Furmeet GDL + Megaplex GoH

ENGLISH

 (Versión en Español: http://fav.me/dbju45k ) 

While many furs were in Orlando, Florida, enjoying Megaplex, and others were at home, enjoying their contemplative life; In Guadalajara, Jalisco was held the annual Furmeet, which since 2008 has been held as a large meeting of furries in Mexico, a whole weekend full of different activities. Many members of the community who don't live in Guadalajara or the metropolitan area have traveled year after year to enjoy these moments, whether staying in hotels or sharing homes along with other furries.

It has always been something very beautiful event, where they also sell t-shirts as souvenirs of the event. Many guys have t-shirts from all the editions.

In 2011 it was the first edition where fursuiters participated in the event (before that year, here were not a single fursuit in Guadalajara, and barely were in Mexico), and since 2012, special activities for fursuiters began to be included.

The average number of attendees per year didn't exceed 70 people.

A special edition was planned for 2017, where the activities would be carried out in a closed space with a stage, with capacity for approximately 80 to 100 people, and there could be different activities with or without fursuits. The planning (in which I was not involved, due to lack of time I couldn’t join as a staff or organizer) began to grow in ideas, and as soon as the event had more activities, more it looked like what a small convention had to have: dance competition, artists alley, panels, workshops, fursuit parade, art gallery ….

These activities began to attract much more people from all parts of the country, and to local furries that hadn’t attended previously to any other event. Around 100 people registered online, and the event had exactly 170 attendees!!! Which 32 were fursuiters.

They are very small numbers, compared to events and conventions that have happened in United States and other parts of the world, but it is a first big step for this year in terms of events in Mexico.

 And not only because of the number of people who attended (which turned out to be more than twice what was expected), but the quality of the event, it was incredibly fun, I could see many smiles, a lot of joy, everyone having a good time, many PCDs after the event…; I’m very happy to know that such great events already begin to emerge in my country. 

On Friday I had a table in the artists alley, I didn’t have as much success in sales as I have had at conventions in North America, even though prices were much lower. But still I had a good time, greeting familiar faces, meeting people who placed me and who were more nervous than me at the time of saying hi. And on that day I gave a panel about drawing, which was a room full of people listening to me, there were even people standing. Thank you very much for all the support. And that night our podcast was much more interesting than it usually is (ah yeah, I run a podcast with two friends, Koidel and Apolo, but it is in Spanish). We had Cross with us (one of the members of Gab Shiba) and Ibrahim (better known as Khazoo), besides being the first time that Apolo, Koidel and me, we were together in the same room. If you want to listen to the full podcast, you can do it from this youtube link (Spanish only, sorry!!):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iz5dnTyZeMI

On Saturday I didn’t want to have a table in the artists alley, instead I spent most of my time in fursuit, playing with other attendees, with other fursuits, participating in the fursuit parade (in which we only had 30 fursuits), and participated in the improvised dance competition, which I won’t watch again because makes me very embarrassed >///< obviously I didn’t win, this panda doesn’t know how to dance!

On Sunday the event took place in Spaceland, a park of trampolines, skates, laser wars, and so on … event completely fursuit friendly, and we had a blast. I’ve never been so tired !!

If you want to see some photos of the Furmeet GDL event:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/gik9nfftdh546cf/AADl8LjQr_G92QN4-LGsOUgSa?dl=0

The event for next year, Furmeet GDL 2018, is getting planned now, and now as a convention from the beginning, so start packing and be ready to travel to Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. That 2018 will be the tenth anniversary of Vidafur (the group of furries from Guadalajara, that has been dedicated to organize all these events during these last 10 years), and it will be great!!!

I will ensure that the dates are not met with Megaplex 2018, which will be from August 3rd to 5th. Well, since a few months ago I had been given a piece of news that made me very nervous and very happy. It turns out that this panda will be a guest of honor. Which makes me blush a lot !! >////<
I finally can tell it because now is announced publicly!!

Another guest of honor for next year will be NIIC, the singing dog (congratulations!!). To know a little background of both guests, check the website:

https://megaplexcon.org/guests

It is the first time in a convention I am asked to be a guest of honor, I can’t be more excited!! This is the result of 9 years of absurd and silly work doing drawings and illustrations to the furry fandom.
So … in addition to planning the GDL Furmeet, also plan to go to Megaplex 2018 to accompany the nerves of this panda!!

To have more information on both events:

Furmeet: http://vidafur.com/

Megaplex: https://megaplexcon.org/