Furry Weekend Atlanta Sees Record Annual Growth for 2024

Furry Weekend Atlanta continues its monstrous growth, breaking its previous record with a total of 15,021 attendees and raising a total of $100,000 for its Lost-n-Found Youth charity. This solidified its position in the top three and for the moment surpasses Anthrocon which recorded an attendance of 13,641 people in 2023, making it, at least for the next few months, the second largest furry convention in the world.

The change between last year and this year was 4,693 participants. For perspective, the total attendance from Anthro New England this year had 4,482 participants. So this year’s Atlanta convention staff had to deal with the total they handled in 2023, plus a convention the size of Anthro New England at the same time in 2024.

The need for additional volunteers has never been more desired by the gathering, more information can be found here.

It was also my first year attending, so I wanted to reflect on my experiences, challenges and highlights of the conference.

The consequences of growth

An additional challenge came from the fact that they were unable to acquire Hyatt space for this year’s events. This caused a shift in the placement of events, particularly markets (Merchants’ Den, Artists’ Alley), from the Hyatt to the Hilton. The change caused quite a bit of stress among participants, volunteers and staff, as the floor after the walkway leading to the Hiltron from the Marquis was transformed into a pseudo-roundabout to keep traffic flowing.

Popular items such as Mystery Skulls had full rooms that required tracking of departing attendees to ensure they kept the room at an acceptable capacity before allowing other people in line to enter. The Moonlight Festival, the 18+ event space that has become the definition of convention. event for FWA, there were crazy long lines going around multiple floors and taking about 2 hours to get in at first.

Ironically, a common choke point at conventions, registration, has drawn few if any complaints about backups or long wait times. I had to go through the check-in line about three times due to RFI issues, and I don’t think I spent more than 20 minutes total in the check-in lines.

Elevators

Obviously, the giant elephant in the room is the ability to get to and from hotel rooms via elevators. The hotels are high rise hotels and taking the stairs is only a good option for really athletic people. I tried it myself in the Marquis, from the Atrium level to the 36th floor. It probably took almost an hour because I had to take a few breaks. You have to work on your cardio, that’s for sure, it’s been about a year since my last convention.

The Mariot Hotel elevator has 4 banks that serve different floor ranges, which, combined with the sporadic permitting of use of the hotel’s central service elevators during peak hours, has caused confusion over label and protocol that caused burnout and sometimes aggravation among participants.

Interestingly, as someone partially clad in fur, no priority was given to costumed people here. So it’s best not to really think twice about “ruining the magic” by participating in this scam and feel free to cut your head off if you have to wait in line. I only ended up dressing up on Friday because of this, as the costume requires a commitment to return to the room at some point to change. So it is recommended to allow some time to get to and from the room for whatever is needed before going to this scam.

It’s worth noting that any conventions you attend will need time to get to and from your room, but typically for Midwest Furfest and Anthrocon, it’s the walking distance to your hotel elevator which takes the most time if you’re not there. in the main hotel. Standing still makes humans who want to move quite agitated, which is why it can seem longer. Atlanta’s travel time is spent moving vertically, not horizontally, compared to its competitors.

A tale of two hotels

Besides the elevator location, I found the layout of the main hotel space at the Marriott Marquis to be the best I’ve seen as far as a large gathering space when it comes to hotels. There are three main floors one above the other. The Marquis, lobby level and atrium level. For those of you familiar with the Hyatt Regency at Midwest Furfest, this would be similar except you have an extra floor to work with. The contiguous square footage of each floor also seems a bit larger than that of the Chicago Regency. So, walking around without a particular goal in mind, I felt less crowded than when I went to MFF 2022, even though there were 1,500 fewer people.

And as a bonus, the 10th floor of the Marquis didn’t have any rooms but was instead another gathering place with tables and chairs that was actually the zoo’s chill out area for people who weren’t necessarily trying to hang out. go to a particular event. MFF is somehow obliged to use part of the ground floor for this purpose.

