This is really sad. FA-U was my first out of state convention, and the first con where I fursuited. Next to FurPoc/FurFright and Anthrocon, I did mor FAUs than any other con. Made lots of friends, and tons of happy memories:
meeting Neko kitty, doing a comic panel with Dikran, watching a photo shoot of Rhea Algoran, Avi Fox's suite party that was shut down two nights in a row, handing out bacon, Dragoneer's gross stunts, and the wildest charity auctions ever. We always came a night early, and had Chinese takeout in the lobby of the hotel. Fire Alarms. Jets training camp. Indian wedding......
FAU never really broke out of it's niche as a fun little convention. That's too bad, bacause FAU was one of the fandom's hidden gems- a small intimate fun con, where everybody knew your name, and there was a lot of old school fandom spirit. On my last trip to FAu I was fortunate enough to be on Con staff, and that made the experience even more special. That was the first year in VA, and Dikran and I got a HUGE suite.
Why did it fail? Well, I think it was the combination of a lot of little things. They never really promoted it. They kept moving hotels and dates. The dates they picked were near other, bigger cons, notably Anthrocon, not far away in time or distance. Taking a con that was really NYC's home con, and moving it to the mid Atlantic. An antagonistic relationship with other conventions. Nothing fatal in itself, but the net effect of these and other things were simply too much when you threw the Covid disaster into the mix. Sad, cause I look back in my album, and almost all of the best photos were me fursuiting at FA:U
Farewell, friend; it was a good run we had. I think this pretty much wraps it up for me-
Memories
Light the corners of my mind
Misty watercolor memories
Of the way we were
Scattered pictures
Of the smiles we left behind
Smiles we gave to one another
For the way we were
Can it be that it was all so simple then?
Or has time re-written every line?
If we had the chance to do it all again
Tell me, would we?
Could we?
Memories
May be beautiful and yet
What's too painful to remember
We simply to choose to forget
So it's the laughter
We will remember
Whenever we remember
The way we were
When we lose the right to be different, we lose the ability to be free
This is really sad. FA-U was my first out of state convention, and the first con where I fursuited. Next to FurPoc/FurFright and Anthrocon, I did mor FAUs than any other con. Made lots of friends, and tons of happy memories:
meeting Neko kitty, doing a comic panel with Dikran, watching a photo shoot of Rhea Algoran, Avi Fox's suite party that was shut down two nights in a row, handing out bacon, Dragoneer's gross stunts, and the wildest charity auctions ever. We always came a night early, and had Chinese takeout in the lobby of the hotel. Fire Alarms. Jets training camp. Indian wedding......
FAU never really broke out of it's niche as a fun little convention. That's too bad, bacause FAU was one of the fandom's hidden gems- a small intimate fun con, where everybody knew your name, and there was a lot of old school fandom spirit. On my last trip to FAu I was fortunate enough to be on Con staff, and that made the experience even more special. That was the first year in VA, and Dikran and I got a HUGE suite.
Why did it fail? Well, I think it was the combination of a lot of little things. They never really promoted it. They kept moving hotels and dates. The dates they picked were near other, bigger cons, notably Anthrocon, not far away in time or distance. Taking a con that was really NYC's home con, and moving it to the mid Atlantic. An antagonistic relationship with other conventions. Nothing fatal in itself, but the net effect of these and other things were simply too much when you threw the Covid disaster into the mix. Sad, cause I look back in my album, and almost all of the best photos were me fursuiting at FA:U
Farewell, friend; it was a good run we had. I think this pretty much wraps it up for me-
Memories
Light the corners of my mind
Misty watercolor memories
Of the way we were
Scattered pictures
Of the smiles we left behind
Smiles we gave to one another
For the way we were
Can it be that it was all so simple then?
Or has time re-written every line?
If we had the chance to do it all again
Tell me, would we?
Could we?
Memories
May be beautiful and yet
What's too painful to remember
We simply to choose to forget
So it's the laughter
We will remember
Whenever we remember
The way we were
When we lose the right to be different, we lose the ability to be free