FurFest Northwest

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FurFest Northwest was a furry convention planned for August 25 - 27, 2006 in Moscow, Idaho, U.S.A. The convention was created as a "replacement" con after Conifur Northwest 2006 (due to be held in the fall in Washington state) was cancelled. However, FurFest Northwest itself was also cancelled soon afterwards.

Contents 1 Guests of honor 2 Staff 3 Controversy 4 Cancellation 5 Aftermath 6 References

[edit] Guests of honor

FurFest Northwest's guests of honor were to be Starfinder and Javachickn.

[edit] Staff

• Michael "Rex" Wolf
• Sean "Moorcat" Ravencraft
• Roderick "Verp" Sprague IV
• Mark "Zinnthra" Lewis
• Kyle "Lupercus" Allison

[edit] Controversy

In mid July, artists' concerns were posted about the convention in the Artists Beware LiveJournal community.^[1] This spurred a debate mostly critical of the way the convention was being planned, culminating in convention chairman Rex Wolf threatening to take legal action^[2] against the person who originally brought up concerns about the con (insisting that they were rumors and unfounded criticisms).

[edit] Cancellation

This topic contains controversial issues, some of which have reached a consensus for approach and neutrality, and some of which may be disputed. Please read the talk page discussion before making substantial changes.

On July 24th, one month before the scheduled convention date, Rex announced on the FurFest Northwest bulletin boards that the convention was being cancelled.^[3] Originally, it was stated that the cancellation was due to a lack of registration sales, but later it was blamed on "destructive drama" by Seattle area furries. Approximately 20 people had registered to attend.

Following is one revision of the chairman's cancellation notice that was posted to the official website:

Sorry folks, but I'm not going to risk my personal financial situation for a con that has been doomed by a couple of furries who decided to destroy it without even asking a single question, and by the fans who couldn't step up and support the only con in the area this year that we tried so hard to put into place. If we don't get 25 registrants tonight, the show is over. Period. Someone said it right. Seattle furs don't deserve a con. Maybe one day you will, I don't know. If the con is cancelled, those who wanted to still come out this way are welcome, and we'll do something more informal, without the expense. We'll go see the wolves. We'll go fursuit. We'll have fun, and talk about how stupid it is for people to get so caught up in drama as to destroy something like this.

Numerous attempts to communicate directly with the chairman both before and after the cancellation were met with open hostility ^[4], and several posts providing suggestions or asking questions of the con staff were deleted ^[5][6] from the convention's bulletin board. Several accounts were also deleted from the bulletin board, and the board was later configured to only allow new accounts on administrator approval.^[7]

The bulletin board itself was later taken down due to a lack of funding.^[8]

[edit] Aftermath

Moorcat later founded All Fur Fun and became its chairman. Zinnthra and Lupercus became members of the new convention's staff.

In April 2007, Rex announced he was giving up all efforts to start a new convention and would let the furfestnorthwest.org domain lapse.^[9]

[edit] References

1. ↑ "Con Beware" thread about FurFest Northwest in the Artists Beware LiveJournal
2. ↑ Response on Rex Wolf's LiveJournal
3. ↑ Cancellation announcement on FurFest Northwest's bulletin board. (link no longer exists)
4. ↑ Rex Beowulf's response to the "Con Beware" thread
5. ↑ I'm beginning to doubt the sincerity of this... - SR Foxley's comment on the "Con Beware" thread
6. ↑ Reaction on Teeka's LiveJournal (protected entry)
7. ↑ "Wow, I apparently just shut down the FFNW Bulletin Board!" - KieferSkunk's LiveJournal post
8. ↑ Bulletin board shutdown announcement (from Archive.org)
9. ↑ "Goodbye FFN" on Rex Wolf's LiveJournal