# What is Your Worst Convention Experience?



## Frindle (Nov 4, 2017)

Not necessarily exclusively furry conventions, just your worst convention experience in general! I made a journal about this and got some interesting responses, so I'm curious to hear what y'all have to share!


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## Fuzzylumkin (Nov 4, 2017)

lol I definitely want to watch this thread


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## Astus (Nov 6, 2017)

Honestly the only complaints that I have about the conventions I've been to (animenext 3 times and anthrocon twice)

1. The amount of time and money (especially for merchandise) I put into them is astronomical for how much I make working a part time job and going to school, that tends to make the cons less enjoyable knowing I'll have to make up the money and time I'm spending on them especially when it comes to travel 

2. The length of any con I've been to is way too short or so it feels like, before you know it, it's over and you're feeling down that you have to leave 

3. When it comes to panels, I've had moments (especially in the popular ones) where people who admittedly have mental handicaps so I can't really be mad... they start basically yelling out what they think is right and start arguing with other members... an example was at the Zootopia discussion at AC two years ago where two guys got into an argument about God knows what and the people running the panel kept trying to get it back on track but it kept getting sidetracked. 

Those really are 3 bad things I've noticed when it comes to cons really... so far that I've found


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## Exdraghunt (Nov 13, 2017)

I've got a pretty "good" worst con story. Admittedly, at an anime con as opposed to a furry con. Anyway

I was 17 at the time, and therefor needed an "adult" to attend the convention with. This usually fell to a friend of mine who I had gone to this convention with years previous, but she couldn't attend that year and I had to go with some other friends who were 18. 

So we're driving down to the convention (well, we're getting a ride from my mother, none of us high schoolers have a car), when my friend admits that he has not, in fact, booked a hotel room. So we get on the phone and start calling every hotel around trying to find a room we can afford. There is, of course, no more con rate at the con hotels because it's the morning of the convention. 

We finally locate a hotel in our price range (it's a good 15 blocks from the convention center) and go to check in. The hotel won't take cash, so we put it on my mom's credit card and my friend pays her. My mom leaves, we're on our own. 

I am the only person of my friend group who has pre-reg'd for the con. However, being under 18, I cannot pick up my badge until my "adult" has gotten theirs. The line to register at-con is 5 hours long. I am left in the sitting area of the convention center (the only part of the convention center I can access without a badge) for pretty much the entirety of Friday. 

As I finally get my badge, we meet two more people we know, who beg to room with us. As there are already three of us in the room, I say no (because I have room stuffed with these same people before and it was hell. 6 people in the room, and I was the only person who had the foresight to bring a blanket. One of my friends slept in his fursuit on the floor. Never again). 

We make the trek back to our hotel room to get fursuits. One of my friends has a fursuit that I made. (It was not the best, considering I was 17, but it was a decent enough suit.) The suit was 6 months old, this is it's second con. As he pulls it out of his suitcase, I am aghast to see the suit is /wrecked./ He had machine washed the head, causing the paint of the eyes to crack and the moving jaw to go screwy. He had then put the whole suit in the dryer, melting the plastic fibers of the fur. He had also somehow worn all of the fur off of the knees of the suit through to the backing. (I still don't want to know how he did that. It was a good shag fur too, not the cheap stuff) He wants to know if he can borrow my fursuit brush to try and 'fix' his suit. Heck no. I tell him to not tell anyone I made the suit if they ask, not wanting to be associated with this mess. 

Of course, I later went to use my fursuit brush (a common dog brush), only to discover that the brush had been broken and hot glued back together while I wasn't looking. Gee I wonder how that happened. 

That night I decide to go to bed, while my friends go off to the con dance. Unbeknownst to me, they meet some people at the dance and tell them "yeah, sure, you can crash in our hotel room." As I am asleep by the time they return from the dance, I go to experience waking up in the morning with a complete stranger asleep on the bed next to me (in a maid costume). 

Trying to find the con Saturday morning I got lost (15 blocks being a long way for someone who doesn't know the city well), especially since my friends had left without me. Fortunately, I eventually found my way and ended up just taking a taxi the rest of the weekend to avoid it happening again. 

Sunday rolls around. We check out of the room, I leave my stuff behind the counter. My fursuit takes up a whole suitcase by itself, so I have a fair amount of bags. Our plan is to go to closing ceremonies, then catch a bus home. I am anxious about this, because I grew up in a small town and have never ridden public transit before. (It's three buses to get home) 

I rush back to the hotel after closing (my friends don't have to, since they have their stuff with them), then locate the bus stop we agreed to meet at and wrestle all of my bags into place. my friends aren't there. I call them. The response? "Oh, we didn't feel like waiting and took an earlier bus."


