Over 2,000 furries from across the nation and around the globe came to Minneapolis for this year’s Furry Migration, an annual convention organized by the non-profit MNFurs. 

The three-day convention took place in the ballrooms and conference centers on the first two floors of the Hyatt Regency on Nicollet Mall. Fursuit-clad guests could be seen relaxing away from the convention in the lobby. Guests were able to connect with fellow furries and the fandom as a whole through numerous panels, vendors and events such as a furry rave and a furry burlesque show. 

Furry Migration 2024 Chairman Jonathan, who asked his last name be omitted for privacy reasons, said the convention is much like a renaissance fair or video game convention, but with furries.

For those of you who, like me until four days ago, do not know what a furry is, a furry is someone who really enjoys media featuring animal characters, according to MNFurs Director Shawn McHenry. He mentioned video games like the Sly Cooper franchise and movies like Disney’s Robin Hood are popular furry favorites. 

“They probably don’t want to admit this, but Disney has to be one of the bigger influences when it comes to furry,” Jonathan said.

Misunderstood and often ridiculed, furries immerse themselves in the world of anthropomorphic animals as an enjoyable way to escape from the drudgery of reality, much like any other fandom. Some furries are in the fandom because they enjoy interacting with furry content such as literature and art, while others are furries because they feel a deep, personal connection with their animal persona, Johnathan said.

“Some people are in it just for the literature, some are just in it for the artists,” McHenry said. “Some of them are just in it for networking with friends.”

Of course, furries do not only enjoy media centered around cartoon animals. At Furry Migration, I had pleasant conversations with attendees about shared interests like Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege and house music. 

Most furries create alter egos called fursonas — a portmanteau of “furry” and “persona” — and play the role of their created character within the furry community. 

“It’s fun to play a character that you’re not,” McHenry said. 

McHenry, whose fursona is a raccoon named Rico, said he chose a raccoon because he felt represented by the animal.

“I stay up late and I tend to eat unhealthy foods,” McHenry said. 

Some committed furries create “fursuits,” custom, hand-made costumes of a fursona that they wear to embody their characters. 

Even though premade fursuit parts can be purchased from a variety of furry artisans, Jonathan said many choose to design and make their own fursuits themselves. 

Some fursuits even incorporate technology like LCD panels or internal cooling systems.

“The beauty of the fandom is the creativity,” Jonathan said. 

Jonathan, whose fursona is a Maltese tiger, said some of the most technologically advanced fursuits cost around $10,000. Many furries, like himself, opt instead to wear partial fursuits, consisting of only a head, tail and set of paws. 

McHenry said fursonas can range from realistic depictions of real mammals to completely original fictional species. A fursona does not need to have fur, and you do not need a fursuit to be a furry, he added.

“Furry is a very generic term,” Jonathan said. 

Many people think the furry fandom is inherently sexual, a common misconception which harms public perception of the community, Jonathan said. Although some engage in furry-related sexual activities, they are only a small part of the fandom and very few have sex in their fursuits.

“Most people who have fursuits don’t want to ruin them by doing that,” Johnathan said. 

At Furry Migration, a few vendors of products such as erotic art and sex toys were in an age-restricted section of the vendor’s hall, hidden behind a black curtain to ensure no guests were unwillingly exposed to sexually explicit materials. The small sexually explicit section was dwarfed by the size of the vendor section, which occupied the largest space in the hotel almost entirely.

Rows upon rows of booths selling everything from premade fursuits to artisanal soaps made up the “Dealer’s Den,” where attendees could shop for goods and support furry vendors. Surprisingly, much of what was for sale was not furry-related like artisanal soaps and political bumper stickers, rather the vendors themselves were furries. 

Outside of throwing furry events, Furry Migration and its parent organization MNFurs are committed to giving back to the community and educating people about furries, McHenry said. 

Every year Furry Migration partners with a charity to raise money for a good cause. This year, they raised $8,042 for Passionate Pines Wildlife Rehabilitation. 

Passionate Pines volunteer Terry Humphrey said she has been coming to Furry Migration for four years, despite not being a furry herself. She said she is very grateful for the convention’s dedication to giving back. 

Despite the harmless nature of the fandom, many furries are afraid to openly be furries in other parts of their lives because of the stigma surrounding the fandom. 

“I’m pretty sure you have CEOs of companies who are considered furry, but you’ll never know it because people don’t talk about that because of that stigma,” Jonathan said. 

As a non-furry who attended a furry convention myself, I was surprised to see how similar the convention was to other conventions. 

“Furry is just another fandom,” McHenry said.