In this episode!

• This episode can hold so much charities!Breaking last years record! But by how much?
• Animations from around the web
• An interview with Labb Rat, known for her commentary videos, about the importance of caring about mental health and escaping toxic environments.

But first, the latest charity news from the fandom in this October edition of Digging Up Positivity and boy are here a lot of them! Do keep in mind, all amounts are converted to US dollars.

Welcome to Digging Up Positivity, where we cover positive news from the Furry Fandom and beyond! Where we cover charities from conventions and fundraisers all over the world, including some really special moments at Eurofurence, some lovely animation news and an exclusive interview with one of the more relaxing chillstreamers: Casey Explosion.

But first! All those wonderful charities, and with con-season going in full effect, there sureare a LOT of them!

European furry convention Eurofurence has announced that it will be changing its dates and venue for EF27:

Due to unforeseen circumstances, we need to change our venue and date in 2023. We fully understand that this means an inconvenience for those of you who have already made plans and we apologise for that. It was a choice made with the confidence that it will be best for EF in the long run, but we can assure everyone that the choice was not made lightly.

We are going to announce detailed information ASAP.

We will open a new chapter for Eurofurence so you can continue to enjoy all EF has to offer and we look forward to writing it with you.

Eurofurence 27 "Black Magic" had been scheduled for 2-6 August 2023 at Berlin's Estrel Hotel, its venue since 2014. [tip: Rakuen Growlithe]

Hello, and a big welcome to the September edition of Digging Up Positivity! These months are the height of convention season and it shows! So many events, both online and offline.

Last premiere I was at Eurofurence together with FoxAmoor, the guest of the previous episode. But when I got back to the Netherlands, merely half a day later I was on the road to Splinter, an amazing four day event in the Netherlands. And after that, we were guests at the Stork Run in The Hague, more about this all that later. And at the end of the episode I will tell you how to win one of these amazing Thabo paw pillows from my artwork Tee merch store.

But first, the astounding amount of charities since last episode!

Welcome to this months Digging Up Positivity, as this video is premiering, I will be at Eurofurence! And because of that, our special guest is this years Guest of Honour: FoxAmoore! But first, all those amazing charities from in and around the fandom.

As governments restrict gatherings of people, furry conventions are being postponed or canceled. Here's a quick run down of events and their status as of December 27th 2021 20:30 EDT (UTC-4) in response to the COVID-19 pandemic - updates to come.

A new section has been added for past events impacted for historical purposes. More information will be added to deal with virtual versions of a physical gathering if applicable.

Links go to statements if available, or to their Twitter feed or site. See also: Furry Fandom and the Internet forced back to roots by viral outbreak

Update 2021 Year End - As conventions start to open again, the overall list of cancellations and delays is becoming clunky. The final update will be today December 27th, 2021. Any future cancelations or delays will be their own newsbytes or articles in the future.

Over 14-18 August, Berlin's Estrel hotel was filled to capacity with furs attending Eurofurence 25: 'Fractures in Time' - both the largest furry convention outside the United States (attracting 3412 this year; a 400 increase), and the oldest running furry convention in the world. EF25 celebrated 25 years since Unci made the post on alt.fan.furry leading to the con's creation.

Due to the eponymous fractures in time, Eurofurence 25 started by showing the closing video during the opening ceremonies! That was hardly the only disturbance in time and space, as attendees also saw Uncle Kage announcing the move of Anthrocon to Pittsburgh before time stabilised enough to continue as normal. It was the most impressive opening of the past five years, and you can get a sense of the excitement from one attendee's upload on YouTube. Beyond the opening ceremonies, it's impossible for any one person to see everything. I'll give an idea of what I saw and what was going on so that everyone has an idea of what they may be able to expect in future years.

Update 03/09: The final charity total is €42 105,37.

Eurofurence 24 ran from 22 August to 26 August this year. It was the biggest one so far and a great opportunity to meet friends from all over and enjoy oneself. There were several panels, discussions and events which are worth noting. However, conventions are very personal experiences, so while I will focus on some larger themes, your own con experiences may vary. I have previously reported on Eurofurence 21 and Eurofurence 23.

The fandom continues to show strong growth on the last weekend of August 2018. A weekend in which 5 furry conventions took place: Fur Affinity: United, Eurofurence, Camp Feral!, Indyfurcon, and DenFur. Of them the inaugural gathering in the state of Colorado has turned heads as it had shattered the first year attendance record of a furry convention at 2,086.