I have not spoken to a single one of these people since. Worst con ever.


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## Dox-Tucy (Nov 13, 2017)

To Exdraghunt: ...and you call them "friends"? :/


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## Open_Mind (Nov 13, 2017)

Exdraghunt said:


> I've got a pretty "good" worst con story.


Damn, your right that's a hellava story. Lots of 'lessons learned' there. Thanks for posting!


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## ChromaticRabbit (Nov 13, 2017)

Too embarrassing to discuss, but it was a lesson, and ironically, we look back on it now and it's a bond between us. Even bad experiences can turn into sentimental memories when they are something you and a friend can chuckle over a few bends down the road.


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## Exdraghunt (Nov 13, 2017)

Dox-Tucy said:


> To Exdraghunt: ...and you call them "friends"? :/



I certainly don't call them friends anymore. I actually deleted their contacts on my phone on the bus ride home from that con that very day and haven't spoken to any of them since. 

It's funny to me now, but mostly in an "those absolute idiots" sort of way


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## Dox-Tucy (Nov 13, 2017)

Exdraghunt said:


> I certainly don't call them friends anymore. I actually deleted their contacts on my phone on the bus ride home from that con that very day and haven't spoken to any of them since.
> 
> It's funny to me now, but mostly in an "those absolute idiots" sort of way



so I must to agree now. Well done mate.


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## Fuzzylumkin (Nov 14, 2017)

Only been to one so far... haven't had a worst con experience, lol attempted to catch some tail while at the con and totally shot down, that sucked, lol but otherwise, no good con stories yet


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## ChromaticRabbit (Nov 20, 2017)

Generally, I look back on them all fondly. Because I volunteered for a long time at a big anime con before entering this fandom, and because I have only been to Anthropomorphic/Furry cons as an attending member, I'd have to say the "worst" experiences were volunteering where there was a surprising level of self-directed stress and I discovered just how poorly I held it in those days for reasons. We weren't taking it easy, we really did have amibitions to be the best, and every convention ought to operate in this spirit of excellence.

Plus, there was super-excruciating work at times, the convention center would generally only have the air conditioning running during active attendance hours for the event, so a lot of pre- and post-convention logistics were in sweltering humid conditions. I cane to understand 'dead dog' quite well; I was often too dead to stick around the dead dog con committee/staff party. It wasn't "bad" and I would not exchange having been there trying my best for anything.

I'm basically looking for the right opportunity to get involved somewhere, having seen and participated in it being done well and how those pieces go from planning to final integration at the event, doing it all with completely optimal approaches wherever possible to make the event always hit above its weight and reach for legendary status. It'd be great to find a group that wants to cultivate things in that manner because I feel like I could use a challenge that does some kind of good, it's been a tough year.


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## Simo (Nov 20, 2017)

When I realized that by Sunday, things are very rapidly winding down, after going to my first con, on a Sat and Sunday! 

If I can only make two days/nights, I now make them Friday/Saturday.

Other than that, they've been nothing but fun.


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## Troj (Nov 20, 2017)

I went to a convention that was new at the time, and therefore quite small. I chatted with a fellow on the hotel shuttle, and he took that as a sign that we were best buddies now, and he proceeded to follow me around _everywhere_, chattering incessantly and cracking unfunny jokes. That the con was small made it harder to lose him or drop him off with another group of people, and I wasn't sure how to draw a boundary without just being mean.

Otherwise, my con experiences have been fine.


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## Simo (Nov 20, 2017)

Troj said:


> I went to a convention that was new at the time, and therefore quite small. I chatted with a fellow on the hotel shuttle, and he took that as a sign that we were best buddies now, and he proceeded to follow me around _everywhere_, chattering incessantly and cracking unfunny jokes. That the con was small made it harder to lose him or drop him off with another group of people, and I wasn't sure how to draw a boundary without just being mean.
> 
> Otherwise, my con experiences have been fine.



That does remind me: there always tends to be one vaguely annoying sort of loud-mouthed person, who just happens to show up at every panel you happen to decide to attend! Not a huge deal, but has happened every time : P

Edit: And that person is not me!


