adpanacea's domain

PREAMBLE

Furries. What is a furry? What is an anthro? What is an Anthro Northwest? What is a northwest? Do I have any room to make fun of people anymore? All will be answered in this review.

Anthro Northwest 2025. A Seattle convention that involves all things anthropomorphic arts. They say so themselves: "Sometimes people call us 'furry,' but we see ourselves as an anthropomorphic art convention." (Which is a pretty longwinded way of saying "furry convention" without saying "furry convention.") Now, a while back in the Lord's year of 2015, there was an earlier convention in the King County area called "Rainfurrest." That convention turned out to be an absolute catastrophe due to a plethora of issues, and that furry convention was banned from all venues around the local area.

It's safe to say that Anthro NW had to play it safe when trying to find hotels that would tolerate a bunch of anthropomorphic animal fanatics. Most criticisms online are that the convention is much more prudish and stricter when it comes to rules. Apparently for quite a few commenters online, plenty of individuals don't go to these sorts of conventions solely for "family-friendly fun."

INITIAL IMPRESSIONS

I have never had the opportunity to observe this community in person. I attended on a whim, wondering about the differences between the few obnoxious furries online and the ones I may meet in person. You rarely have a convention of this "genre" in town.

Wearing my brightly colored orange "Feeling Foxy" button-up, I aimed to blend in with the crowd during my attendance at this convention. Over the next three days, I would take the metro into Seattle and enter the Hyatt Regency hotel.

On the first day, I instantly noticed something peculiar. The convention's atmosphere stood out immediately. There was an effort to be a lot more friendly and positive than I expected. Not merely friendly, but enthusiastically so. I suspect the suits themselves are partly responsible--you can't exactly be subdued when you're wearing a giant fluffy dog costume. The persona demands a certain energy, and the fandom's reputation for being welcoming certainly helps set that tone.

Either way, I felt welcome but lost. This was an escalator-centered venue--a detail other congoers remarked on as well. The layout was confusing, but unlike PAX West, where you're navigating a corporate behemoth surrounded by strangers, the furry costumes made the experience feel warmer and more absurdly charming. Still, Anthro Northwest could have used clearer instructions on the venue's quirks and more detailed maps.

To familiarize myself with the different floors, I decided to participate in the scavenger hunt--which turned out to be its own exercise in frustration. I was already two stamps in when I finally found the actual stamp card, and even then, we weren't told what the prize would be. Other than that, you can get a prize from the Artists' Alley.

Having finished the stamp card, I concluded that the first day was a success. Sadly, the Artists' Alley was closed on the first day, so I had to find other things to do. That led me to wanting to spend cash, so I looked for a certain vendor who had been advertising that they would be in attendance at this convention, not to mention the posters that were also strewn about the hallways.

SPLITGRAPESODA was the name, and I was about to have my first encounter with furry commerce. Pink balloons decorated the entrance of where they set up shop; fursuit heads were on display to purchase, and my eyes met the gachapon machine. A reason for going to this convention that I did not disclose earlier was my lust for cute collectible enamel pins. It did not matter about the price; it did not matter if it was a random pin. I knew they would be sold, especially by furry artists, and I was going to get my hands on plenty of them in the ensuing days.

I bought, I tipped, and I bought again until I satiated my appetite--which was two rolls. Looking around at the setup, I did notice plenty of other attendees who had been looking at the materials sold to create your own fursuit. I didn't know how such immaculate crafts were done, but it certainly was impressive.

FURRY WATCHING

I most certainly had to observe the ongoings within this hotel. If I wasn't going to make friends, I might as well see what these people get up to at least. Two such attendees I had the pleasure of listening to while lounging around were a piano player and a furry playing a hurdy-gurdy. The pianist would play random songs, and their buddy would sing along to them. I enjoyed it way more than any person playing music on their speaker because of its "natural feel." It's a lot quirkier when the timing isn't perfect nor are chord voicings. The hurdy-gurdy, on the other hand, just sounded so cool--some really skilled people, that's for sure. I can only imagine it's a bit harder to do while in a suit.

More antics that I got to witness were group dances, furries socializing in an elaborate box castle, an RC car modified to have fur on it, which drove around, and the obligatory furry in a ball pit.

One of the most memorable sights was right outside the dealer's den, in the prefunction foyer of the Hyatt Regency. A crowd had gathered on the lower level, stacking oversized dice into a tower that reached toward the next floor's balcony. Once the tower grew too tall to stack from below, the crowd simply cheered while a separate group of attendees took positions on the upper floor, dropping more dice through the open atrium onto the tower below. Every successful stack was met with cheers; every miss, a collective sigh. The tower grew so tall it almost reached the lounge on the next floor--truly a wondrous sight to behold, with the finest minds of our generation doing all of this.

PANELS

Most conventions offer panels of some kind. While most didn't interest me very much, I did think the offer was neat in itself. I myself did not want to go to a panel that educates you on all things pigeon, but if I'm hearing people talk to each other the next day about how informative it was, then it must've been really good!

The first panel I attended was a fursuit making beginners' guide. Now, I had no plans of doing any of that, but I certainly was curious how people did it. It's an impressive task to undergo, and I struggle slightly just to sew a button on, so props to them.

The film festival was a slog. Most of it wasn't my kind of humor, though a few entries were so bad they looped back around to being enjoyable. Still, I can't knock the effort. It's easy to say I could do better, but I didn't. They made something and put it out there, and that alone earned my applause.

After that film festival, I had to do something that wasn't watching short films that featured exclusively people in animal costumes. So, I went to a sticker swap that was hosted on a different floor. I've never done one before, but the cyan fox dude who hosted it seemed cool, and I wanted a sticker for myself. I ended up trading a sticker I had in my wallet for a sticker of some person's OC. That's what I presume it was because the person I traded with seemed to have plenty of the same sticker--pretty neat stuff.

Unfortunately, I did not go to the Winter Feast session that came with my admission. I don't exactly know how that would've gone, but perhaps next year--when I'm not all tired and worn out from going to this convention for three days.

POSTSCRIPT (added 2026)

so looking back at this "article" i was like "i'm gonna be such a journalist and observer!" which was a thinly veiled excuse to just buy fuzzy stuff. but not too much of an excuse because i always wanted to write something in this style. anywaysss if it wasn't clear with my other pages i've fallen to the dark side—not even including the fact i went to AnthroNW 2026 lol. most of what i say stands true except the fact i was with some friends that time around. going solo vs. with people is a whole different vibe!11!