Sorting our corpus by country produces one number that does not look like the others. The United States has 70 published conventions and 32 recurring events. Germany has 7 conventions and 21 recurring events.
Germany runs a tenth of America's conventions and about two thirds of its recurring events. Something structural is going on, and it is not that one scene is bigger than the other.
Counting is the whole argument here, so here is the count.
| United States | Germany | |
|---|---|---|
| Published conventions | 70 | 7 |
| Recurring events | 32 | 21 |
| Events per convention | 0.46 | 3.0 |
An American furry lives near roughly one convention for every two recurring events. A German furry lives near three recurring events for every convention. That ratio is the story, and everything below is what produces it.
Of the seven German conventions we publish, one is Eurofurence, which drew 9,139 attendees in 2026 and is the largest furry convention outside North America. The next largest German con is EAST at 948 in 2025, then Furvaria at 177. Add Austria and Switzerland and the picture barely changes: Awoostria at 1,702 and Golden Leaves at 300.
So the German-speaking convention scene is one very large annual event and a scattering of small ones, several of which are camps or venue-style gatherings rather than hotel conventions.
The United States has no equivalent concentration. Anthrocon drew 20,618 in 2026 and Midwest FurFest 16,925, but there are also 68 other American conventions, and a large number of them are in the 2,000 to 5,000 range. An American furry can plausibly reach several conventions a year without leaving their region.
Austria and Switzerland add three conventions and two recurring events between them, and only one is a city hotel convention: Awoostria in Vienna, at 1,702. The other two are small residential gatherings, Lakeside Furs at a group house on the Achensee (70) and Golden Leaves at a mountain hotel in Hasliberg (300).
Counted together as DACH the region holds 10 conventions and 23 events, which is 2.3 events per convention. That is lower than Germany's 3.0, because Austria and Switzerland have conventions without the standing event calendar underneath them. It is still five times the American ratio.
If your country has one big convention, the rest of the year needs filling, and the German scene filled it with standing local events that repeat.
Germany's 21 recurring events break down as 10 fursuit walks, 8 furdances, 1 club night, 1 festival and 1 furmeet. Eighteen of the 21 are one of two formats.
Both formats are built to recur. Karlsruhe has run its suitwalk since 2015 and holds one every two months. Dortmund runs monthly, Hannover quarterly, Munich and several others twice a year. The furdances are the evening counterpart, with Bavarian Furdance in Nuremberg, Nordic Furdance in Hamburg and six more across the country, each renting a hall for one night at a time.
Neither format needs a hotel, a badge system, or a year of planning. A suitwalk needs a route and a meeting point. A furdance needs a hall and a DJ. That is why a country with seven conventions can support 21 events, and it is the mechanism behind the ratio in the table.
Browse our complete calendar with dates, locations, and details for every upcoming furry convention.
View Full CalendarThe American 32 break down differently: 13 club nights, 5 bowling nights, 4 picnics, 4 furdances, 2 furmeets, 2 game nights and 2 fursuit walks.
The single largest American format is the club night, a furry evening hosted at a nightclub that exists anyway. Germany has one. The German equivalent is the furdance, where organisers rent a venue and run the night themselves, and there are eight of those.
These are the same social event with a different supply chain, and the difference shows in the ticket. American club nights sit around 20 USD, close to an ordinary club cover. German furdances run 16 to 63 EUR with a median of 36.50, because the organisers are paying for the hall rather than splitting a door take. It also shows in the age limits: American club nights are mostly 21+ because American bars are, while German furdances are mostly 18+.
The other American formats are lower-key and domestic. Every picnic and every game night we publish is American, and both are free. That is a scene filling gaps between conventions with cheap local hangouts rather than with a standing public calendar.
Germany runs ten fursuit walks. The United States runs two.
A fursuit walk is free, all-ages, happens in daylight in a city centre, and asks for no ticket and no hotel. It is the single most accessible thing in the fandom, and it is a normal feature of German civic life and nearly absent from American public life.
So the honest answer to "how do I start" is geographic. A German newcomer can walk into the fandom on a Saturday afternoon for the price of a train ticket, and there is probably one within a few hours of them at some point this year. An American newcomer is far more likely to be choosing between a 21+ club night and a convention badge, both of which cost money and one of which has an age limit.
If you are in the first group, our fursuit walk guide covers what the day looks like. If you are in the second, the format comparison covers what is actually available to you and what each thing costs.
This is a count of what we publish, not a census of the fandom. Two caveats worth stating plainly.
Coverage is uneven by design and by effort. We know we are missing conventions in under-researched countries, and a recurring local event is much harder to find than a convention because it is announced in a Telegram group rather than on a website. The American number for small local meets is probably understated more than the German one, since German walks and dances publish properly.
And the ratio does not mean the German fandom is more active per head. Germany has about a quarter of the population of the United States. What the ratio describes is the SHAPE of each scene, not its size.
The format fits how German cities work: dense walkable centres, good public transport, and a civic culture where a permitted group walking through town is ordinary. It also compounds. Karlsruhe has run since 2015, and organisers in other cities copied a format they had already attended.
Within German-speaking Europe, yes. It drew 9,139 in 2026 against 948 for the next largest German convention. No single American convention holds that share of its national scene.
Two that we publish, in Columbus and New York City, both monthly and both free. The format exists, it is just not the backbone of the American calendar the way it is in Germany.
The German one is cheaper and easier to enter, because free daytime events are the norm. The American one has more conventions within reach once you are in. Different advantages at different stages.
Our events listing filters by format and country, and the European convention guide covers the multi-day side.
Every count above is derived from the published convention and event pages on this site, each of which cites the organiser's own listing. Totals were re-derived at the time of writing: 197 published conventions and 79 published events.
Primary sources for the figures quoted here:
Per-event ticket prices and age restrictions are recorded on each event page from the organiser's own listing.
European furdances are nonprofit-run with 600 attendees and buffet dinners. American furry club nights are 21+ bar events. Compare both scenes.
Conventions, furdances, club nights, furmeets, suitwalks and picnics are eight different things. What each one costs, who can go, and which to try first.
Furdances are one-night furry dance parties with DJs, fursuiting, and 50 to 600 attendees. Here is everything you need to know before your first one.