There are now more than 150 active furry conventions running every year, from massive city-center mega-events to fifty-person cabin retreats in the woods. That is great news if you live somewhere with options, and overwhelming news if you are trying to pick your first con or commit your annual travel budget. The wrong choice can mean a lonely weekend in a hotel that costs too much; the right one can become the trip you plan your whole year around.
This guide cuts the decision down to four levers: size, region, budget, and vibe. Run through them in order and you will land on a shortlist of two or three cons that actually fit you. Use our full convention list to cross-check dates and the stats page when you want hard attendance numbers.
Start with money. If your total weekend budget is under $500, stay regional: a small con within driving distance, splitting a hotel room with two or three friends, badge in the $50 to $80 range. If you have $500 to $1,000 to spend, you can comfortably hit a mid-sized con anywhere in your continent, including a flight and a shared room. Above $1,000 the whole map opens up and you can pick any mega-con in the world, including international travel.
Next, ask if this is your first con. If yes, push yourself one tier smaller than your budget allows. A first-timer who can afford a mega-con will often have a better weekend at a 5,000-person regional event, because making friends and finding your footing is easier when the hallway is not a wall of fursuiters.
Finally, pick on vibe. Want the biggest dance floors? Eurofurence, ConFuzzled, and Midwest FurFest run the most serious club programming. Want art and makers? Anthrocon, Further Confusion, and Midwest FurFest have the densest dealers dens. Want trees and a campfire? Camp Feral, Howl, and Woods Flock are your shortlist, and you register the morning registration opens or you do not get in.
The mega tier is a small club: Furry Weekend Atlanta, which hit 17,301 attendees in May 2026 to claim the world's-largest title; Midwest FurFest, with 16,925 in Rosemont in 2025; Anthrocon in Pittsburgh, the historical champion still pulling 13,000 to 16,000 each July; and Eurofurence in Hamburg, the European heavyweight in the 12,000 range. These are city-scale events. Whole downtown blocks turn furry for the weekend, the host hotel and three overflow hotels sell out months in advance, and the dealers den at Anthrocon and MFF runs more than 350 tables.
What you get is density. Every panel slot has three good options. The dance hall is properly staffed with name DJs and a real production rig. Photo ops, parades, charity auctions, and meet-ups happen back to back from morning until 2am. What you give up is intimacy and money. Host hotels at these events run $250 to $400 per night during con weekend. Lines for registration, the fursuit lounge, and headline events can swallow an hour. As a first-timer you can absolutely have a great weekend, but you have to work harder to find your people.
The middle tier is the sweet spot for most attendees, and not by a small margin. Further Confusion drew 6,811 to San Jose in January 2026. Texas Furry Fiesta runs in the 4,000 to 5,000 range each spring in Dallas. ConFuzzled in Birmingham is 3,000 to 4,000. These cons have enough programming to fill a four-day weekend without repeats, a real dealers den, a proper dance, and headline guests, but the hallway is small enough that by Saturday night you recognize half the faces walking past.
Hotel costs typically run $180 to $250 per night, badges sit in the $60 to $90 range, and the convention staff usually still feel approachable. If you are choosing your first con and have no strong pull toward a specific mega, start here.
The intimate tier is where the friendships happen. NordicFuzzCon in Stockholm runs 1,500 to 2,000. Megaplex in Orlando lands in the 2,000 to 3,000 band. Furry Migration near Minneapolis is 1,000 to 2,000. Camp Feral in Ontario caps at 150 by design. JMoF in Japan is 1,500 to 2,000, and FurDU in Australia is 1,000 to 2,000.
You give up scale: smaller dealers den, one dance floor instead of two, fewer headline guests. You gain everything else. Hotel blocks at $150 to $180 per night are common, badges drop to $50 to $80, the Guest of Honor will probably remember your name by Sunday, and the social fabric is genuinely different. If you went to one mega-con and felt invisible, this tier is the fix.
