Hi, how have you been over the past year? I’m Mangue-Lucas, a travel freak bunny.
The period that we can’t travel and gather at will continues and the situation for offline events still has some adversity, but it’s exactly times like this, where we can’t go anywhere at all, to have a chance to stretch ourselves a bit and set our eyes on and get to know on faraway events.
Photo by Victoria Earl / CC BY-SA 2.0
The event I’ll introduce this time around is Anthrocon. It’s the convention that JMoF 2020’s Guest of Honor, Uncle Kage acts as a chairperson.
Even when compared to a history of the furry subculture of America instead of the similar kemono subculture of Japan, Anthrocon has still been held from quite an early period. Until a few years prior, it was an event that could proudly claim to hold the world’s #1 attendance count, so I’m sure there are a lot of people out there who have at least heard of this convention.
So why am I going to start introducing an event that in the first place is already pretty well-known? Well, there’s a reason for that!
Basic Information
Photo by SkiEngineer / CC BY-SA 4.0
The location is in East USA, in Pennsylvania’s Pittsburgh. There’re probably some of you that already know that town through their baseball, football, and ice hockey teams. What used to be a town for steel production has now become an interesting city with various sectors, like being an academic hub. It has a giant river flowing right through downtown with a giant bridge, making it pretty memorable. I can’t say the hurdle for getting to the actual conspace from here Japan is low, though...
The convention period is usually a weekend at about the end of June or the beginning of July, but depending on the year it can vary a little. Even though I say “weekend”, it’s a large-scale convention, and so it runs from Thursday to Sunday making for 4 days. In the US on July 4th, there’s a national holiday called Independence Day, so it’s a timeframe where it seems rather easy to take vacation. Compare to the severeness for fursuiters of high temperature and humidity in this season in Japan, fursuiting on Anthrocon was rather comfortable in my experiences.
[Column] Anthrocon Access
When you travel as far as America and Europe from Asia, of course one of the problems you’ll run into is transportation. Flying to East USA from Japan goes over 10 hours one-way, and since there’s no direct flight from Japan (as of 2020), you’ll have to stop for a layover at some place. On top of that, the conspace is about 30km/18mi from the Pittsburgh Airport, so that’s about the distance from Tokyo to Yokohama. And there’s no railway access... There is a bus, but I’ve seen some pretty bad hardships about having to ride while straddling your large luggage, so I’m thinking the most convenient option is to get a large taxi like SuperShuttle that you reserve beforehand.
Point 1: It’s simply overwhelming! This is a convention!
Photo by Warphammer / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
In 2019, Anthrocon’s participant count broke through the 9,000 people mark, and if you think of it as essentially 10,000 people, then that’s a whole ’nother scale! Even though it has been dethroned for #1 as for attendees now, in 2000 it was already at 1,000 people, and for over 15 years it was the world’s largest furry fandom event... I’m sure you can understand the amazingness.
The conspace is using a convention center (like Tokyo Big SIght, Makuhari Messe, INTEX Osaka), so I think you already understand its scale—looking at the group photo with over 2,000 fursuiters in it, or at the Dealer’s Room that looks like it couldn’t even possibly be one independent convention, there is no Kemono event in Japan yet that comes close to needing an event space of this size. (If looking at participation numbers only, then the Dealer’s Room events are heading in a nice direction though)
Everywhere do you find an enormous amount of people with the same interests as you are walking all around... You start to realize that you've finally arrived the paradise on Earth. Not even exaggerating.
Photo by Douglas Muth / CC BY-SA 2.0
With that being said, this is America, with a large population of those in fandoms. There’re other events that have a couple thousand people as well.
So how is Anthrocon different from others? In short, it’s an amazingly well-maintained event I think.
One of the big reasons for Anthrocon’s massiveness is its history that it has built over the years. As you can see by reading this page, it started in 1997 and since then has been held every year (albeit in different locations). It has served as a massive hub for East USA, and it can be said that it highly contributed to shaping America’s (and consequentially, the world’s) furry subculture. While sometimes facing scrutiny from the media, it has been an event that’s been built up over 20 years and its sense of security and reliability is truly amazing.
So up until now I’ve kept using the word “convention” without explaining what it actually means, but think how many opportunity in the world that those who like the same kinds of things can:
- gather in essentially the same location
- practice self-expression through art, models, and performances
- tell stories related to various themes
- walk all around at your own pace
- deepen exchanges and friendships over the course of a few days
It sounds kinda strange doesn’t it? A convention isn’t a place exclusively for buying and selling, nor is it a company-sponsored event. It’s an offline gathering that is giant in scale and contains a bunch of different things. A unique kind of atmosphere is born in this space and there is an indescribable charm here, but trying to explain this with just words is seriously difficult!
