and went to breakfast at 10:20. Henrieke skipped since she had a phone interview scheduled that took really long. I helped setting up the charity booth and carried the giant lemur there. Then I went to Edeka to get some food with Yotie and Mag, also got some breakfast for Henrieke. At 12, Iris had a panel that was the showing of Erik Patel's Lemur movie. I assumed Iris had the file, but she didn't. Good thing I had the file on my Surface, or so I thought. Exactly that file was missing! As usual, the hotel network was way too slow, and after a lot of fiddling around we streamed it over Sniffer's phone from Vimeo. Luckily that worked. After giving Sniffer his phone back, I went to the booth, chatted a bit with Silverfoxwolf and Yamavu, then finally offloaded the groceries I was still carrying to our room. I finally had some time to check out the Dealers Den, lots of nice artists there. I chatted a bit with Lisa, Karakina and Frazzle. Also Doc Rat was there, a furry artist from way back. I grabbed a quick bite at the staff buffet and chatted a bit with Yotie and Kalaallit as well as CleanerWolf, then I went back to the charity booth and took over sales at the charity table for a bit with Eden. Henrieke, Iris and Jelco went to the Dealers Den, and I did an art trade with Eden in the meanwhile. After that it was time for the second movie panel. While this time the movie was there, the audio cable was gone. As it turns out, there was only one at the whole convention and we were unable to find a replacement, making us rely on the horrible quality of the internal speaker of the beamer. Since I couldn't do any more, I went back to the booth and drew a bit with Yamavu. After the movie Iris returned and Luxen interviewed her for the Daily Eurofurence, EF's very own newspaper. I packed up my things and went to the Lemur Meetup. The attendance was meager and it ended up being a tiny art jam.
I would've stuck around there, but then got a message from Luno, offering me a chance to try out his great kangaroo suit as he had a group photoshoot. I gladly helped out and hopped around as a kangaroo and posed a bit for the photoshoot outside.
2 hours later, it was time for the international snack exchange. We set up our little dutch section, Yamavu covered Austria. I tried all kinds of things, I think my favorite was the dried octopus from Japan!
Eden also brought some Almond M&Ms, the best! The Belgian chocolate was also absolutely delicious. I ended up sitting together with Lance for a while, talking about building roo suits. At around midnight, Henrieke and I decided to get Lindy and Hop out to the dance with Eden. Niels was also on the dance floor, having a great time. They played amazing music, including Eiffel 65! Lindy and Hop leaped around on the dance floor until 1:45. After that Henrieke, I and Eden hung out with Yotie on his room, watching dumb videos until 4:00.
Got up at 10:00 and planned to have breakfast with Eden. She waited so long for her elevator that we presumed she was dead, but eventually she made it after breakfast officially ended already. Luckily we snatched some food for her before. This year marked a record in elevator breakdowns. I helped Loxy with booth setup for a bit after breakfast, then went to the room to get Lindy and Hop. Eden got to be a bat. Lindy and Hop had the job of dragging the giant ring-tailed lemur plush on stage for Uncle Kage to auction it off. It was a success and the lemur went to a new home for 350€, all for charity thanks to Apenheul, who donated the plush. Lindy and Hop almost missed the photoshoot slot due to a delay in the auction, but it all worked out and Baseball made good use of the first 5 minutes of Lindy and Hop's slot. They got some great photos.
TODO ask iris lance luno for pics also vinnie
After the photoshoot Lindy and Hop went through the Dealers Den and sold a lot of pins there while Baseball roamed around in the lobby. Lindy and Hop joined him and also said hi to Iris at the charity booth. After that we were done with suiting. I took a quick shower and went down to accompany Eden at the charity booth, with a short break to grab a salad and a cookie at the staff buffet. Yamavu joined later and I went to take a few Polaroid photos. When Iris and Jelco came back from seeing the charity concert at 16:40 I went to the steam sauna for a bit with Yotie and Mag. After half an hour of steaming we went up tp the room to hang out a bit.
After that it was time for the closing ceremony. We were backstage and watched Shay and Iris announce the preliminary charity result of 25000€ (applause) and that Iris would like to come back and join the dance competition in a fursuit (roaring applause). Since the 3 Dutch lemur researchers had to leave right away, we said our good-byes at the charity booth before the end of the closing ceremony. After that we went to Yotie's room to watch the PawPet Show while eating some takeaway pizza from Portofino. Jym and Mag left early, I went downstairs with Eden to check out Joaquin Baldwin's panel which sadly wasn't what I expected so I didn't stay very long. Since the Big Blue dance started, it was time for Baseball to get down. He dropped by the Artist Lounge first and drew for people, then he went to the dance floor where he met the Belgians. Baseball spent most of the time flapping around between the dance floor, the fursuit lounge and the Artist Lounge. At some point he ran into Mag who took a neat slow-motion video.
Before going back to the room, Baseball drew a quick sketch for Atimos. At 3:00 Henrieke and I went up to Yotie's room, watched some EF Prime and played Mario Kart.
We got up at 10:00 and had breakfast with Mysti and Lance, chatting about fursuit supplies. After that we quickly tore down the charity booth. By 12:30 we were mostly done. Henrieke and Eden hung out on the room and chatted while I went downstairs to take some Polaroids. I sat together with Lance a bit after that and chatted a bit about travelling.
For lunch I met with Henrieke and Eden at the staff buffet, Yotie joined a bit later. In the Artist Lounge I did a trade with Intet. Shortly before 16:00 we set up the charity open table, an event that takes place at the former charity booth location every year. Artists and other people can offer their services or sell things for charity there. In the meanwhile Henrieke let Eden try being a blue-eyed lemur.
Lindy went around collecting money a bit and later also offered commissions at the charity booth, turns out that lemur really knows how to draw! Baseball also joined, advertised the open table in then busy Artist Lounge and offered his fine art at the open table as well. At 18:30 it was enough for Baseball, I went and hung out at the table for a bit after that and helped with packing up at 20:00. We ordered some Sushi after that and I did a trade with Mag while we waited. Up on Yotie's room we had our Sushi with Yotie, Mag and Lance. Ethan as well as the Kiguren, Chiros, Vinnie, Dice and Kzarren joined as well and we played some Jackbox while Henrieke, Yotie, Mag and Lance watched 3 Caballeros in Yotie's other room.
The Belgians left and I also went downstairs to check out the dead dog party, but the music wasn't really my taste.
I packed our stuff on our room a bit and then went back to Yotie's room where I hung out with Henrieke, Eden, Mag and Yotie. Henrieke, Eden and I hung out a bit on our room while packing and we called it a night at 2:30.
We said bye to people and had a great time trying to use the elevators to bring our stuff down. In the end I carried every single item down the stairs and we spent a good while fitting everything into the car.
In the end everything fit and Henrieke, Yotie and I had a nice ride back to Veldhoven. On the way we saw a bunch of furries at every rest stop, even many hours from Berlin.