The four pillars are Anthrocon in Pittsburgh (East, July), Midwest FurFest in Rosemont (Midwest, December), Further Confusion in San Jose (West, January), and Furry Weekend Atlanta (Southeast, March/May). Between them you can put a mega-con on your calendar in any season. Below that tier you get strong regional options: Texas Furry Fiesta in Dallas, Megaplex in Orlando, Furry Migration in Minneapolis, BLFC in Reno, and a long tail of smaller cons in nearly every state. See our North America 2026 roundup for the full breakdown.
Eurofurence is the anchor, pulling 12,000 to Hamburg each September and serving as the continent's de facto annual reunion. ConFuzzled in Birmingham is the UK flagship at 3,000 to 4,000. NordicFuzzCon in Stockholm runs the Scandinavian scene in the 1,500 to 2,000 range. Beyond those three you have a thick layer of mid-sized national cons (Furcation in the UK, FurtherConfusion's German siblings, smaller Dutch and French events). European cons tend to lean harder into music and dance programming than their North American counterparts. See our Europe 2026 roundup.
JMoF in Japan and FurDU on the Gold Coast in Australia are the regional anchors, both in the 1,000 to 2,000 attendee band, both growing fast year over year. ThaiTails in Bangkok has become a popular winter destination because the weekend doubles as a tropical vacation. Korean and Taiwanese cons are smaller but expanding. See our Asia-Pacific 2026 roundup.
Confuror in Mexico City is the largest and is growing every year. Santiago Anthro Fest in Chile and a handful of Brazilian events round out the region. Costs are dramatically lower than North America or Europe, which makes these excellent destination picks if you have flexible travel and want a different cultural angle on the fandom.
Total con cost breaks down into four buckets: badge, hotel, travel, food. Badge is rarely the deciding factor; it ranges from $50 at small regionals to $90 at the biggest mega-cons. Hotel and travel are where the real money lives. A regional con you can drive to, splitting a $180 room four ways, lands the whole weekend in the $300 to $450 range before food. The same weekend at a mega-con with a flight and a $320 host hotel room split two ways climbs past $1,200 fast.
The cheapest cons that still deliver a full weekend experience tend to be Furry Migration, Megaplex, Furtastic, and the smaller European nationals. They hit the trifecta: cheap regional hotels, badges in the $50 to $70 range, and enough programming to keep you busy from Friday afternoon to Sunday evening. For a full breakdown of how the numbers work, see our convention budgeting guide.
If the dance floor is the reason you go, your shortlist is short and obvious. Eurofurence runs what many regulars call the best furry dance production in the world, with multi-night themed parties and a proper rave room. ConFuzzled brings the UK club-scene energy. Midwest FurFest has steadily built a serious dance program with two simultaneous floors and big-name DJs. Further Confusion's late-night programming is also strong. For a deeper comparison of European furdance culture versus North American con-dances, see our furdances guide.
Anthrocon, Midwest FurFest, and Further Confusion run the three largest dealers dens in the fandom, each with 350-plus tables and a separate artist alley. If you are coming to commission art, buy fursuit parts, or sell your own work, these are the three cons that justify the booth fee.
Camp Feral on a lakeside site in Ontario is the original and still the benchmark. Howl and Woods Flock occupy similar territory: small capacity, deep forest, tents and cabins instead of hotel rooms, swimming and bonfires instead of dance floors. The catch is that registration for all three is genuinely competitive. Camp Feral's 150 spots sell out in minutes. Mark the registration day on your calendar, set an alarm, and have your payment ready.
Megaplex, Furry Migration, and the regional one-day events lean low-key by design. Quieter hallways, earlier closing times for the main spaces, less of the late-night party culture. If you are bringing kids, attending with a partner who is new to fandom, or just want a calmer pace, this is the tier to target.
For a first con, pick a mid-sized event within easy travel distance. Texas Furry Fiesta, Further Confusion, Megaplex, NordicFuzzCon, and ConFuzzled are all strong first-con choices for their respective regions. The reason is consistent: at 3,000 to 7,000 attendees you have full programming variety without the anonymity tax of a mega. You will run into the same people twice, which is how friendships start.