The first year attendance record was previously held by FurryPinas, a convention in the Philippines at 1,542 attendees, which acquired it just this last May making this year a strong startup for furry gatherings in general. Other conventions also had solid growth in attendance rates. Fur Affinity: United showing its first growth since their move out of the state of New Jersey. The number breakdowns for last weekend's cons can be seen below:

Update 6/29: Story indicated previous record holder was Biggest Little Fur Con, was corrected to be FurryPinas. -Cirrus credited for correction.

Furry photographer Exodus Arias was not impressed upon reading the pictured note:

[…] the worst attempt at hiring a Cameraman for a convention ever. Clearly they want some specific footage yet unclear as to what.

Additional information was provided by another attendee of LondonFurs' Summer Weekender, ThunderTomCat of MK Furs:

That's curious, there was a guy on the boat party and later the meet in London who was in a business suit, not interacting, just dropping of their business card (the photo attached) to random people...a tad weird.

Even more weird: said card, shown below, came with a teasing mention of hard cash.

Update (31 Jul): The person behind the offers has given a response, published below.

With so many of the furry fandom's largest conventions originating in the USA, it tends to dominate global discussions of furry culture. In Europe, Germany stands as a major centre of the furry fandom with multiple conventions and events being held within its borders. But, for many other countries, the furry fandom is much smaller, or may just be starting out and is consequentially less visible.

Zik wrote a series on "foreign" furry fandoms for [adjective][species] in 2012 and 2013, covering Japan, Brazil, New Zealand and Australia, but many others were not discussed.

Last August, furs from all over Europe and beyond gathered in Berlin for Eurofurence, the largest furry convention outside of North America. Between all the furpiles and yiffing fursuit walks, art shows and other activities, some furs took the opportunity to speak about their own furry communities and the challenges faced with starting up the furry fandom in a country where it previously didn't exist.

One of the drawbacks of living in South Africa is that the furry scene is currently rather small. Despite attempts to bring furs from all over the country together for a national meet, we had limited successes and, even when we managed a national furmeet, only assembled between 14 and 16 attendees. Things have improved during the last few years, and meet sizes have increased quite dramatically, even to the point that plans are underway to reboot the South Afrifur convention in 2016.

So, when I moved to Europe, I was glad to finally have the opportunity to attend proper, large-scale furry conventions. I chose two different cons to attend. One was Lakeside Furs, which is a relatively small (approximately 50 attendees) Austrian convention. It made sense as I was now living in Austria and it offered a way to meet the Austrian furry community. I also chose Eurofurence which, as the largest furry convention in Europe, is an almost obligatory furry visit. Although I didn't realize it at the time, both Eurofurence and Lakeside Furs were started by Unci, although he is no longer involved with Eurofurence.

FurPlanet is pleased to announce that we'll be distributing the new movie, Bitter Lake, to the U.S. market. If you have not heard about it, please check out the trailer and their website.

Bitter Lake – an EZwolf and Shay co-production – recently premiered at Eurofurence, and the screening was a smash hit. Everyone at FurPlanet is excited about the movie; we couldn't be happier about helping to bring it to furry conventions across the U.S., and to FurPlanet.com.

More information and an order page will come soon. We estimate the DVDs will be in stock by late September, so keep your eyes on this space for more info when the time comes!

Reuters has published a short video from last weekend's Eurofurence, focused on fursuiters.

The segment includes a clip from Sesame Street's Jim Martin (this year's guest of honour), who explained furry fandom as an expression of animal spirit, saying that "a lot of us grew up with cartoons, and comic books, and loving our pets."

One wolf emphasized the open-minded nature of the fandom, noting that "you can't run around in a giant dog costume without a good sense of humour."

Popular European conventions Eurofurence and ConFuzzled have announced their intent to form a combined body: EuroFuzzled.

The merger made a lot of sense, as slippery convention spokesotter Tungro explained:

Running a convention involves a lot of logistics and expertise, as well as time and commitment. In order to reduce costs and overlap, it is in the interests of both conventions to pool resources together.

The UK and DE editions of EuroFuzzled will still be lead by Matt Lion and Cheetah respectively; however, art show panels, registration systems, badge printers, regualar guests, hired entertainers and gophers will be shared between the conventions.

The news goes some way towards explaining the recent notice of ConFuzzled's cancellation.

Update: A new announcement from ConFuzzled suggests the merger will not go ahead.