Good evening suspects! It's just a couple days after the conclusion of Anthro New England 2025, my first con of the year, and my first time attending this convention for the entire duration! This year the con was held from the 16th to the 19th of January, conveniently placed before the Martin Luther King Junior holiday the following Monday. The theme of the convention's 10th anniversary year was "A Staggering Case!" The con mascot, Copley the Deer, has been missing since last ANE! He has been seen sporadically since then, with sightings at Furpoc and other American conventions, but all of the New England sleuths put their heads, paws, and hooves together to track this disappearing deer down! I have been attending Anthro New England since 2023, just near the conclusion of the COVID-19 pandemic. I have fond memories of this convention, as it was one of the first cons I attended out of the pandemic, resolving to make up for lost time in conventions I would have started attending in 2020 had the world not changed. In addition, it is one of the conventions where I really hit it off with a number of my current furry friends, all done within the span of a single day. In 2023 and 2024 I attended only for a Saturday, but this year I believed it was time for me to finally go for the full ANE experience, and I am fortunate I did! Allow me to share with you why I found ANE 2025 to be, simply, a good time!

(Ringgar's ANE 2025 Photo Album!)

If you have or see any photos of me or with me in them on any social media site or Furtrack, please send me a message and let me know! Thank you!

Thursday, the 16th

Anthro New England, in contrast to all of the conventions I attended in 2024, has traditionally been a 3 day convention (There are only dances on Thursday), and this year was no different. Despite this, I decided to arrive at the Westin early Thursday morning in order to secure a parking spot at the hotel. I was lucky enough to have one of the last spots available, and I arrived at the hotel just after 9AM. A prior convention was wrapping up at the hotel, but there were already a token amount of furries down in the lobby, checking in as I was. My other reason for wishing to arrive so early was so I could spend the day exploring the city! I have been to Boston many times in the past, but never long enough to actually visit the landmarks of the historic city. Prior to arriving, I had made a list of landmarks that were either suggested by other for me to visit or ones I had some interest in. After a very expedient check-in and unpack in my hotel room, I set off for the first landmark I decided to visit: Faneuil Hall! I took the city bus from the hotel to cross over from the Seaport district to the North End where several landmarks were. It was like I was back in Hartford taking the public transport again, so I felt right at home. On the walk to the hall I also stopped to take a photo of the Old State House, which seemed a little out of place with all of the taller skyscrapers and buildings surrounding such a small landmark. It was interesting and beautiful, nonetheless! I arrived at Faneuil Hall and walked inside. Truth be told, there wasn't much inside to see. It was mostly a handful of Bostonian gift shops and a museum in the lower floor for the Underground Railroad. The upper floor museum, regrettably, was closed for the season. There was, however, a large mural of the Freedom Trail on the wall. At this point, I hadn't decided what other landmarks I wanted to see in Boston, but the Freedom trail did give a nice path to follow for several of them! I decided I would walk the trail for the day, and make my last tourist trek be the M.I.T Museum. I stopped at Quincy Market immediately across from Faneuil Hall for lunch. Quincy Market is essentially a large food court, similar to that of what you might find in a strip mall or at the Big E, surrounded by kiosk vendors, and an actual strip mall surrounding the building. There is also a meeting house on the upper floor, which was also closed for the season. After some lunch I started my trek along the freedom trail, with my first stop being the Paul Revere house. The tour of the house itself was actually very small, only consisting of a few rooms, but the guides had some interesting factoids to share about the Puritan lifestyle in Boston at the time. Following the red brick road (literally, the Freedom Trail is marked with a line of red bricks in the sidewalk,) lead me to the Old North Church. The church was closed for the season, but from my experience standing next to the building, there is no doubt in my mind how the early revolutionaries were able to see the lanterns in the steeple of the church. It. Is. MASSIVE. The photo I took in the album had to be taken from several yards away just to be able to fit the entire church into frame! My next step on the trail was at Copp's Hill Burial Ground, but this is one landmark I didn't explore much beyond taking a photo.

