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Gateway FurMeet (GFM) 2026 is scheduled for Oct 16-18, 2026 in St. Louis, United States. The announced theme is 10th Birthday!. Guest of honor information lists DragonMelde. The charity partner is St. Louis Pet Rescue.
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From attendees
Friday, Saturday and Sunday. 35 for ages 7 to 12
Adds a sponsor badge ribbon. 85 for ages 7 to 12
Adds a special gift and the Guest of Honor reception. 150 for ages 7 to 12, whose rate does NOT include the reception
Every tier is priced twice over, by AGE and by date, which is unusual enough to be worth reading carefully: the figures above are the adult early rates, the 7-to-12 rate sits beside each one, and all of them rise on 19 September when early registration closes - to 90, 140 and 210 for adults, 45, 95 and 160 for youth. The 15 recorded as the early-bird saving is the ADULT attending step; sponsor saves 15 and supersponsor 10, so the discount is not uniform across the ladder. A parent accompanying a paid 7-to-17 registration attends free on a "Tag-along" badge issued on-site, and a child of 6 or under attends free with an optional 5 badge. Day passes only go on sale the day after early registration closes.
St. Louis sits at the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers in central Missouri:
Curated stays near Hilton St. Louis at the Ballpark, St. Louis, United States.
A year-by-year record of this convention
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At a glance
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2027
Dates TBA
2026
Oct 16-18
Theme
10th Birthday!
2025
Oct 3-5
Theme
Magical Menagerie
Want more context? Compare this convention against other furry events or browse the attendance rankings.
Gateway FurMeet 2025 drew 1,288 attendees to St. Louis for its magical-themed weekend. The convention raised over $19,000 for Friends of the Pet Adoption Center.
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3 quirks & policies that don't fit the highlights grid.
Cardinal Clash: a 1v1 single-elimination dance bracket
Gateway runs two separate dance competitions alongside its main dance program. The headline format is Cardinal Clash, a 1v1 single-elimination bracket capped at sixteen dancers. Prelims are a showcase round where five dancers perform back-to-back for 30 seconds each to random song assignments, no advance reveal, no fursuit requirement. The top sixteen advance to bracket finals, where each battle is two alternating 30 to 45-second rounds to the same song, judged on dynamics, originality, personality, execution, and response to music and opponent. Ties trigger a third-song runoff.
Notarized parental consent for unaccompanied minors
Gateway's `/minor-forms` policy goes one step further than the typical signed-PDF model. The parental permission form must be notarized in two specific scenarios: when a 17-year-old attends without a parent or legal guardian present, and when any minor under 18 is supervised by an adult who is not their parent or guardian. Both cases require a notary public attestation, not just a parental signature.
Day passes do not unlock until early registration closes
Gateway's 2026 day-badge release is engineered against walk-ins: single-day passes ($45-$50) do not go on sale until September 19, the day AFTER the early-bird weekend cutoff at 11:59 PM on September 18. The structure forces a binary choice, pre-register at the cheaper weekend rate or wait until late-window day badges open with no overlap to undercut early sponsors. The Sponsor t-shirt is also only guaranteed for pre-reg, not at-door buyers. Refund and badge-rollover requests close October 25.
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