There is a version of TFF 2026 you would read in the official closing-ceremony post. That version is short, upbeat, and ends with a charity number. Then there is the version that played out across Telegram and Bluesky over four days in late March, where the talking point was not the theme but the Sheraton's security policy.
Texas Furry Fiesta 2026 ran March 26-29 under the theme "Star Peet" at the Sheraton Dallas Hotel and drew 9,135 attendees, a 5.7% increase over 2025. The convention raised $42,183.70 for C.A.R.E. (Center for Animal Research and Education). By any normal measure that is a strong year. The weekend was anything but normal.
After 2025's loose "Tea Party" framing, TFF 2026 leaned into a more committed concept. "Star Peet" ran a celestial-meets-Texas aesthetic across the badge art, signage, and dance stage. The visual identity was clean and the convention's art team carried it through the program book and lanyards. Most attendees referred to it as the year of the comet badge.
The theme worked best in the larger function spaces where the lighting design could carry the cosmic angle. Smaller rooms felt less thematic, which is normal for any convention of this scale.
TFF 2026 brought in three Guests of Honor, all working in different lanes.
Finn the Panther served as a primary GoH. Finn also held the dual distinction of being a GoH at Furnal Equinox the same year, an unusual two-con cycle that picked up community attention in March.
Beetlecat Originals anchored the maker side of the lineup. The signing and meet-and-greet sessions ran Friday and Saturday afternoons with consistent queues.
Part Time Dragons rounded out the GoH list with a focus on the music and dance programming. The Saturday-night main-stage set ran late.
The most-discussed story of TFF 2026 did not come from the convention floor. It came from the hotel.
Starting Friday night, Sheraton Dallas Hotel security began shutting down attendee-organized room parties. The first reports surfaced around 1 AM on Saturday morning. By 6 AM, the community Telegram channels were carrying screenshots and audio clips describing a Sheraton crackdown on room gatherings broadly, with security citing a "no equipment in rooms" policy that included DJ kits, lighting rigs, and any setup that read as an organized party.
By the time the story was several hours old, multiple party hosts had been evicted from their hotel rooms with no clear path to a refund. The Sheraton's stance, as described by attendees on the scene, was that any noise or equipment that crossed a threshold the hotel did not publicly define would trigger an immediate shutdown.
Two specific points fueled the community reaction:
Neither theory was confirmed publicly by the convention or the hotel, but both shaped the Saturday and Sunday hallway conversation.
At the closing ceremony on Sunday night, TFF leadership addressed the room-party shutdowns directly. The con's stated position for 2027: "Next year, we [the con] will be the first response." The wording suggests TFF plans to intervene as an intermediary between attendees and hotel security before next year's edition reaches the same friction point.
Friday afternoon, the Dealer's Den hit a queue that ran two hours deep. Photos of the line "overflowing out of the cones" at the room entrance circulated widely. Convention staff added more queuing space and adjusted entry flow on Saturday and Sunday, but the Friday queue was the longest TFF has run in several years.
The underlying cause: TFF has grown roughly 14% in two years (from 8,001 in 2024 to 9,135 in 2026) while the Sheraton Dallas function-space allocation has not grown at the same rate. The Dealer's Den is currently sized for a 2023-era TFF.
This is the kind of friction that signals a future venue conversation, but TFF has not publicly indicated any intent to leave the Sheraton.
The live-streaming heckler. Saturday saw an attendee escorted out by convention security after disrupting programming with a live-stream. Speculation about the individual's identity circulated but was not officially confirmed by either the convention or the individual.
The Sunday police response. Sunday saw Dallas police arrive in the Sheraton lobby with flashing lights. Per attendees on the scene, an individual was detained and formally trespassed from the property for six months. The convention has not publicly identified the individual or the precipitating incident.
The two-hour Dealer's Den line. Mentioned above and notable enough to bear repeating: TFF is officially in the size bracket where intake logistics need a structural rethink.
TFF 2027 is already on the calendar. The con returns March 18-21, 2027 under the theme "A Nightmare on Olive Street." The horror-and-Dallas tilt was announced via the official TFF X account.
GoH nominations closed September 30, 2025; the selection has not been publicly announced as of May 2026.
The room-party situation will be the single most-watched aspect of TFF 2027 setup. The convention's "first response" commitment at the 2026 closing ceremony sets expectations that some kind of attendee-facing party policy or hotel-liaison program will be in place before next March.
The 2026 charity beneficiary was the Center for Animal Research and Education (C.A.R.E.), a non-profit exotic-cat sanctuary based in north Texas. C.A.R.E. takes in retired or rescued big cats and provides lifetime care, education, and veterinary support. The fit with a Texas furry convention is natural and the partnership has been smooth on both sides.
The $42,183.70 raised at TFF 2026 came in below 2025's $51,500.69, also to C.A.R.E. The dip is modest and the multi-year trend is still up, but 2025 remains the higher-water year for charity dollars even though 2026 was the larger convention by headcount.
For all the room-party drama, several things at TFF 2026 ran cleanly and deserve acknowledgment.
The fursuit parade drew over 800 participants by community count, one of the largest in TFF's history. The route through the Sheraton's main concourse handled the volume cleanly and the photographers staked out near the closing point reported a steady rhythm.
The dance competition ran on schedule across both Friday and Saturday nights despite the late-night room-party issues. The judges' decisions held up under community review and the prize structure cleared without controversy.
The volunteer corps absorbed two hours of overflow on Friday afternoon at the Dealer's Den without anything breaking. Several attendees reported staff actively rotating water bottles to people stuck in the line.
These things matter because they are the substrate of a convention. A weekend can survive a hotel-security crackdown if the core programming continues to deliver. TFF 2026's core programming delivered.
| Metric | 2026 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Attendance | 9,135 | 8,640 |
| Charity raised | $42,183.70 | $51,500.69 |
| Charity beneficiary | C.A.R.E. | C.A.R.E. |
| Year-over-year growth | +5.7% | +8.0% |
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