I crossed the bridge from the North End into Charlestown to visit one of the landmarks I absolutely wanted to see, trail or not: The U.S.S Constitution! Sadly, tours of the ship itself were closed for the season (noticing a trend?) but the ship itself was on full display from the dock! The Museum was open however, and it had some interesting exhibits! For something as exciting as a maritime legend, it's no surprise to me that the Museum was kid-centric, but what did surprise me is that it was 100% attendee funded, with no set ticket price! There were some interactive exhibits for the adults to enjoy, as well! Satisfied with my visit, I travelled to the last landmark on the trail I wanted to visit: the Bunker Hill monument. It was clearly visible as soon as you entered Charlestown, so it wasn't hard to find! There wasn't much of a museum to see there beyond a dedication building and park ranger station, but this was one monument that was NOT closed for the season! After thinking for what was likely an insufficient amount of time, I decided to walk up the monument, all 294 steps. I reached the top successfully, but my legs were very much jelly on the walk back down, especially after all the walking along the trail I had done previously. I took a moment to breathe, and consider what I had seen along the walk. The most surprising thing about the trail to me, is that, especially around Charlestown and the bay-facing portion of the North End, there was a significant amount of townhouses so close to both the trail and the landmarks. You could in fact, walk the Freedom Trail from home to work and back if you happened to live there! It was mostly townhouses, condos, and multi-story units, but it is wild to me that people live so close to significant parts of history. I'm sure I'd feel the same way if I ever travelled to Europe! The least surprising thing about the trail: I was the only one walking it in this cold weather! After this trip, I took the (in?)famous MBTA subway, which I had never been on before, to the last part of the trail I missed: The Boston Commons! I walked around the entirety of the commons and public garden looking for the mural of Robert Shaw, only to find it was in front of the State Capitol building the whole time. At least the commons was nice! It felt a lot like Central Park, unsurprisingly. I took the T again to my last trip spot for the day: the M.I.T Museum in Cambridge. The Museum itself is a collection of projects of former M.I.T staff and students, mostly a showcase of what the accomplishments and contributions they have made to scientific research and how, including artistic pieces with scientific tie-ins! The exhibit I found the most interesting is the one on Holography and its modern-day applications by Stephen Benton! I took the T back to the hotel, and had some time to find dinner nearby before getting in line for registration around 6PM. I was able to get out of the registration room early enough to get in fursuit for the first time and do a little bucket brigading for the charities of the year, Queer Scouts and Wings of the Dawn! After an hour of successfully extorting collecting donations from the attendees, I was invited to a room party at the Omni hotel across from the main hotel by my friends Rags and Celsic! We spent the night with a little merriment, along with Artimio,  Kittybean, and Kinso we (unofficially) kicked off the convention right, with laughter and friendship! I went to bed around 1AM after we finished our party, to get ready for the official day 1 of ANE!

Friday, the 17th

One thing that always happens to me at conventions is getting the jitters just before waking up in the hotel. Sometimes I wake myself up earlier than I intend and have to force myself to sleep in to get my six hours. This is how my Friday started (as well as every day, truth be told,) But they tend to fade in the first hour after I get up and get moving. I had planned Friday to be my busy day in terms of meets and panels, so I started the day by partialling to opening ceremonies. Normally I would be in fullsuit for the ceremony, but I simply wasn't ready. The issue? I felt VERY sore from my hike and monument climb yesterday. This would affect me the whole weekend as well, so I wasn't able to fullsuit as much as I normally like to. Regardless, getting to see the opening ceremonies of this con in person, along with a CT local friend, V3rdant, for the first time helped clear up my morning jitters in a jiffy! Immediately after the ceremony, however, I had to run to my first panel of the day: the Western MA Furmeet, hosted by Rowan, Axel, and Maru! This was a (very) brief panel for the Western MA furs, of which I am a member, to introduce ourselves to other local furries and hopefully invite them to future meets! We spent the majority of the time going around the room introducing ourselves, starting with me because I am not actually from Massachusetts, but close enough that I may as well be. I did cheer for the three people in the room who were from CT, though!

Once the panel concluded, I had to run up to the room to get into full suit for the Fursuit Games! The fursuit games are traditionally held on Friday at ANE as opposed to Sunday at most cons, as there is a similar panel, Fursuit Recess, that is held on Sunday for any and all fursuiters to participate in! From what I was told by my friend Kinso, in previous years, there was a sign-up prior to the event, but this year seemed to be an exception. Instead of a sign-up, the host had the potential participants split up into four groups, and the host randomly picked one to not participate. The majority of my friends who were there were unfortunately in the corner that was chosen, and I could tell that it was real feel-bad moment for them. I know if I had been picked, that would have thrown a wrench into my panel plans, so I felt bad for them as well. In addition, the number of participants still had to be cut down, so we had to play Ninja with the remaining groups to see who could still play. I was lucky enough to make it though, and the games began shortly after. I've never been able to participate in the ANE version of the games, but I would describe these ones as particularly aggressive. We played games of 'sled' pulling, field hockey, tug-of-war, 'snowball' fights, and of course, musical chairs! My team, the green team, walked away with a second place finish, and I had fun, but I'm not quite certain how comfortable I felt about how this panel was run. I'm going to reserve my thoughts from this journal, but I'll be providing feedback to the con. If you want me to elaborate separately, feel free to ask!

