Hello folks of a furry persuasion! As I had previously posted, I recently made the expedition back to the undersea city of Pittsburgh, PA to attend Anthrocon 2025: Deep Sea Adventures! While the city itself may not have been underwater, the humidity through the duration of the con certainly gave the theme it's authenticity! The con was held from July 3rd-6th this year over the 4th of July holiday weekend! Last year's Anthrocon was my very first AC, and the experience far exceeded my expectations! This year, I had the opportunity to try some things I was not able to do the previous year, and meet many other folks for the first time in person! Overall, this year AC was primarily a social con rather than an event-oriented convention, which is as much of the charm of the convention as the city transforming for it, and the MASSIVE amount of events that occur at the con each year! The heat and humidity did not dampen this wolf's spirit for convention excitement this year, and now I'd like to share with you the activities and happenings of my trip to Anthrocon 2025!

If you have, or see, any photos of me or with me in them on any social media site or Furtrack, please send me a message and let me know! Thank you!

Ringgar's Anthrocon 2025 Photo Reel!

Wednesday, July 2nd

Similarly to last year, I decided to make the trip down to the con just after midnight on Wednesday morning. I took the same route  afurryjinx and I did together last year, and while I made the trip down solo, he was my roommate once again for the year! The drive is a long one from where I live, but I actually enjoyed taking the trip down that early in the morning. There is little to no traffic, you get to watch the sun rise in the rear view mirror, and the feeling of long-distance driving at night on an open road is something I grew to appreciate after doing the same for other conventions the year before! This year I was also properly prepared with a fresh playlist so I wouldn't have to fiddle with trying to find an FM radio station in between Philly and Pitt that wasn't playing the good ol' 24/7 static marathon! I actually stopped at the same rest stop Jinx and I had been to on the way down the year prior, which wasn't intentional, but I found it interesting that it has happened twice! (And will likely happen again!) I made good time, arriving a couple of hours earlier than I expected, and was able to grab a spot in a nearby parking garage for the weekend! Normally I wouldn't marvel at this much, but with AC sprawling out across the entirety of the south side of Downtown Pittsburgh, I was thrilled to be able to find parking at all. The saved time gave me the time to tussle with my card company over the phone while trying to check in to the Kimpton Monaco, where we stayed for the year! After that snafu, I still had plenty of time before Jinx arrived, so I decided to walk across to the North Shore to view one of the things I wasn't able to see last year: The Andy Warhol Museum! He is of course known primarily for his Pop Art, but what surprised me the most about him was his journey into film and his use of different media, such as diamond dust on canvas! Have to love the museums in Pittsburgh for always showing me something I never knew before! After viewing the museum, I walked back to Market Square to see what was new in the area since I had been there last year. To my surprise, the entire center area of the square had been ripped up for reconstruction! The surrounding businesses were still open, but there was now a giant fenced in area, where previously there had been a large gathering space for folks to congregate! Last year, there were even musicians from the convention playing in the square! I wonder what the square will look like once the construction is done. Perhaps they will turn it into a Market Circle!

After retracing my steps from Wednesday last year, I returned to the hotel to unpack my suit and awaited Jinx's arrival. Once had had arrived and we had the opportunity to unpack, we decided to get dinner in the hotel restaurant, the Commoner. The food was good, but the menu was limited (except for the bar, of course,) and the prices were eye-popping. My recommendation to anyone reading this is to keep this locale in your back pocket if you would like to spend a pleasant evening after the con, but I wouldn't go there on a daily basis, it was certainly not the most budget friendly venue. Jinx and I settled into the room and waited for his partners, Cotton and Kota, to arrive as our final roommates for the con. Before bed, I also went down to the waterfront and saw the first of many of my Starcane Arts family members, (Firra), as well as another friend of theirs who makes fursuits! I caught up with them for awhile as took in the (very) early vibes at the waterfront before heading back to the hotel for a good night's rest.

