The 19th edition of the UK's largest furry convention ran May 22 to 26 at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole under the theme "The Musical." The headline programming was an original musical built around the convention's badger mascot, the fire alarms did their usual thing (one of them officially scheduled in advance), and closing day delivered the 2027 reveal: ConFuzzled XXTREME Racing, 28 May to 1 June 2027.
Year-over-year, ConFuzzled 2026 looked like a steady continuation rather than a record breaker. The charity beneficiary was Tiny Paws MCR, a Manchester-based small-animal rescue. The convention had not posted its official closing attendance or charity total at the time of writing.
After 2025's "Mel's Fashion Week" leaned into runway-and-couture aesthetics, CFz 2026 went full stage-show. The Hilton Metropole's main hall was dressed for theatre, with the fursuit dance competition entries and headline sets leaning into musical-theatre staging rather than nightclub aesthetics.
"The Musical" gave the volunteer art and decor teams a clear visual through-line: spotlight gels, proscenium framing, and themed merch pulled the week together. Attendees ran with the bit on the floor, with character-as-musical-role costume choices showing up across fursuit lounge photo sets. Packing a suit for a UK show in late spring has its own demands, and our fursuit cleaning guide and first-con packing list cover what Birmingham weather asks of one.
The 2026 main-stage centrepiece was an original two-act musical, Brok in Voice/Over, staged Saturday 23 May at 5PM in the main hall. The plot: Brok (the convention's badger mascot) finds his pals putting on a musical, but without a voice he is stuck watching from the wings. One sinister bargain later, he is singing his heart out, and he soon learns that every deal comes with a price. The performance was followed by a recorded release: CDs of the soundtrack went on sale at the Dealers' Den shop for £10 each.
Anyone who had not seen a CFz mainstage show before got a reminder that European cons treat live performance as a headline draw rather than filler programming. That difference is one of the things our furdances Europe vs North America comparison explores in more depth.
The convention's relaxed-dress-code club night, Big Night, returned for 2026 in a simpler form: 10PM on the Main Stage on Saturday, no advance sign-up necessary. Past Big Nights have been a centrepiece of the late-night programming and a counterweight to the more family-friendly daytime schedule. The 2026 edition kept the format simple to keep entry friction down.
Big Night, and fursuit-friendly dance parties in general, get the full treatment in our what is a furdance guide and your first furdance.
CFz has built a reputation for venue alarm activity across recent years, and 2026 added to the running count. The convention itself confirmed two of the weekend's activations: a scheduled test, and the pull that interrupted the closing ceremony.
A couple of clarifications are worth recording for the post-mortem:
No injuries were reported. The convention's own social channels acknowledged at least the closing-ceremony pull, and the broader question of whether the activations are accidental, malicious, or hardware-side has not been publicly answered.
Mid-convention, the official ConFuzzledNews Telegram channel posted a notice to attendees warning of reports of youths harassing convention attendees near Resorts World, the casino-and-leisure complex a short walk from the Hilton Metropole. Attendees were advised to travel in groups, avoid wearing visible furry items such as tails and badges in the surrounding area, and the convention indicated security had been advised.
It was the most visible non-fire-related safety story of the weekend, and the response (an immediate public notice from the official channel, plus on-the-ground security coordination) was widely praised in the community as the appropriate way to handle a public-area incident without panicking the membership.
Our hotel block guide covers how venue grounds and adjacent public spaces interact with badge requirements, and the first con survival guide has general personal-safety practice for any convention weekend.
Closing day brought the customary next-year reveal: ConFuzzled 2027 XXTREME Racing, running 28 May to 1 June 2027 at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole. The convention's mascots Brok, Mel, and Dylan headlined the announcement, framed on a starting-grid podium for a motorsports-and-rave aesthetic.
If you are mapping out a 2027 calendar, the Europe cons 2026 guide lays out the wider European furry-con landscape (it covers 2026 explicitly but the seasonal pattern carries forward), and the first con survival guide covers the basics of a first UK or European weekend.
ConFuzzled has been a fixture of the UK furry calendar since its 2008 debut at 136 attendees, and 2026 marks its 19th edition. The growth curve from there has been steady rather than explosive: 499 by 2011 (the year of "The Roaring 20s"), 1,079 by 2014 ("The World of Tomorrow"), and into four-digit territory consistently since. By the late 2010s the convention had outgrown its original venues and settled into the Hilton Birmingham Metropole, the same site that hosted 2026's edition.
The Metropole's location at the Birmingham National Exhibition Centre (NEC) gives CFz two practical advantages. Transport: Birmingham International station sits directly across from the venue, with rail to London in roughly an hour and a quarter, plus Manchester and most of the Midlands. Birmingham International Airport is the same short walk. Scale: the Metropole is a full conference hotel rather than a downtown property, so programming, hotel rooms, and overflow all live in the same complex.
The trade-off, as 2026's alarm tally illustrates, is that a large fire-rated hotel complex has a lot of pull stations. For a convention community that has watched its UK flagship hit four-figure registration, sell out, and survive multiple disruption weekends without serious incident, the running joke about "the annual CFz fire alarm" is genuinely affectionate, even when the punchline interrupts the closing ceremony.
Add CFz XXTREME Racing to your calendar and browse every other UK and European furry convention in one place.
Browse the Full CalendarConFuzzled has not yet published an official 2026 closing attendance figure at the time of writing. The 2025 official figure was 3,179. We will update this post when the official number lands.
The 2026 theme was "The Musical," and the main-stage centrepiece was an original two-act musical, Brok in Voice/Over, staged Saturday 23 May. CDs of the soundtrack later went on sale in the Dealers' Den.
ConFuzzled 2027 is titled XXTREME Racing, running 28 May to 1 June 2027 at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole. The reveal was made at the 2026 closing ceremony. Registration timelines follow the convention's usual schedule, with most opening months in advance.
The 2026 beneficiary was Tiny Paws MCR, a Manchester-based small-animal rescue. The final fundraising total had not been announced as of late May 2026.
At least one activation was a scheduled fire-alarm test, announced in advance by the convention on Wednesday 27 May at 13:30. The closing ceremony was interrupted by a separate, unplanned activation on the final day. The exact cause of the unplanned activations was not publicly confirmed by the convention.
ConFuzzled runs at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole, attached to the Birmingham NEC complex, with the Crowne Plaza and Arden hotels used for overflow. The location is a short walk from Birmingham International Airport and Birmingham International railway station. Venue, hotel, and travel notes are on the ConFuzzled convention page.
Planning a first CFz in 2027 starts with our first con survival guide, first con packing list, and hotel block guide cover the basics. To place CFz against the rest of the European circuit, the Europe cons 2026 guide ranks the continent's major events by attendance, season, and travel cost. The ConFuzzled convention page carries the per-year historic data (attendance, charity, themes, GoH).
Sources:
Have a correction, additional source, or moment to add (especially the official attendance/charity totals once posted)? Send us a note and we will update this recap when new data lands.
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