Unfortunately, the neighboring Hilton didn’t take notes from its neighbor and instead had donut holes on each floor above the lobby. This caused the biggest bottlenecks at the convention and was certainly not designed with thousands of people traveling there in mind. The hole beyond the Marquis walkway caused the most problems. Once you pass these holes and reach the dealer’s lounge, dining room or gaming gallery past the main shaft, however, the layout improves.

Atlanta

The only thing you will have to be wary of is that the atmosphere in this city is definitely different from other conventions. We are certainly guests in Atlanta, and the city has its challenges. There were reports of furs parking their vehicles in open areas, finding their cars broken into and their windows broken. One car even had its own adventure while its owner was at the convention when it was stolen and used in a heist before being recovered and returned to its owner.. There was also a video of a furry man in a suit trying to fend off an attack outside an Italian restaurant a block from the hotel.

I was also, for the first time, approached by a person while I was in the main hotel claiming to be collecting for a charity, which probably wasn’t the case. Thinking it was the scammer’s charity, which also had the word Youth in it, so good social engineering on his part if it was intentional, I had given the man $20. He then continued to harass me for a few more minutes trying to get more, showing me random videos saying “I’m not cheating on you” when I never made any such accusation, and by his behavior and his desperation, I had realized it. It was probably someone cheating on the furries’ kindness.

I simply shook his hand, looked him straight in the eye, told him he was doing a good job, and wished him luck in achieving his goals of helping these kids. And of course, he ran away afterwards. That way, if it was a deception, saying that would help instill some guilt about using children to try to deceive people out of money, and if not, my statement would be authentic. Sometimes it’s better to play along and continue to act kindly naive rather than confront your suspicions.

Although I’ve had experiences like this in Chicago trying to get to convention spaces by subway, this is the first time this has happened near a convention. Ironically, even though I took the MARTA, I received no such prompts on the way to the airport. Just be aware and use your peers to help keep each other safe and you will be fine. Also keep cash somewhere other than your wallet. So if you’re feeling charitable, you can take it out of there instead of exposing your wallet.

Despite these kinds of reported situations, the area was dense with plenty of things to do and eat within a few blocks. Much denser than the gatherings in Pittsburgh and Rosemont. Many furries have visited the nearby aquarium and it looks like it will be a facility that the convention will use directly in 2025 with a special event. The restaurants near the hotels, which I have been to twice, are also excellent and quite affordable. Note that since this is Georgia, the number of options will decrease on Sunday, so be sure to check the hours before assuming they will be open.

As with all places, it’s essential to be aware of it, and don’t let a handful of stories stop you from going somewhere you want to go and experiencing the things you want to experience. These types of situations can also happen in Pittsburgh or Chicago, although they don’t get as much attention during these counters. Simply remaining aware and taking appropriate mitigation measures will improve your chances of not wasting your time. Urban environments, like any other, require experience and understanding, like any other.

Conclusion

The most important thing to remember is that when you see people say, “This is why I’ll never go to FWA,” they said that last year, and that doesn’t require me to type the title.

If you really like dancing to music and don’t mind enjoying adult nightlife or performing on various platforms, I think these are the highlights of this convention. The nonfiction panel I did had the most attendees of any I’ve done so far, which is great, unfortunately I didn’t have much time to visit any other panels this year. The rooms are large, but the panels you get here will be similar to the others and won’t stand out on their own.

If you like to wander around and hang out with friends outside the hotel room, there was plenty of space to do so, as long as you avoid choke points such as the walkway. I was able to never feel too “embarrassed” like I can at MFF from time to time.

Would I go back? Of course, if I was motivated, even if partying is not my thing. I kind of think I like it slightly better than MFF in some ways. I do not know why. I think Anthrocon is trying to be more contemporary and emphasize furry and its relationship with the Pittsburgh audience, with the parade being a vital part of that goal. FWA does the opposite by being unapologetically present in a city that can be a little more detached and sometimes hostile to us tourists, with the Moonlight Festival being a signifier of this adult, rebellious root. With this in mind, MFF feels like it doesn’t really have an identity and falls somewhere in the middle.

But the identity of the FWA, for better or worse, will be the reason I think this convention will continue to go this far.