Question about happenings at the cons....

Who in the world said there was "a lot of sex, porn, alcohol, weirdness, and debauchery" ? Your "one friend" is truly misinformed and sounds like one that likes to make stuff up. AC is a very family friendly oriented convention. Check out some of the YouTube videos on it, look up Big Blue Fox's videos (he has a website that hosts some) to get a general idea. Only thing that happens at night is the dancing, and even then that's well controlled and never gets out of hand, from what I've seen and heard.

Check out the side menu for answering your questions about some con-related stuff. Believe me, this is a wonderful thing to be involved in, and a lot of other people will back me up on it. You have nothing to worry about. And, tell that one friend of yours to do some actual research.

Public areas of the convention have a PG-rating.

I'd like to refer you to our Standards of Conduct which cover behavior at the convention.

Your parents, should they decide to attend, will be in good company at the con. The Chairman's parents have attended every year since 1999. My parents have attended in past years and will be attending again this year.

 
--
My LiveJournal - My Website - My MySpace

Let's cover these five.

sex: It can and does happen at the convention.. in hotel rooms, between consenting adults. But that happens at every convention of every sort. For Anthrocon, it certainly does not happen in public areas, where there are limits on PDA (Personal Displays of Affection).
porn: A portion of the art drawn is adult in nature. It's usually easy to avoid those, thanks to most artist having 'General' and 'adult' printbooks, and adult art is 'stickered over' or otherwise limited from casual view. There is also the adult art show, which is sectioned seperately from the regular art show. You have to make the effort to see porn.
alcohol: People over the age of 21 do consume this substance, but people don't wander the halls staggering around drunkedly. Unless they are the chairm- I mean, nobody does. Seriously, the convention is fairly tame, and even Sunday night- the traditionally 'drinking' night.. is usually mild as things go.
weirdness: Well, we got that. This is a crowd of folks who are a bit unusual, though it is overwhelmingly people whom are good, polite, kind, and will be understanding of the opinions of others. Your parents might have some moments of feelign slightly uncomfortable, or having jumped off the deep end.. but they'll also see a good, supportive group of people for you to be in.
debauchery: See above about 'occurs in hotel rooms'. We work hard to keep the public areas bauched, and de-bauching is for private areas.

--Chiaroscuro

Here's my take on all this.

What you will see is a certain amount of SILLINESS, almost all of it
animal-based. Once you get used to some people in fursuits and others
wearing ears and a tail, that's about it. (IMHO, the ears-tail thing is sillier
than a complete suit, since one is a full costume and one isn't, but even if
I'm right, WHO CARES?) That's all over the place.

WEIRDNESS is a matter of opinion. It's no more weird than any other type of
hobby convention I've attended-and I've attended a variety.

Alcohol? It can be found in certain rooms, in certain room parties, or in the
bars in the neighborhood. It can NOT be found in open containers roaming the
convention in the hands of conventioneers. Drunk/disorderly conventioneers are
handled efficiently and quickly by the Dorsai, and are a quick way to be thrown
out of the con and not invited back. (I don't know if they'd ban someone forever
for that, but it's my suspicion they would, if the person was being unruly.)
Don't want to see alcohol? Avoid local bars, and be slow to accept invites to
any room parties.

Porn? There's a mature art auction, and the area to view the art for auction is
screened off. (I don't know what it looks like in there, but it's got art on
display, obviously.) Some artists draw "mature" art, and that's all hidden
away or the art is partly covered, or both. AC staff enforces that. Anything bought
that's "adult" is not allowed in public areas.

Sex? I suppose some people are getting it on in their rooms. However, they're NOT
having sex-or explicit activities-anywhere in the convention areas. They'd have
to break it up and "get a room!" if it's even questionable. (I saw security break
something up fast a few years back, and it was only questionable.)

AnthroCon is FAMILY-FRIENDLY. The chairman's parents attend each year, and my parents
are welcome to attend (although I'd be surprised to see them attend, I've extended
the invite, and I'd help them plan their trip if they DID attend.)

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Whoever was telling you otherwise was either hallucinating, or a dirty liar.

=====
I'm crossposting this again.
First, here's what one person said about a similar convention (FurFright),
which they attended, HOPING to find sex and debauchery to report on...
http://www.hartfordadvocate.com/article.cfm?aid=3873

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Mark Evanier was a 2007 Guest of Honor at AnthroCon 2007.
He's NOT a furry. His first exposure to furry was AT THE CONVENTION.
He's worked on comic books, cartoons, television programs, and movies.
Here's what he said:
http://www.newsfromme.com/archives/2007_07_02.html#013668

http://www.newsfromme.com/archives/2007_07_05.html#013678

http://www.newsfromme.com/archives/2007_07_07.html#013681

http://www.newsfromme.com/archives/2007_07_08.html#013689

So, that was an outsider's report on his experiences at AC'07.

