This is the first con I've done since BRFF 2020 so I had planned for it quite a bit and started prepping quite early though I still didn't finish up most of my prep before the con. ^^; I applied for my table back in May (2021) and I was sent an acceptance email sometime in July (2021). I immediately signed the vendor contract got all my info completed and sent in, then I was officially a confirmed vendor! I finished up most of my remaining con prep leading up to the con and as it slowly approached I finished up what I could and started packing. On the night of Wednesday November 11th I started getting everything in the car. Me and my two table helpers left for Raleigh around 12:40 AM EST on Thursday the 12th as we had about a 2 and a half hour drive ahead of us. The ride down was fairly smooth, minus me taking one wrong exit making the trip 3 hours ;w; but otherwise things went well. We arrived and didn't have too many issue with checking in but the parking lot was almost packed!! (and it was only the day before the con at 3 AM EST) It took us nearly 2 hours to get everything unpacked from my little Jeep and into our room. We had a very nice little room on the second floor in the far corner of the hotel. because of the weird structure of the hotel we even had a weird little hallway. lol By the time we finally settled in and got everything unpacked it was roughly 5 AM EST or so, so I just sat around and watched tiktoks for a little bit while I winded down from such a long drive. (It was a bit spooky for me having never went that far) (Below are some pictures of the inside of the room at the Marriott at Research Triangle Park in Durham, NC) After a pretty restful sleep we ordered some breakfast, ate and just chilled for a bit until it was time to head down and get ready to vend for the first day. Opening ceremonies started at 12 PM and I believe Dealers Den opened around the same time so it was slow for a bit while opening ceremonies were going on. After they ended though I was FLOODED with people at my table! Me and my table helper were literally struggling to keep up with the flow of people. ;w; For a small first year con I did incredibly well!! First day I believe I made my table and hotel + travel costs back, It was crazy!! After such an eventful first day I had to take a small break in the hotel room for a bit. The dealers room was open from 12 PM to 6 PM the first day so I had to rest for the next day since the Dealers room would be open for a bit longer. I did however decided to head down to the con floor and explore the hotel a bit with my fursuit handler/GF and she got some pretty nice photos of me. Some of these are my absolute favorite of Bee 2.0, granted they are some of the first of Bee 2.0 since I finished her up shortly before the con. After suiting I was absolutely exhausted so I headed back to the hotel room, took a shower and worked on finishing up a few more bappy paws to sell at my table before passing out. I woke up the next morning incredibly exhausted but ready to sell. I don't quite remember if I had time for breakfast but regardless we headed down to get the table ready. Albeit a bit late (10 minutes before DD opened). Saturday was a bit slower and as we got further into the afternoon the attendees coming in started to slow down. Sales weren't nearly as crazy as Friday was but I was just super happy to be selling at the con and getting a chance to rest a little. After selling for 8 hours I was exhausted, but feeling a bit better than I was on Friday. I took a small breather that night and just chilled in the hotel room. Though we didn't have a great view it wasn't an awful one either. I did end up going down and getting a few more photos with a few suiters and peeps so that was super fun and wholesome! I went down pretty much by myself Saturday so I didn't do anything too crazy. My favorite thing about suiting as Bee though were all the comments on my absolutely MASSIVE tail. >:3c A little girl at one point even asked to pet my tail and asked if she could pick it up (Of course I said yes) , she struggled a bit cause of how heavy it is but it was absolutely precious! 🥺💖 I probably ended up suiting for roughly 4 hours or more that night. I was absolutely dripping with sweat by the time I was done, but the nice cool air at night in the courtyard and the AC unit in our room did wonders to help me cool down. After I got back to the hotel room I, as per usual, cooled off, took a shower and went to bed. (Though I didn't get much sleep because my bestie kept making noises in his sleep oop) The following morning me and bestie rushed down to the Dealers Den to get ready, this time being quite late since I didn't get much sleep the previous night. Being Sunday everything was quite slow and not many people stopped in to buy anything so I didn't have a whole lot to do. I processed a few transactions here and there but I mostly sat around and talked to my bestie (who was also one of my table helpers). I did end up commissioning one of the other dealers, Chowfur, for two absolutely precious crayon sketch badges of Bee and Celeste, they turned out so cute too!! (Chowfur's Twitter) After Dealers Den closed me and my table helpers tore down my set up, packed it up and headed back to the hotel room for a quick rest and some food. We ordered some Golden Coral and I also had a Hot Pocket. :3
After eating we packed the car up and headed back to the hotel room to chill before we would make our journey back toward the Piedmont of NC. Since I didn't have much sleep the night before I didn't really suit on Sunday and instead I laid down and went to sleep for a while after eating and packing the car so I'd be rested up and ready to head out at 12 AM that night. We did end up leaving a bit early since I woke up a bit early and figured it would be good to get an early start to get back a little earlier. The drive back was a lot faster but after such an eventful weekend the drive back was incredibly tiring. I took bestie home first then headed home with my GF and settled down for some much needed rest. (the time was roughly 3 AM EST when we returned.) Overall I had an absolutely amazing time! I obviously couldn't fit every little detail in here but it was an incredibly fun trip and a great first long con drive for me lol As a first year con Bewhiskered ended up having 378 Attendees (roughly though I believe it was pretty close to 400) and they raised $6243 USD for the charity Safe Haven for Cats. It was the best con I've ever done as I made around 3.2k for the entire weekend so I couldn't be more happy with how things went. I even gained some nice suggestions for my line of fursuit sprays and quite a few nice compliments. I'm super pleased with how well the con did and I can't wait for next year! 💖 Next con will be Blue Ridge Furfare in 2022 in Asheville!
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AuthorI'm a small full time Fursuit Maker and Artist living in NC Archives
October 2023
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Klovesbunnies Art