9/14/26 fm '26
Over this weekend I spent almost all my time at Furry Migration 2026! If you're not familiar, it's a large furry convention in the USA midwest. This year there was around 3,000 attendees. Lots of people travel from all over the US to attend!
A common area of the convention floor
It's my first time at a furry convention, and it was an absolute blast!! All the people I met where nice, there were cool events, and the dealers den (the area where artists are selling their stuff) was large and had lots of cool stuff. But what really made it awesome was my new friends
Niten/xenia (her fursona's name)
and her sister. At the last con I went to I briefly met them and her sister when I stopped to take a picture of them in her fursuit (and I featured them in a
previous blog post
).
I went to this convention alone and I sort of just walked around aimlessly for the first 15 minutes not sure what to do. I was watching fursuiters come in go into the event over the edge of a catwalk in the hotel when I turned around and saw Niten walking by with her sister. I stopped them to say hi and told them I just got there and didn't know what to do yet. She invited me to tag along with them within about 60 seconds of talking (which is incredibly generous, I'm pretty sure she didn't even know my real name before offering). I happily accepted and I got to experience the whole event with them both!
The dealers den
The first thing we did was a walk-around of the dealers den. I didn't get many pictures of it this time around because of how crowded it was. It was hard to get a good shot in, especially with the 50mm lens I brought (the field of view with this lens is too narrow for taking pictures of close subjects). I was also just having such a good time that I took a lot less photos than usual. Here's a photo dump of the images I did get in the dealers den:
This is a rather high end fursuit maker selling their premades
Most of the stands where selling stickers and prints of their art. All the artists built their stands upwards to accommodate all their products
This person was selling a book that he published! I purchased a copy. I haven't read any of it yet, but I believe it's about birds taking over the world after humans are gone. I get the impression that it might have some similarities to the warrior cats book series perhaps
This is another (more affordable) fursuit maker with a few premades on display. The shopkeeper told us the skunk suit (second to the right) was already sold but still on display. They said someone at the convention who had a skunk fursona really wanted that specific suit but couldn't afford it, so their friend purchased it for them without their knowledge. After the event it was to be gifted to their friend.
The green meetup
Green is sort of a less common of a color for fursuits, so a few of the attendees decided to have a green suit meetup & group photo. We went with Xenia to the meetup:
The arcade
The event had a large arcade full of both classic and current games + consoles. Incredibly they even had a Nintendo Virtual Boy which I got to play mario tennis on:
We also played some ddr, rock revolution, taiko, smash, and crazy taxi!
Niten and another person we met playing DDR
My favorite fursuit
I got the chance to photograph a lot of cool fursuiters! My favorite one though was this one who's fursona goes by "puppet":
At first I thought their sona was inspired by
Uzi Doorman
which is what drew me in, but they said that they've actually had this fursona for over 10 years. I could tell they must be used to having their picture taken because the pose the struck for the camera was really cool without me giving any instruction. I love how well their clothing style compliments their head and paws. It really adds a lot of character. My favorite small detail (which I didn't notice until later) was that one claw on each paw is purple colored.
What I learned about furry culture
Previous to this I never had much exposure to the furry community, so I learned a lot! One thing that really surprised me was that many furries had stickers of their fursona that they would give away to people who talked to them. I was also surprised by just how inviting and friendly furries tended to be. Nerd conventions tend to have people who are more inviting than usual, but this was unlike anything I had ever experienced before. I found myself talking to people who I normally wouldn't approach if I saw them without a suit on, and they were all great people who I'm glad I had the opportunity to speak with. Fursuits give everyone a second persona that isn't linked to your body's physical attributes, and you get more control over your presentation. It's like having an internet profile. You never quite know what someone looks like under their fursuit until they take their head off. It brings about unlikely connections, which I think is really beautiful. Conventionally attractive and unattractive people intermingle in a way that you don't usually see, all brought together by their love of building their fun, wacky, cute, or cool animal based personas.
The concert
A group representing VGM Con (Video Game Music Convention) did a performance of various popular songs from video games. The music they played was really beautiful, some of it nearly made me cry. Live performances are beautiful, it makes me feel really connected with the artist and their music. There's a recording of the performance on youtube if you're curious!
https://youtu.be/X6qm7YnQs40?is=bEc0tnHMorZdkmgN
Their advertisement for VGM worked on me. I'm definitely going to attend next time it happens.
The haul I took home
This is all the stuff I took home in one photo! Most of the stickers I got from furries I met, a lot of which have their own little stories. The headband ears on the left I took home for my partner, I got a thermos with a cute wood carving with a strainer inside for loose-leaf tea, and I got some tea to go along with it. I got myself some ears that I thought looked sort of like great horned owl ears, but I lost them within just a few hours so that didn't make it home ðŸ˜
The dance / conclusion
Finally, one of my favorite parts was the dance. It started as a "furry prom", and slowly transitioned into a rave. At first it felt weird to dance out in the open, I've only ever done organized dances where there's a set of steps to follow. I've never been to an open dance or rave where you just move however you want. Having a friend there who was dancing alongside me helped a lot though, and eventually I got comfortable enough to start dancing like I would when I'm alone.
Whenever I started to feel nervous or weird, I'd look over to my friends who where also dancing and it would wash my self consciousness away. It was genuinely so much fun.
When we were leaving the rave I was smiling ear to ear and tearing up because of how great of a day was ending and because I never envisioned myself being able to enjoy a rave. I thought that my anxiety and sensory issues would always prevent me from ever being able to truly enjoy something like that.
from left to right: Niten's sister, me, and Niten
As me and Niten talked I learned that we both had similar experiences with anxiety and other life struggles. It felt really comforting to have someone else who's experienced these things in a way so similar to myself, I've never really had that before.
Niten and her sister where both so welcoming, kind, and fun, it really made my weekend one of the best I've ever had. The feeling of joy followed me all the way home and I couldn't stop rewinding the weekend in my head as I went to bed. I'm so thankful that chance brought me such a wonderful weekend with such great people. It was really meaningful to me.
Before this event I was too nervous to call myself a furry because of social pressure and worries about what kind of people where in the community, but after such a great experience I can't help but be proud to call myself a furry.
Believe it or not, I have more to say and show. I might do a small update later or publish more photos in my gallery :)