Thursday, July 3rd

Thursday was registration pick-up day! Jinx and I woke up together in the morning and we decided to grab breakfast at a coffee shop I had passed by the day before in Market Square, the Nicholas Coffee & Tea Co.! This location is primarily an outlet for specialty coffee and tea rather than a bistro or restaurant, but they did offer rotating daily flavor varieties of both coffee and tea! We took some wonderful sips to go and walked over to the convention center two hours before registration opened. The line was, as you would expect, incredibly packed, and was even more so very shortly after we arrived. The con had made improvements to reg by now utilizing the entirety of the DLCC first floor space for lines, and by closing off the roads underneath the DLCC as a place for people to line up without having to stand in the sun! Things were going smoothly enough, so much so that they opened registration an hour early! They began registering sponsors and attendees in tandem, but a problem very quickly presented itself: The line for regular attendees was sufficiently long and prepped for, but the line for sponsors and supersponsors had grown far too long far too fast. It was extending out into the street and the sun, much like the regular attendee line did last year. As a result, the con decided to stop the regular attendee line and register all of the supersponsors and sponsors first. I understand why this had to happen of course, but it was very frustating, as by the time they cut off the regular attendee line, Jinx and I were at the very front. We had to wait tantalizingly close to being registered for a little over an hour at that point. I would have liked to have been a sponsor this year, but by the time I went to register back in early February, all levels of sponsor had sold out, likely due to the introduction of the attendance cap this year. At least our roommates were able to be registered before us! After registering, I walked around the convention center to see who was present, and I was able to find one of my New England local pals, Lucid, Carbon the Snep, and another Starcane family member, whom I met for the first time, Sheeb! I would run into all of them several more times during the course of the con in passing, as well! I walked around the con center briefly, and then decided to head back to the hotel to have an early dinner so I could be ready for the events I was attending later that afternoon!

I went to have some nice middle-eastern food with another Starcane family member, Sithirie, who I would also run into at several more points during the con! I returned to the hotel and entered full wolf mode for the first time this weekend, then took the shuttle to the con center to attend the opening ceremonies that afternoon! I have to give props to the AV team, they did an exceptional job the with the main stage setup this year! During the opening ceremonies, I also ran into another family member, Setrahn and his wife Lyric! After some brief exchanging of hellos and good-to-see-yous, I wandered down to the waterfront, where I awaited the arrival of one of the things I was not able to do the previous year, the sightseeing cruise! Along the way I ran into Hannu,  Kittybean, Blush, Jedi, and other friends while we were in line for the cruise! The weather was hot, and I was sweating like, well, the canine I am, but thankfully the cruise had water and places for us to sit. I took a brief moment to recharge and headed up to top deck to socialize with many other fantastic folks, such as the aforementioned line-con attendees, several con staffers and photographers, awesome folks like  NexusFolf (who was also staff this year!) and their husband  Strobes, and many, many other cruise-goers! This was one of my favorite parts about the con this year, not only because it is a nice guided tour along the river, and it fit with the con theme, but primarily because it gives you the opportunity to socialize in a more 1-on-1 setting, away from the hustle and bustle of the convention, which I appreciated greatly. It was a nice reprieve from the overwhelming excitement of the con to come!

After getting my sea-legs and returning to land, I had been in suit for around 4 hours at that point, so I decided to return to the hotel. I had a bit of a headache due to a lack of a good breakfast that morning, so I decided to head back to the con center in partial to see if anyone else I recognized was there, but I only stayed briefly before deciding to grab some dessert at the Milkshake Factory, then return to the room for the night around midnight and retire for the next day!

Friday, July 4th

Ahhh, America! The 4th of July had come at last, and in Pittsburgh, that meant a day of fun, fireworks, and Anthrocon activities! I found some breakfast at a nearby bistro, trying to make an effort to have a better breakfast than just tea in the morning before heading back to the hotel room to suit up and head to the con center! Last year I had the opportunity to attend Gale's Fursuiting 101 panel, and it was an absolute riot. I loved getting to take part along with the audience, and I did just the same this year! I got a little lost before the panel after realizing it was moved from the DLCC to the Westin this year, which was certainly a much more appropriate location for the event, as the Allegheny ballroom had an actual stage for the participants! For those who are not familiar with the panel, this panel is not focused on the basics of fursuiting, but rather, is an improv-lite show to demonstrate how to best pose, act, and walk in fursuit! The goal is to encourage people to get the most out of their experience with a fursuit by showing them how to bring the character to life! Of course, when you put a bunch of fursuiters in a room to act silly together, things will, naturally, progress in a very silly and un-serious manner! This panel was one of the highlights of my con experience last year, was was one of the things I was most looking forward to this year! It was a blast, and I highly recommend attending!

