Portland's furry convention ran May 22 to 24, 2026 at the Hyatt Regency Portland at the Oregon Convention Center under the theme "Wild Wild Furry West." Furlandia posted a closing attendance of 4,395, a 61% year-over-year increase over 2025's 2,724 ("Time Machine"), and a new convention record by a wide margin. Memorial Day weekend in the Pacific Northwest delivered the biggest Furlandia by every measurable axis.
The 2026 program leaned heavily on three Guests of Honor with serious voice-acting and writing credentials (Jonah Scott (the English voice of Louis in Beastars), longtime furry author Kyell Gold, and voice actor Griffin Puatu) alongside two community moments that travelled well beyond the convention floor: the "discovered" 20 unclaimed hotel rooms in the room block (briefly viral when the convention surfaced them in late April) and the packed pup-play panel that turned attendees away with reported fifteen-minute lines for entry.
For evergreen travel info, hotel detail, and the full Past Years archive, see the Furlandia convention page.
After 2024's "Furries In Space" and 2025's "Time Machine," Furlandia for 2026 went straight into Western pastiche. "Wild Wild Furry West" gave the convention's volunteer art and decor teams a saddle-and-spurs visual register that the Pacific Northwest's late-May weather actually accommodated, Memorial Day weekend in Portland tends to be warm enough that the indoor staging didn't have to fight a snow-and-cold backdrop the way a winter Western theme might at a Boston or Stockholm convention.
The theme's strongest pairing was with Kyell Gold as Author GoH, Kyell's body of work includes furry-fiction novels that have leaned into period and frontier settings before, and the Western theme produced clear thematic alignment for his on-floor readings and signings.
For attendees thinking about how to plan a Portland trip (Memorial Day weekend hotel block, MAX line transit from PDX, off-Strip lodging options) our convention budgeting guide and hotel block guide cover the basics.
The headline figure landed via the convention's own closing-day announcement, amplified by FurryTMZ on May 25, 2026: 4,395 attendees, a 61% year-over-year increase over 2025's 2,724. That growth rate is exceptional at this scale, for context, the 2024→2025 jump was 32% (2,060 → 2,724) and the 2023→2024 jump was 104% (1,009 → 2,060). The 2026 number doesn't continue the post-pandemic doubling-pattern Furlandia ran from 2022-2024, but it's still a faster YoY than most U.S. furcons in the same size class.
Two structural factors look load-bearing on the 2026 growth:
Furlandia 2026's charity beneficiary was confirmed as The Pixie Project, a Portland-area non-profit pet adoption and rescue organization. The final fundraising total had not been published at the time of writing. For context, Furlandia's long-running charity history has anchored in Pacific Northwest animal-welfare organizations, Animal Aid PDX from 2016 to 2018, Chintimini Wildlife Center in 2019, with the Pixie Project as a recent rotation choice.
The continued focus on locally-rooted animal-welfare partners is structurally similar to ANW's long Sarvey Wildlife partnership and to AnthrOhio's regional Ohio-rotation pattern. It's a deliberate convention-positioning choice: locally-routed dollars produce a clearer convention-to-community link than a national or international beneficiary would.
One of the weirder pre-con moments of the 2026 Furlandia cycle came on April 30, when the convention announced that 20 previously unclaimed rooms in the host hotel block had been "discovered" and were being released back to attendees. The phrasing alone produced a memorable community-channel moment, FurryTMZ ran a post titled "Furlandia 'discovers' 20 unclaimed rooms in hotel block" and the comments oscillated between cheerful disbelief ("Insane RNG") and gentle accusation ("Booking fraud").
In practice the explanation is mundane: hotel-block management at U.S. furcons routinely produces orphan reservations, booked rooms whose holders cancel inside the cancellation window and which the convention staff didn't reclaim from the hotel side in time. The 20-room recovery suggests a deliberate audit pass closer to the convention dates than the original cancellation window. For attendees who'd missed the standard hotel block, the surprise release became a real second-chance shot at the venue.
For attendees who hit similar hotel-block dilemmas at other conventions, our furry convention hotel block guide walks through the typical second-pass mechanics (late releases, waitlist openings, transfer windows) which most conventions of this size operate informally rather than as published policy.
The most-talked-about programming moment at Furlandia 2026 was the convention's pup-play panel on May 23, which drew lines reported at fifteen minutes long and turned attendees away when the panel room hit capacity. The post that landed on FurryTMZ captured the moment with the headline "PACKED pup play panel at Furlandia has to turn people away!" and the discussion ran across community channels through the rest of the weekend.
Programming oversubscription at this scale is unusual at a furcon. Mainstream panels at a 4,000-attendee event typically reach comfortable mid-capacity rather than turning-away-at-the-door capacity. Two factors worth noting:
For attendees thinking about how to navigate a convention where programming runs at-capacity, our first con survival guide covers the basics on early-arrival strategies, room-flow timing, and queue etiquette.
The 2027 edition of Furlandia has not been formally announced at the time of writing. The Memorial Day weekend slot is the convention's traditional pattern (it has run on or near the holiday weekend in every year except its inaugural 2013 edition), which puts the most likely 2027 dates in the May 28 to 30 window if the convention sticks to the tradition. Theme + GoH + venue confirmations would typically land closer to the autumn-of-2026 registration open.
The structural question for Furlandia 2027 is the same one ANE faced in late 2026: does the venue still fit? At 4,395 attendees the Hyatt Regency Portland at the Oregon Convention Center is workable but starting to feel tight. If the convention continues to scale at any meaningful rate, a venue expansion conversation (additional overflow hotel, more programming-room footprint, perhaps a larger Oregon Convention Center hall) is the natural next step.
Furlandia is one of dozens of major furry conventions worldwide. Browse the full calendar to plan the rest of your year.
Browse the Full Calendar4,395 attendees, a record and a 61% year-over-year increase over 2025's 2,724. The figure was posted by the convention at close and amplified across community channels on May 25, 2026.
"Wild Wild Furry West", a Western-pastiche theme with saddle-and-spurs visual staging across the Oregon Convention Center venue floor.
The Pixie Project, a Portland-area pet adoption and rescue non-profit. Final fundraising total had not been published at the time of writing.
On April 30, 2026 the convention announced it had "discovered" 20 unclaimed rooms in the host hotel block and released them back to attendees. The recovery is a routine post-cancellation-window cleanup, but the phrasing made it one of the most-shared lead-up moments.
Hyatt Regency Portland at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, OR. The venue is connected to the convention center by skybridge and sits on the MAX light-rail line, with direct train access from Portland International Airport (PDX). For full venue and travel info, see the Furlandia convention page.
For first-time Furlandia attendees considering 2027, our first con survival guide, first con packing list, and convention budgeting guide cover the basics. If you are weighing Furlandia against the wider North American circuit, our North American cons 2026 guide ranks the continent's major events by size, season, and travel cost.
Sources:
#furlandia on Bluesky, surfaced via FurryGuides' hashtag harvester (attribution per photo).Have a correction, additional source, or the official 2026 closing attendance/charity total to add? Send us a note and we will update this recap when new data lands.
AnthrOhio 2026 recap: 3,902 attendees (+53% YoY), Rock You Like A Furricane theme, W.A.G.S. 4 Kids charity, plus Exhibitors Row debut.
Anthro New England 2026 recap: a record 7,284 attendees, $50,000 split between Wings Wildlife and Queer Scouts, "It's a Western!" theme, and a 2027 venue expansion.
Anthro Northwest 2026 recap: a record 3,466 attendees, $30,040 for Sarvey Wildlife, a "Nature" theme, and a New Year's weekend at the Hyatt Regency Seattle.