Yeah. What they said, basically. Sex and alcohol and debauchery happen, i'm sure--what do you expect from a bunch of young adults?--but it says something that i've attended 3 times and haven't ever seen any evidence of it.

Mature art is around, but sequestered enough that you have to put in the effort and be of age to see it. It's not an all over the place, practically-shoved-up-your-nose kind of thing.

Also, a few events i've particularly enjoyed in past years that you could take your parents to without fear:

--Kage's and 2's comedic routines. 2 swears a fair amount, but that's about the limit of it, and both have a real gift for storytelling.
--the Funday Pawpet show. It's a webcast puppet show with lip synching, dancing ferrets, and games of "Win Nothing and Like It". It's not always there, but the times when it's broadcast from AC, i've had a great time.
--Furry improv. No, that's not improv in fursuits. Think "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" with furry-themed games.
--The dances. OK, so your parents would probably not want to come--too loud, too dark, too late. But it's still fun, between furs showing off with lights and furs just dancing and having a good time.
--The art show. Every year, i see work there that just stuns me with its quality. We have some very talented attendees.
--Anthropoly. Anthrocon's game show. Not so much trivia, as furs trying to fill in the blank in a wisecrack with the funniest word(s) they can think of. And they can think of a lot, believe me.
--Furry spirituality forum. Not a religious thing, if that's what you're thinking--more a chance for furs to get together and talk deeply about what it's like to live your life furry and how to deal with that in the mundane world. Again, it doesn't happen every year, but when it has happened, it has been a really wonderful deep discussion.

Just a few suggestions.

When I attended last year (for the first time) I made my boyfriend (who had attended 2-3 times previously) tell me all about what would happen.

I believe his comment was 'A lot of silliness and a lot of friendliness'. I'd heard rumors before I was ever involved in the fandom...but I went in expecting to have a blast and it be completely appropriate for the public.

Anthrocon did not disappoint. It was beyond fun, and safe, and wonderful. Friendly does not begin to cover the atmosphere of this con. Between security being awesome and the chairman being so active and everywhere--the con is a family experience.

My parents haven't been informed about the "furry thing", but when they are...I hope they'll come to AC with me so they can learn the true side of all this, rather than the media-touched side.

...and I apologize for rambling...

“O tiger's heart wrapped in a woman's hide!”
....Shakespeare really knew what he was talking about sometimes....

Hazel,

The con staff endeavors to make Anthrocon a fun, safe, fun, memorable, FUN experience. Oh, did I mention fun?

Seriously, the weekend will be filled with lots of things to do. This year alone, we will have Floyd Norman, one of Disney's legendary animators, present to discuss animation, stories, and all kinds of things with our attendees. How cool is that? If you want to talk about things like the "Jungle Book"...he's the man to talk to since he helped animate it. In 2007, Rob Paulsen (the voice actor of Yakko Warner and Pinky from "Pinky and the Brain" was hanging around with us. (He even surprised me by walking up to my table and joining me for breakfast one morning.)

If you like seeing and interacting with fursuits...you'll get your fill. There were over 350 fursuits in the parade and countless others that appeared throughout the weekend. There will be puppet performances, stand-up comedy performances, dances, videogames, writing panels, discussions about your favorite animals....there's so much that I can't even list it all!

And if you want to draw with some really good and creative artists...then drop by Artist Alley or the Zoo. I think you'll be really surprised by how amazing some of the artists there will be. (And you can commission them for badges and drawings too!)

I think one of my good friends said something that really hit the nail on the head. He said that going to Anthrocon was like entering a small furry city. There's a real sense of community and friendship that you feel there. People that have been active in the furry fandom for 10 or more years are there walking and talking to folks who are just discovering our "little" group. You'll meet many new people and take home a lot of great memories. Anthrocon 1998 was my very first furry convention. I've never missed an AC since. And I'm looking forward to AC2008. It just keeps getting better and better.

Hope to see you there!

KP
Programming Director

I do believe my comment isn't needed, but I love to here myself talk (or watch myself type) so take it from someone whose first con was at age 13. It WILL weird your parents out. Have fun. There's censors.