Veterans tend to settle into one of two patterns. The first is the annual flagship: one big con per year, usually a mega, treated as the family reunion. The second is the vibe rotation: one dance con, one maker con, one camping con per year, mixing up the experience. Neither is wrong. If you are five or ten cons deep and still going to the same event every year, that is also fine, but consider trying a different tier or region once just to recalibrate what you actually like.
Registration timelines are sticky from year to year. Use these as planning windows; confirm exact dates on each con's official site as 2027 announcements drop.
| Convention | City | Reg opens (est.) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anthrocon 2027 | Pittsburgh, PA | July 2026 (early bird) | Hotel block fills fastest in the fandom |
| Furry Weekend Atlanta 2027 | Atlanta, GA | July 2026 | New world's-largest; expect a rush |
| Midwest FurFest 2026 | Rosemont, IL | Aug-Sep 2026 | December con, regs open late summer |
| Further Confusion 2027 | San Jose, CA | Nov 2026 | January con, hotel block before reg |
| Eurofurence 2027 | Hamburg, DE | Nov 2026 | Hotel + reg often bundled, watch closely |
| ConFuzzled 2027 | Birmingham, UK | Oct-Nov 2026 | Lottery system in some years |
| Texas Furry Fiesta 2027 | Dallas, TX | Sep-Oct 2026 | Spring con, early reg saves money |
| Camp Feral 2027 | Ontario, CA | Spring 2027 | 150-spot cap; sells out in minutes |
| Megaplex 2026 | Orlando, FL | Summer 2026 | Late-summer con, reg opens early |
| NordicFuzzCon 2027 | Stockholm, SE | Aug-Sep 2026 | Spring con, plan flights early |
A note on hotel blocks: at every con on this list, the host-hotel block fills faster than the badge cap. If you want a room in the headquarters hotel rather than a $50 cab ride away, the hotel block opening is the date that matters most, not the badge sale. See our furry con calendar 2027 for live tracking as dates lock in.
Browse our complete calendar with dates, locations, and details for every upcoming furry convention.
View Full CalendarAs of mid-2026, Furry Weekend Atlanta is the largest, with 17,301 attendees at its May 2026 event in Atlanta. Midwest FurFest is the close runner-up at 16,925 from its 2025 Rosemont event. Anthrocon in Pittsburgh held the world's-largest title for most of the 2010s and is still in the 13,000 to 16,000 range, putting it third. The top three are tight enough that the order will likely shuffle again in 2027.
For full weekenders, smaller regional cons with cheap regional hotels deliver the best dollar-for-experience ratio: Furry Migration in Minneapolis, Furtastic, and Megaplex in Orlando are consistent winners. Badges in the $50 to $80 range plus hotels in the $130 to $170 band can land your whole weekend under $500 if you split a room and drive. Regional one-day furmeets and dances ($20 to $50 entry) are cheaper still, but they are not the same thing as a full con.
Most veterans recommend a mid-sized con (3,000 to 7,000 attendees) for first-timers. Mega-cons can feel anonymous; the hallway is so packed and the panels so full that it is easy to spend the whole weekend without actually meeting anyone. Tiny cons can have the opposite problem: not enough programming variety to keep a new attendee engaged for three full days. The middle tier hits the sweet spot.
Plenty of attendees do two to four cons per year, and a hardcore group does six or more. Budget is the main constraint. A common pattern is one mega-con as the annual anchor plus two or three regional cons for variety. If you are stacking multiple cons, watch for back-to-back weekends; the second con of a two-weekend run is brutal without a recovery week in between.
This happens often, especially in spring when several mid-sized cons cluster. Decide based on three factors: travel cost, guest of honor lineup, and which friend group is going to which event. Most people alternate years between conflicting cons rather than trying to split the weekend. If a con conflicts with your local regional every year, that is a signal to commit to one tradition rather than wrestle the choice annually.
Yes. Every major con runs a staffed safety team, enforces a clear code of conduct, and operates on a strong "no photos without asking" cultural norm. Solo first-timers are extremely common; you will not stand out. The best move is to join the official Discord or Telegram group for your chosen con in the weeks before you travel, introduce yourself, and look for a meet-up time on day one. Most cons have an explicit first-timers meet-up Friday afternoon for exactly this reason.
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