After attending the panel, I walked over to the Dealer's Den to meet some very important people for the first time: My Fursuit Makers, Zenith and Orion! I also ran into Klein and Dandy, two other Starcane Arts suiters who were there at the same time! I found Zenith first, and gave them the absolute biggest circle wolf hug I could, one I had been saving just for them! I gave one to Orion next, and I did get a bit emotional. I had been wanting to return the art to the artists ever since Ringgar came home in 2023, and I owe so much to them for bringing my fursona to the real world, so that I could be who he was, realized. Zenith and Orion had been accepted to vend at Anthrocon this year, which came to be after I had registered for the con. I was hoping to see them at AFC for the first time in September, but I could not be more thankful than to see them both for the first time this weekend! Becoming Ringgar in the real world opened up whole new worlds of fun, excitement, and ways to spread joy to others that I am eternally grateful for! After chatting with Zen, Orion, Hannu, Dandy, and Klein for awhile (and discreetly placing my frog, more on this later,) I decided to move on and get out of suit, as I had my cooling vest on and it had melted by that point. I returned to the hotel, de-suited, and then returned to the con center, where I had intended to say hello to Zenith and Orion in person, but instead I ran into Setrahn and Lyric! Along with Set's friend Ithanias, the three of us decided to grab dinner before the Starcane family photoshoot later on that evening at Condado tacos, which was just around the corner of the DLCC! I had avoided this location the year before, believing it would always be too busy to enter a reasonable time, but we were able to find a table in a decent amount of time and had a nice dinner together! After dinner, I went back to don Ringgar once more to the convention center to attend the largest gathering of Starcane Arts fursuiters to date! We had around 20 suiters there, easily eclipsing the number of suiters in one place we had before at MFF 2023 and AC 2024! This was a truly special moment for me, as it was a gathering of so many fantastic individuals whom I had met at various cons before, and others I had only met for the first time! To me, this was the most important thing I did at the convention. This found family means so much to me, and I can't thank Zen and Orion enough for bringing us all together!!

After our meetup, Zenith and Orion discovered the purpose behind the frogs, a coded message (masterminded by Morgenta and Ripley,) which spelled out a phrase that many kids who grew up in the early 00's would know! It was a great prank, and one that every Starcane member who was attending was in on! I had intended to go back to the hotel and de-suit, but I realized just before getting on the shuttle, that the 4th of July fireworks were about to begin! I trekked in suit back up to the third floor balcony to watch in the crowd with several dozens of other people, and my Starcane family member Ripley! I quite liked the variety of fireworks Pennsylvania has on display during the 4th of July, there is no other state in the U.S who does them quite like they do! At the time the fireworks ended, I was hot, exhausted, and it was late, so I went back to the hotel to give Ringgar some TLC and launder my underarmor so I would have enough clean sets to use for the rest of the con! I'd like to thank Sami, one of my Starcane family members and close friend to Zen and Orion, for being patient with me as I searched for quarters to use their laundry machines at the Drury so late at night! At this point, it was almost 2AM, so I was well past due for bedtime to be ready for more fun to come!

Saturday, July 5th

After the excitement from the day prior, I decided to sleep in a little bit for Saturday morning, but not for long! Today was the big day for the Fursuit Parade! I grabbed breakfast and got into suit to head to the con center about an hour before the lineup started. That hour went by in what felt like a flash, as I, along with (Requiem) entered the lineup early together! I didn't realize at the time that the lineup duration was two hours long, which I did realize after waiting around in the DLCC second floor for a little while, so I spent the time chatting up some of the folks around me in line. The parade operated on a first-in, first-out basis for those who entered the line, so despite the wait time, it was still significantly shorter than it was in the parade last year! Due to some changes the con had made regarding limiting the number of participants (due to heat issues in the lineup from last year, which I DEFINETLY felt,) the overall parade duration went from an hour and a half to just 40 minutes! Walking through the parade was smoother too this year, as there were no technical breakdowns in the line! Walking through the parade only takes about 6-7 minutes, and half of that is actually inside the con center. The parade route goes outside to the streets below the con center, wraps around to the other street, and then back inside to the con center first floor. Due to the majority of the route being in the shade, while the weather was still hot and humid, I was able to walk the route without any issues and a lot of energy this year! Side note though, I was wearing my cooling vest, and I have seen some videos of me walking down the route. One thing I like to do for parades in suit is to try to swing my arms and bounce back and forth as I walk down the road, which I simply like to call my 'bounce walk!' Due to my vest though, I did notice my movements were somewhat stifled, so I appeared stiffer than I anticipated. I think this is something I will have to get used to with the vest on, as it looks completely different to when I do it with the vest off.

