Eurofurence Report + Birthday

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Hello guys & gals! :D

I am back from Eurofurence!!! Well, I've been back since Sunday but I was SO exhausted, I couldn't find the time or energy to write anything up until now x3

But first off: A BIG THANK YOU TO ALL WHO CONGRATULATED me on my birthday!!! There were SO many messages *_* I couldn't really reply to every single one so I'm putting all my love in this journal to say THANK YOUUUU!!! You're all so lovely and nice :heart::aww:
A special thanks to SolinaBright for this gift <da:thumb id="478347537"/>  and to Teliko-Pardus for extending my premium membership! <3 You guys are too nice!

Okay, now for the convention report! This is gonna be a loooong one :>

Back in March, I think, after much talk about it with both PanHesekielShiroi and c-t-elder they both somehow convinced me to register for Eurofurence and also get a table at the Dealer's Den there. I had always wanted to go to EF but every year something else interfered with it, but this time it somehow all worked out!
This was my first EF, my first European convention, my first time attending as an artist and my first con in over 7 years, having been to Anthrocon in 2007. So I don't really need to tell you just how nervous I was before all of this xD  
Having a table at Dealer's Den and some panel space at the Art Show, I had little to no idea what I was getting into, but both Pan and Changer were eternally patient with my barrage of questions *_* Thank you guys so much!

I also convinced RedbuzzarddArt to come with me to EF so I wouldn't be alone in the hotel. Obviously, at the time of my registration, the convention hotel (the Estrel in Berlin, biggest convention hotel in Europe) was already all booked out =/ So I found a small but cheap hotel about 15minutes by bus from the Estrel, the closest I could really find, and booked that for the both of us.
However, as murphy's law dictates, things went wrong at every corner and Nadia had to back out, leaving me at the motel alone which would've meant I had to walk through Berlin Neukölln alone at night and in the morning... Buuut, luck in disguise, I put up a post on the EF forums looking for someone who still had no room mate at the Estrel and lucked out! A nice czech guy was willing to share his room. I got to know him a little bit to make sure it's not some kind of creep (which he totally wasn't) and then agreed to his offer. I got SO incredibly lucky since this was less than a month before the con would start xD 
Even in transportation I got very lucky! I found two people who would take me to the hotel and back respectively, directly from my home. I didn't have to worry about hauling my luggage all over town... so thanks a lot to Wahya (FA: wahyarhiadra) and FuranIrcas for that! :3

This theme of nice people helping me out selflessly is something that stretches throughout the whole convention, actually, but more on that later.
I arrived at the hotel last Tuesday, instantly ran into my room mate and got our rooms figured out. No standing in a long line at the reception or anything... I also stayed on the first floor of the main wing, so I had very short ways to all important locations :D Though the view wasn't very spectacular x3
After getting situated at the room and getting to know the area around the hotel a little, buying some food and drink, I had a lot of time to kill until 5pm the next day when I would pick up Changer and Sigmar from the station. So I went to the hotel lobby, where most of the early arrivals seemed to be hanging out, and just sat on one of the comfortable couches with my sketchbook and pencils. It was interesting, just watching people for a while, though I was a little sad that so many seemed to know each other while I knew no one there xD I made it my mission to actually get to know some people. I'm usually fairly shy when it comes to talking to strangers but it was surprisingly easy at EF! People were so incredibly open and welcoming. I just had to say it was my first EF and I didn't know anyone, and they would welcome me into their circle, talk to me and introduce me to other people. I'm tearing up just thinking about all the nice people I got to know that day and the next ;_;  One of them brought me a big piece of cinnamon cake only a day after we met. <3 I also got my first badge commission on the first evening *happy dance*.

After picking up Changer from the station, we went for dinner at a Western restaurant a little ways outside Berlin, right next to a lake. It was really lovely and they all shared some fun convention stories. We got back and still had to set up all our work a the art show. Changer had helped me out by getting my business cards and my one art show piece (the mountain sage) printed on canvas in time for the con, since I ran into some big time issues in the end >_>; So another big thanks for that and for sharing your panel space with me! <3 

The next day, Thursday, was the start of the Dealer's Den! I ended up setting up my table between Changer and Qzurr (FA) and feeling woefully unprepared when I looked at all the stuff they offered and all the beautiful decoration/setups the other artists had ;_; I only ended up having some bookmarks (that I made myself, painstakingly cutting out, laminating and cutting out again... so. much. pain.) and just a few prints to sell. And AGAIN Changer was a huge help by offering to print out my stuff on demand with the printer they brought with them *_* <3 
But even though I felt super inferior, unprepared and amateur at the Dealer's Den, the first day went pretty well for me and I was really surprised by that. I got several sketch commissions and some linearts and badges, people showed some real interest in my stuff and talked to me and were in general just very very lovely!
I can't stress this enough! I felt so at home in a huge group of basically complete strangers, it felt almost unreal. They kept bringing me food, I got lots of little gifts and gestures pretty much every day!
I also bought a few things, like some really cute earrings by Olven and a super cute snow leopard plushie (how could I resist!).
The evenings I spent either at one of the so called Artist Lounges that were set up for people to draw, chat and have fun in the evenings, or with Qzurr, ShinigamiGirl, DarkNatasha and more people on their rooms, finishing up sketch commissions from the day :D 

After the last day of Dealer's Den (Saturday) I went up to a room party of about 12 people, we ordered food, sketched and watched at least part of the famous Pawpet Show broadcasted on the special EF tv channel. It ended up starting so late though, that we all left after the first act. I ended up at the hotel bar with Qzurr, RK and VlenPuppeh, later joined by Erilo and ShinigamiGirl, drinking absolutely delicious cocktails and just having some fun... I became a witness to the totally unexpected and super sweet proposal of Erilo to Shinnie. And then we celebrated some more xD 
I had to leave at some point to finish yet more sketches, I think I ended up falling into bed at around 4:30am? Which wouldn't be such an unusual time for me if I hadn't been getting up at 8:30am every morning to join the others at the delicious breakfast buffet of the Estrel.

Speaking of the Estrel, what a perfect hotel for convention this turned out to be! They were extremely well organized and really the only problems we had were the elevators which were constantly being stress-tested (per EF tradition, as I was told, there was a twitter account set up for the "estrelavator" xD). On the day of my arrival the hotel staff looked a little worried and bewildered at what was going on. No matter how prepared they were, they had no real idea what was coming! xD But over the next few days you could see them visibly warming up to all the furries and fursuiters. They embraced the convention and some of the waiters even ended up wearing fursuits at work! Even the reception staff was wearing animal ears on Sunday, too. I was SO happy to just see them be so open and friendly instead of scoffing and wrinkling noses at the "weirdos". It was heart-warming! ;^;

I'm sure there are SO many things I forgot in this "little report". If I'm sad about anything, it would be that I didn't take the time to go to some of the panels, but I ended up being so busy at my table the whole time x3

Suffice to say: All in all, this was the best first EF experience I could've had! I am most definitely coming back next year and I'm also looking into more conventions to go to in the future! 83

If you got to the end of this journal, thank you very much for reading! ^_^ I just had to share what a great experience I've had, especially with the general apprehensiveness one encounters when talking about furry conventions.

© 2014 - 2024 DeyVarah
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RUMI0's avatar
ah it seems you got very lucky, hope that I can have some luck this year ;u;