I was dog-tired after the games, but after a quick break in the headless lounge, I was ready to go again. Shortly after, I met up with several members of my attending Starcane Arts family up in the Mezzanine for a group get-together and photo(s)! Most of the folks who attended I have seen previously, like Setrahn, Axel, Aoi, and Ripley, but we had some new faces tag long too! I've mentioned before how meeting my adopted family is always one of the highlights of my con, and that trend continued today! We spent most of the time being very silly with one another, and despite it not being visible from inside my suit, my joy was bursting at the seams! Our meeting was brief, but sweet and fun! I went up to my room after to unsuit and had to run back out to meet Ripley and the others at the South Street Diner! Us Starcane folks and several other friends went there as we had previously planned to celebrate Ripley's birthday, which occurred very close to the convention! One good meal later (and a brief stream of the Dragon's Dojo event), we headed back to the hotel. I was still a little exhausted from the games, so rather than head back down immediately to socialize, I decided to stay in the room for an hour to decompress and take care of my suit. Ringgar's body and feetpaws weren't 100% dry yet from the spray down I gave them after the Starcane Meet, so I decided to attend the last panels of the night in partial: A powerpoint panel, which has the absolute craziest vibes and strangest energy out of any panel in the convention I had been to yet, and  heathclaws improv panel! This was Heath's 10th year of running the panel, having done so since the very first Anthro New England, and by the end of a night full of laughs, wit, and quips, he said this was his best one yet. I don't disagree! In fact, for those of you who read this, if you have the opportunity to attend this panel, which also happens at Furcationland and Furpocalypse, I strongly suggest you do, if not to participate, then to laugh at the most unexpected twists and turns! The panel concluded at 1:30AM, and my energy reserves were completely depleted. I hit the hay for another day of fun!

Saturday, the 18th

Saturday and Sunday had much less going on in terms of panels for this wolf, but there was certainly no shortage of action! I slept in a little and quelled my morning jitters with a walk to find breakfast at Cafe Nero, then walked back to the hotel. I then suited up, along with my cooling vest, in preparation for the Fursuit Photo and Parade! This took up a large chunk of the afternoon, but I had the opportunity to meet up with many of my friends in suit as we waited for things to start! The room was very, very crowded, but I was able to hang out with Genesis Hellhound and  Tofutheferce before the parade happened, and met up with Lucid Shuck and Geo Dragon during the parade! I was able to get a decent spot in the photo (as far as I know, it hasn't been posted at the time of writing,) but I was less fortunate in the parade. I still had a good time, but the rain that was expected to fall couple hours later occurred during the tail end of the parade, where I was, resulting in an unfortunately wet dog. Thankfully we survived, but I had to take off my suit shortly after due to the weather. This worked out OK though, as I was able to take my first (and only as it turned out this year) trip to the dealer's den, and to grab dinner just in time to watch the Dance Competition! The competition was positively electric, ecstatic, and above all: Green! Atsu Fox took home the gold as the last performing entrant, which I remarked on as being incredible to do so even after every other incredible act had shown what they were made of! I also remarked that, if I were a judge, I would honestly consider just saying that everyone wins, because all the performers were THAT entertaining! After the competition, I returned to my room as I had the itch to fursuit once more, now that Ringgar was sufficiently dry, and went down to socialize and do some more bucket brigading! Quick note: Bucket brigading is one of my favorite ways to contribute to a convention. I do this at every convention I am able to do so, as it allows me to do one of my favorite things to do in suit: character expression, and all for a good cause! I spent a couple of hours brigading and, with a bucket that was weighed down with coins, turned it in before heading to Karaoke. Karaoke is something I tried for the first time at Furpocalypse last year. I did OK, but it wasn't exactly the song I wanted to sing. The song I wanted to sing this time around was "Why Can't You Be" by Third Eye Blind, one of my favorite bands. However, it was clear I arrived in the Karaoke line a little too late. In addition, my song was longer than a typical song, so I didn't want to ruin it for the other people in line behind me, so I left the line and got out of suit. I wasn't ready to head to bed yet though, so I went back down to watch my friend Rags perform his song as one of the last songs in the queue. By then the clock struck 2AM, so it was well and truly time to crawl into bed for one more day of convention fun!