Due to the aforementioned vest, I didn't stay long in the cooling stop at the end of the route and decided to head right back to the hotel to take off my vest, as it was now completely melted and somewhat of an insulator. I would have liked to have headed directly back to the block party afterwards to socialize, but I just couldn't hack it. Instead, while Ringgar was drying out in my room, I went to The Warren for dinner, one of my favorite spots from my first trip to the city last year! After a brief meal I went back to the hotel to suit up again and headed down to the block party! The block party is the best opportunity for fursuiters and furries to interact with the citizens of the city, and I took full advantage by acting like the silly, upbeat wolf Ringgar is with the general public while I was there! However, at that time the sun was still out, and the humidity had not gone down between then and the parade, so I feel like I spent half of my time there in the outdoor headless lounges that were on site. These lounges are simply trailers with fans, seats, and an AC unit inside. They did a decent job at cooling down the temperature inside, but the humidity was piercing through the trailers, so the actual cooling capacity of these lounges was somewhat mitigated. I spent a little over an hour at the block party, and after deciding I needed to be cooling down inside with no humidity, I went inside the Westin to sit and watch the tail end of the Anthrocon Tonight talent show, and then went across the skybridge to the DLCC to watch the final rounds of the Floor Wars crew battles! Shout out to all the acts in the talent show, and the crews in the Floor Wars, I had the pleasure to witness two axis of incredible skill and talent in one awesome night!

After the events concluded, I headed back to the hotel to get out of suit, sat awhile with Jinx, and then partialed to the Renaissance to meet up with Mango, who was hosting a room party for our Starcane Arts family! After sharing some really good vibes and some spicy water, I headed down with Mango to the DLCC waterfront to hang out for the rest of the night. I went my own way inside the DLCC to cool off after some time as the humidity had not diminished despite the sun being down, and after walking around for awhile and running into Lucid once more, I decided to set up one of my hobbies outside the rave, my Beyblade X stadium! I had brought it with me to the room party, and I took it with me to the waterfront and DLCC as well that night, as I had intended to show my friends how to play, and most importantly, to have fun with others with my silly little hobby! It was around 1AM at this point, and while I was able to play with several passer-bys in the con center, it was at this time that something very interesting happened. Next to me, (Soong-Dae) was playing their dice game with the public! This dice game is one of the things they are known for doing at conventions: They bring a large dice for you to roll, and depending on what you land on, you can either expect a mystery prize, or, punishment (which is being smacked with a giant paper fan)! Most of these prizes are VERY silly, with things such as tags or medals for very odd things, or fortunes (or misfortunes!) While I was blading, I was called over to play his game! To my surprise, I was the winner of the grand prize! This prize was a stamped piece of paper that was redeemable for a free Hyena Agenda shirt! I was absolutely thrilled and it was a great way to end off the day! Shortly after this, the con center was closing for the night, and I took my stadium and prize back to the hotel to rest up for one more day of fun!

Sunday, July 6th

The final day of con activities had arrived, and the day started early for me! The Anthrocon Fursuit games was starting early that morning, so I had some breakfast in my hotel room, and suited up shortly after waking up and getting ready for the day! I headed on down to the con center to sign up for the Fursuit games and was able to get a spot in no problem! This year the Fursuit Games once again overlapped with the dance competition, and while I wish I could have been able to do both, I knew the dance competition would at least be recorded for viewing later, while the Fursuit Games traditionally are not. I don't have any regrets about doing the fursuit games, as this is easily one of the most fun things for me to do at any furry convention, and this was no exception! A big thank you to  Sharky1964 for hosting the games this year again, and to everyone on my team, the Purple team, who helped bring us to a good result this year! I do quite like the way Anthrocon's Fursuit games does teams, by having smaller team sizes and more teams in general, it feels like the games just breeze by, and you are never too far from participating in the fun, while also scaling nicely for more suiters to participate! I hope next year the scheduling is adjusted to not have the event overlap with the dance competition, so more people don't have to make the tough choice of going between the two! After the games, I headed down to the Dealer's Den. At this point in the con, I had not had the chance to browse the den at all beyond going to greet my fursuit makers! The den was closing in just three hours, so I headed down to the Hyena Agenda booth first to redeem my prize from Soong-Dae the night before! Soong-Dae was standing at the booth right next door, so I greeted him and thanked him for the prize! I walked around to the booth to redeem my voucher, and the vendor at the booth took it to verify its authenticity! It was at this moment that I realized, I had forgotten to read the fine print on the voucher. The voucher did say I was entitled to a shirt, but it also said I was entitled to a bonus prize as well! The prize was revealed upon opening the voucher, and it was... PUNISHMENT. I did something between a howl and a laugh, because I was strung along so hard until this point and was COMPLETELY oblivious. While I got smacked by a giant paper fan, Soong-Dae was having a laugh at my expense at the next booth over. This whole interaction absolutely made my day! I was still in fursuit at that point, so I didn't mind others chuckling at me at my expense (not that I would mind out of suit, either!) It was a perfect con, and my naivety was true to form for Ringgar as a character! I did still get a shirt for my troubles!