In the beginning, there were originally American Sci-Fi fan gatherings (by the way, there are also large-scale Sci-Fi conventions in Japan as well). From there, furry gatherings split off to become their own thing and continued into the conventions we have today. JMoF is heavily modeled after the American and European convention styles, but even with that, the atmosphere of Anthrocon is exceptional. Not only that, but Anthrocon served as a model for other furry conventions as well, so it can be said that it’s the standard with everything present. With that in mind, I’d want for all of you to experience this atmosphere at least once for yourself...!
Photo by Douglas Muth / CC BY-SA 2.0
[Column] Anthrocon and Japan
Anthrocon has been held for a long while now, and it has had many varied episodes, but the truth is there weresome things relating to Japan here and there. For example, in the past there was the mascot Manma, from the Kansai Television show “Sanma no Manma” who attended, and there have been people in Japan who’ve been selected as the Guest of Honor. It’s starting to feel like it’s almost as if there’s some kind of connection between Anthrocon and Japan...?
Point 2: Here’s the Middle of the City! It’s alright for us to be out here...!
Photo by Douglas Muth / CC BY-SA 2.0
One of the most special parts about Anthrocon that you can’t mention is its unity with the city. The main conspace is situated in downtown Pittsburgh, right at the heart of it. People aren’t just confined to the connected hotel to the convention space; there are also con attendees walking from nearby hotels, and you can almost guarantee you’ll see characters in the middle of the city near the con. Even for the locals, when it’s around time for the convention they pretty much know this kind of scene will happen, and are very welcoming for the convention participants.
Photo by Douglas Muth / CC BY-SA 2.0
And as for the parade after the group photo, its route used to be simply one lap around the conspace, but in recent years this has been changed to have an outdoor section. Not only that, but it seems those who aren’t originally attendees from the con are also invited in. It’s almost like a festival atmosphere, and it’s only one of the many moments where you feel an amazing sense of unity between the con and city.
Photo by Douglas Muth / CC BY-SA 2.0
In reality, every year several thousand people coming and staying for about a week seems like the economic result would not be something insignificant. For the locals of Pittsburgh too, as the repeated media reports told, it becomes one of the many prominent events held there are being reported about. With that being said though, rather than calling it just a business relationship, it’s the fruit of the trust built up slowly and steadily in Anthrocon over the years. There is such a deep friendship held here that there are even stories of diners around the conspace holding collaborations every year, and when on the brink of having to shut down, congoers raising funds for them.
When talking about a convention that several thousand people congregate to, trying to secure a location is no easy task, and because of that the convention is sometimes held in the suburbs removed from the middle of the city (where it’s extremely hard to get around without a car due to the car-centric culture of America), with not much else around it; because of that, being able to enjoy the city while joining the con and interacting with the locals is one of the points to write home about for Anthrocon. Going out for some city sightseeing before and after the convention is also pretty good!
[Column] Tourism Guide
If you’re gonna go abroad, you’re going to want to do some sightseeing too, right! For the car culture of America, trying to go to multiple cities or to the outskirts of town without a car will prove to be difficult, but if it’s sightseeing inside the city itself, you can make do with walking and public transportation.
With Incline (a cable car), one can catch a fine view from the top of a hill of the downtown scenery, which is beautiful whether day or night. For those who want to see living things, America’s largest bird sanctuary shouldn’t be missed, and the zoos and botanical gardens a few miles away from downtown are also popular spots. A culture house for Andrew Carnegie, who was the king of the steel industry and was involved in philanthropy, is also a top pick, and there’s also the Andy Warhol museum for pop art, as well as the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, where one can see a wide collection of fossilized specimens.
Conclusion: A reliable convention that 10,000 people can attest to.
Photo by Douglas Muth / CC BY-SA 2.0
Up until this point, I’ve introduced only a fraction of Anthrocon’s charm. There’re quite a lot of conventions in North America, and from those trying to explain one’s charm has been rather difficult, but I’ll be happy if I’ve at least hopefully made it clear that this isn’t just a massive but also a recommendable event.
The convention hasn’t been held for a long time just for nothing. There’re many things built up here. Behind Anthrocon’s charm, one can sense the reliability, and makes them think about how incredible it al is. Really amazing!
In 2020, because of the worldwide pandemic with the Novel Coronavirus, Anthrocon and the other conventions had to be put on hold. Confronting to hardness to see what the future held, they opened registration for Anthrocon with a target of holding it on July 2021, but near the end of March released a notice stating the con had been cancelled. It ended with a sad announcement, but I think that maybe post-Corona there would be a new event shaped by the “New Normal” made by Anthrocon though it may still be a little way off.
After one more year, the next Anthrocon planned is from June 30th to July 3rd, 2022, and the theme is “Aesop’s Fables”. I hope that this time they’ll have the event, and that we’ll be able to attend...!
Photo by Colin Gerhart / CC BY-SA 2.0
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