Sunday, the 19th

Sunday was decidedly a wind-down day from the convention, and I woke up without (as much) jitters as I normally get. That's not to say there wasn't fun to be had, though! I wore my partial for the first panel of the day, a Beyblade free play panel hosted by a local tournament goer and one of the safety staff this year! Beyblade is a hobby I got into in the middle of the year last year, and honestly, I've been having a blast! The panel, however, was just too short. I hope next year we can push the time out a little longer! At this time, I had originally planned on participating in a tournament that would have occurred, but it had to be cancelled at the host wasn't able to make it to the convention. I followed up this panel with another one about partial fashion for fursuiting. I wanted to attend this panel as I was curious about what ideas would be nice for an outfit for when I am not able to fullsuit! The panel hosts gave me a decent blueprint (and one hella cute drawing) of Ringgar in a steampunk, H.G. Wells "The Time Machine" style outfit that was particularly dapper! While this doesn't explicitly fit Ringgar as a character, such a style was previously suggested to me by a few friends, and I figured it would be very interesting to try at the very least! After the panel, I went to get an early dinner so that I wouldn't have to worry about finding it in the snow that was expected to fall in the evening! Upon returning to the hotel, I donned all of Ringgar to attend a panel that I had been curious about since 2023, but was never around to experience: Kaiju Clash! This panel is a mainstay panel for the convention, and a popular Sunday event! I went down to join the line, unaware that there were slots you needed to sign up for in order to participate. I only found this out after a friend and someone who was staffing this year, Benji, told me when he saw me in line while he was looking for a partner. I'll remember that for next year! Thankfully I was able to participate with him, and I was able to understand why this panel was so popular. Getting to stomp around a giant city while play-fighting with a friend is such a goofy, silly concept that brings such a euphoria I couldn't even describe. Alas, I was slain in battle (but I lived!) after an epic battle with a giant dog. Soon after, I spent some time socializing with friends, followed by grabbing a donation bucket for one last bucket brigade during closing ceremonies! Us bucket brigadiers raised some more moolah for the two charities (which is being totaled as of writing), and closing ceremonies was an exciting time for everyone in attendance. The case had been solved: Copley the deer has been found! Where was he this whole time? He got lost in San Jose California, attending Further Confusion, which happened the exact same weekend! Why was he there? It wasn't a malicous kidnapping at all! As it turns out, it was related to the theme of next year's convention, A Western! The convention had some very impressive numbers to present to wrap up the con as well: 5761 attendees, 2275 fursuiters with 969 in the parade, and $40k for the two charities! What is particularly surprising to me is the ratio of fursuiters to attendees, about 40%! I'm not sure what they considered to be a 'fursuiter,' but this ratio of suiters to nonsuiters is something I haven't heard of at any other convention. Something to consider going forward! In any case, after turning in my last bucket, I unsuited from Ringgar and did some pre-packing for the trip home. I wasn't ready to head to bed yet though, and I spent the rest of the evening partial suiting while socializing, attending the Dead Dog Dance, which was my first opportunity to attend the dances all con, and enjoying the falling snow! A great way to spend one more night at a furry convention!

Closing the Case

My first full ANE experience was one I'll cherish. Overall, I think the best part of the convention was the vibe I received from the other attendees this year. It felt like a constant droning of positivity, which I particularly appreciate! ANE does some things differently from other conventions, some of which surprised me, but it was also evident that they were making changes in how things like panels, safety, and conduct were run from previous years. I think these things will be ironed out with just a little more time, and I have a high degree of confidence that, after the refresh it had this year, will continue to get better at the years go on. I can always count on ANE to be a place for me to see a lot of familiar faces, meet and vibe with new ones, and all of us having the time of our lives!

I want to thank all the staff and volunteers who took the time to keep the con on track and chugging along (whoops, that's last year's theme!) I also want to thank everyone who I had the opportunity to meet, new friends and old friends, who make cons what they are for me, and others: a time to celebrate being a part of one of the best communities on planet Earth!


P.S, my current plans for my next convention are up in the air at the time of writing due to the announcement of the date of Another Furry Convention, which is earlier than I had expected it to be this year. My current plans involve going to AFC in Ontario, California in September and Furpoc in Stamford on Halloween as always, but I will have to reconsider my Megaplex plan due to how close it is to AFC now. I will keep you updated when I figure out what other con(s) I can attend this year are and when!