After receiving my shirt and saying goodbye to my fursuit makers, I went up to put Ringgar's head in a coin locker so I could shop around the den without having to hold my fursuit head the whole time. On the way, I was stopped by a friend of another Starcane family member, Yukon! He was kind enough to take some photos of me on the third floor balcony while I wore my new shirt! From the preview, I was very happy with how those photos came out, and I believe Yukon was as well! Now I can at least say I was dressed for the theme of the con at one point during the event! After meeting them, I did my rounds around the dealer's den before getting out of suit at the hotel for a brief while just to relax, then brought my head and tail back to the con center to watch the closing ceremonies! The closing ceremonies always has a lot of eyes on it, and people in the audience, as they await the wrap-up and final numbers around the con! This year, the con was able to raise a tremendous $87,000 for the charity this year, Nose 2 Tail Cat Rescue, and had 18,357 attendees! Extrapolating from what the con had previously shared about remaining weekend passes available, that would place the attendance cap (of which an exact number was kept hidden,) at around 18,500-19K attendees! This makes Anthrocon once again, the largest furry convention on Earth, beating the record previously set by Furry Weekend Atlanta in May of this year by about 600! I'm especially impressed by the charity numbers, which continues to show that Anthrocon is a mecca for charitable furries, being not that far off from the $100k that was raised last year! I also continue to marvel at just how big this convention has become, and just how much the con is able to do despite these massive numbers of attendees! After closing ceremonies, I met up with a new Starcane member who joined the group during the convention, Nite, and we had some vietnamese at a restaurant on the Strip on Penn Ave.! We took an Uber back to the hotel, and I decided to use my last pair of underarmor to suit up one more time before the con was over! I met up once more with Sith, Ripley, and Mango while we vibed on the waterfront for some time before heading into the con center to check out the Dead Dog dances! We didn't stay long in the rave however, as the con center was closing for good shortly after we arrived, so after saying my goodbyes to everyone I was able to run into on the way back, I got out of fursuit for the final time at the con, and retired for the night.

The Deep Sea's Journey's End!!

I was simply blown away with my first trip to Anthrocon last year, and I can confidently say that this year was just as exceptional. Anthrocon is an important staple of the furry community, and has been for 26 years! While I've only been able to experience that twice now, it doesn't take much to see what makes Anthrocon so special to so many people, myself included! Last year I had said that Anthrocon is a convention that you simply won't be able to experience fully in one year, and I still believe this to be true! In fact, now that I have returned once more, I would say it takes a few years to truly experience the convention in its entirety, especially with new panels and events that are sure to come each year, on top of staples like the competitions, parade, block party and cruises! In terms of new things, I am glad I was able to board the cruise for the first time this year, visit the Andy Warhol museum, watch the fireworks outside, and watch the talent show! For those planning on going for the first time in the future, my advice from my first year still holds true: Go with friends, don't overplan, and take the time to experience the city itself! I only have two regrets for the convention this year: One being that I wasn't able to participate in the bucket brigade for charity, mostly due to the fact that the charity booth where this took place was closed after the Dealer's Den hours, and I either had plans or was trekking to or from the con center each day. The other is that I had to return to my day job after all was said and done :P.

I was incredibly fortunate to have been able to meet many of my adopted Starcane family for the first time, and even more beyond the first! These are people I hold very dear to me, and I am blessed to be able to know! I can't thank Zenith and Orion enough for bringing us all together, as good friends to one another! I hope that, to my Starcane family, and everyone whom I met but didn't mention by name in this journal (and there are a LOT of you) at the convention, I was able to bring you some circle wolf joy and positivity as well! My goal for this convention and every convention I go to is to not only have fun for myself, but to share that joy with others as well! I sure hope I achieved that this year!

The last thing I'd like to leave you with is a little personal. At the time of writing, outside of my activities as a furry, things have been rough in my life, and 95% of that is due to the situation at my workplace. Without getting into too much detail, I have been incredibly stressed, and I didn't realize just how much I needed to be at a furry con until I was there. Thank you Anthrocon, and everyone who was a part of it, for giving me the brief reprieve I needed. It will be some time before things get better, but I am grateful to have places like this to put all of that aside and be both myself, and Ringgar for awhile!

Thank you to all of the staff and volunteers who make this legendary convention possible! This undersea expedition has concluded, but only until next year! I forsee myself coming back to Anthrocon within the next couple years, if not next year! Finally, thank you for reading!

My next convention will be Another Furry Con 2025 in Ontario, CA, this wolf's first time on the west coast! I hope to see you there!