6 Hours at Midwest FurFest – My experience

I went to Midwest FurFest a few years ago with some friends who wanted to check it out. My friends at the time weren’t particularly ‘furry’, but were very much in to nerd culture, cosplay and conventions. We were hanging out in Chicago and Midwest Furriest was on, so we decided to check it out for the day.

Queue queue queue!

As big and organised as MFF is, the queues were LONG. Registration took a couple of hours. We did see a lot of fun sights along the way though, some furries with really cute kigus and suits, some protogens with REALLY cool mask effects, and some people were playing funky music and queue games to pass the time.

Even when queuing at a con (which happens a ton) there’s still a lot to see and do!

Dealer’s Den is HUGE!

One of the main attractions to a small group of us who just wanted to check it out for half a day was the Dealer’s Den. It was very very busy! but there were so many artists I recognised who I never would have seen otherwise! I was thrilled to see stalls by Madshy and Oakley’s Creations.

There was also a pretty sizeable adult Dealer’s Den showcasing the more NSFW side of the fandom. We didn’t spent a ton of time in that area but I do think it’s good that the con makes space for it!

We also checked out Artists Alley and that was super busy too! It was great seeing artists working away at their tables and getting a bunch of commissions in the process!

Food was awkward

I will preface this with the fact that we ended up needing food pretty much dead on lunch time. There were street food vendors in the Dealer’s Den when we went, but the queues were crazy.

We did struggle to find food at the event and a few of us wandered off in to a nearby restaurant outside of the convention space. If I was attending properly I would absolutely have taken some food bars with me.

Sky Bridge!

We got to walk down the Midwest FurFest Sky Bridge! This is kind of a well known hotel landmark many will have seen written about on social media and seen in photos. It’s pretty cool, there’s a lot of suiters looking for photo ops in this area so we got to see a bunch of them!

Quick but limited impressions

Based on a whirlwind tour of the convention I’d love to go back someday. It’s kind of the must do con for most furries, even worldwide! What surprised me most was how decent the queue management seems, even at such a large scale. I’d love to know what attending feels like!