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## EMO FURRY (Nov 20, 2017)

Being in a strange position in a conversation and then they ask me if I agree with one or the other to see who's even though the other is going to be mad at me anyways


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## Sleepysnout (Nov 23, 2017)

It was FC, my first con after turning 21. You can probably guess how this went.
I had decided to go shot-for-shot with my mate at the time before we went down to the con floor to dance for the night. I'm a little lightweight lass, and he had 100 pounds on me and also waaay more experience with alcohol. 
So seven (regretful) shots later, I'm feeling alriiight, I don my fursuit and we shuffle out of the room. We walked to the elevator, the elevator doors closed, and....
... Then I woke up the next morning, in the hotel room, naked (but still wearing my con badge? priorities) with the most amazing hangover imaginable. I had literally no idea what had happened after I had gotten in the elevator. But thankfully the dance had been livestreamed, so I got to peek back and watch myself be an extremely sloppy drunk mess for FOUR HOURS (I do not know how I was dancing for four hours, wtf.) before whatever adventures happened that led me back to my room.

You know where the worst place to be when your hungover is? A place with bright lights, loud sounds, and lots of smells. So, yanno. A fur con. 

I wanted to murder every suiter with squeakers.


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## SpidertheKitsune (Dec 28, 2017)

So I had just turned 16 and I was at my first furry convention Rainfurrest 2015 and it was day 2 of the convention and I was at the lobby of the convention center taking a little break and I had to use the restroom so I go over to the one closest but someone thought it was funny to flood the entire bathroom so that was out of the question so I had to go over to the other building and use the bathroom near the game room and dealers den, did what I had to do and was washing up n everything and all of a sudden a dude came in who was covered in bubble wrap out of all things and I didnt think much of it but it was clear he was drunk cause he was wabbling around and went over and just prejectile threw up in one of the urnals. Im just standing over at the sink stone cold thinking what the hell did I just witness, next thing I know hes right next to me washing up as well and said to me "sorry ya had to see that kid" and then walked away. 

Lets just say for a young fur at that point that was definantly one hell of a thing to see for your first con, a drunk guy puking bout 3 yards away from me.


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## Laugh Kita (Jan 11, 2018)

I got one for an anime convention I went to. I was about.....20 at the time, it was one of my earlier cons and the first couple went smoothly. This year around I room with a couple of my usual friends and we invited 1 person we all knew on a forum for years. They seemed like cool people at the time but we were so wrong. Even at first meet they seemed ok, later they start fights in the room. Get undressed when a male friend of ours stop by the room ( he didn't know what to do) and ends up having a complete breakdown in the bathroom among other things. Now I only room with a rando if someone I trust wholeheartedly personally knows them and if they start drama I show no hesitation in separating them from me. I go to cons to have fun not for drama. 

Thankfully most of my con memories are of fun times and interesting situations.


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## Rant (Jan 11, 2018)

When the live band could only do one DBZ cover and the rest was the shittiest screaming metal/death/I don't fucking know. It was so bad the convention moved to the parking lot out side not even halfway through the second song. The first song was spot on for the DBZ opening


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## Dio_the_wolf (Jan 14, 2018)

Sleepysnout said:


> I wanted to murder every suiter with squeakers.



I don't know why.. But I can totally relate to that.. LOL
Hangovers and sounds... Pain.. hahaha


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## KiokuChan (Feb 2, 2018)

I've pretty much only had good convention experiences somehow or another. I guess I did have one person at a panel once waaaay back being a bit rude when talking to my friends and I but much more polite when talking to our parents.. but that's about it really. I've at least enjoyed all of my cons so far. Oh.. I have a friend who accidently briefly left a $100 painted wall scroll at his seat at the end of an event in a big auditorium, and went back after realizing only to find it gone. It wasn't turned in to lost and found either. I was there with him at that convention but I personally haven't had anything like that happen thankfully.


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## KiokuChan (Feb 2, 2018)

Laugh Kita said:


> I got one for an anime convention I went to. I was about.....20 at the time, it was one of my earlier cons and the first couple went smoothly. This year around I room with a couple of my usual friends and we invited 1 person we all knew on a forum for years. They seemed like cool people at the time but we were so wrong. Even at first meet they seemed ok, later they start fights in the room. Get undressed when a male friend of ours stop by the room ( he didn't know what to do) and ends up having a complete breakdown in the bathroom among other things. Now I only room with a rando if someone I trust wholeheartedly personally knows them and if they start drama I show no hesitation in separating them from me. I go to cons to have fun not for drama.
> 
> Thankfully most of my con memories are of fun times and interesting situations.


Wow..  uh. That's sexual harassment towards your male friend. That's disturbing. >_< Sorry that happened.


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## Aetius (Feb 5, 2018)

Attending Rainfurrest 2014. I still get PTSD flashbacks from the Diaper fuckers


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