Furry Dance And Drink Thing? Frolic in Vancouver?

[Dervacor]

Hey guys, I lived in San Francisco for the past couple years and they have likely got a much larger furry population than Vancouver, but I'm not sure exactly how much.  Vancouver has a good share of furries though as well.

One thing that they do there is rent a bar once a month where furries DJ and people hang out and dance.  It is catered at a gay bar and the name of the event is Frolic, but the event is open to everyone of legal drinking age.  It gives fursuiters a monthly dance, music lovers a chance to DJ, and other furries a chance to mingle and party in an adult environment with alcohol.

Now, I don't have the experience to set something like this up on my own, and I have no idea how the attendance would be, but I wanted to ask if anything like this has been tried down here.

I think keeping the event open to the public as well would be fine as long as we've got a little security to keep things in order just in-case.  I think it could be a very fun event, but I don't know the furry crowd in Vancouver as well as I do in SF.

Right now I'm not planning on setting this up until next year, but I would -love- to get feedback from the community.  Is this even something you guys would want to attend?  I know a regular posse hangs at Rain Rat's place monthly, this would obviously have to avoid other existing events like that.  If we have enough support though, if we can get enough people to volunteer (like 1 or 2 people at the door, and a few DJ's) I am more than happy to investigate making this real.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c73mou8K3HE

Not sure if this should be moved to genera discussion or events.

[RainRat]

The closest we have here is Elektrofuzz (which hasn't happened in a while).

I think that it would be worth doing now and then, but I don't think were at the size where we can do this monthly.

PS. I do remember you back from years ago. I haven't hosted one of those free-for-alls at my place lately; events have been focused around a specific purpose(ie. Game Night).

[Dervacor]

Oh, awesome!  Yeah, I remember you fondly as well.  I think it's really awesome you've set up this site and have contributed so much to the local scene.  Thanks for replying too! :)

Yeah, I was thinking of trying this once, seeing what attendance was like, and if we could make it a success and then deciding what to do from there.

I think you're right about not having furry critical mass for a monthly event.  I do think if we can advertise the event a bit, and allow people who don't identify as furries to participate as well we could have a pretty cool event.

Maybe offering tails and ears for sale at the door or something, so people looking for something different in their night club could enjoy it as well without exactly requiring they be on bcfurries and enmeshed in local furry culture.  Still could be fun to party with them, and new people might ease in if the event tickles their fancy and they discover a burning love for anthropomorphic animals which they had previously been unaware of.  *Jealously guards his bubble to avoid pins* I can dream I guess.

It might introduce new people to the fandom in a positive and social way.  This could also offer any costume makers in the area a venue for selling some stuff.  Not that I'm looking to try and really make Furry mainstream or anything, but if we can get more like-minded people to join us and make these events a success it would be of benefit to our community.

Do you know who coordinated the last Elektrofuzz event?  Getting someone's help who has done this before would be great.  Even just talking to them.  If there's already an established name for this, and it is just lacking volunteer power and attendance it might make sense to give it another shot under the same name...  If we can muster the forces to give it another go that is.  Events like this take a bit more planning than lower key private events.

[RainRat]

I think the main furry event organizers are going to be busy planning VancouFur for the next few months. After that, a new Elektrofuzz might be feasible. Previously it has been run by Akonite.

If you're looking to reach out to the larger geek community, I'd suggest getting in touch with IRL Events. They've run various dances.

[Teko]

Even though there isn't anything going around, I have personally gathered with groups of furries and gone to numbers and partied it up! It is BC afterall. We partied it up! And it was fun! and the people enjoyed seeing some "flare" in the club.

[Dervacor]

Even though there isn't anything going around, I have personally gathered with groups of furries and gone to numbers and partied it up! It is BC afterall. We partied it up! And it was fun! and the people enjoyed seeing some "flare" in the club.

Haha, even just mobbing with fursuits would be fun. :)

[Digipig]

We've had two Elektrofuzz events in 2011 that were reasonably successful.

I would get in touch with Akonite about seeing what you can do about helping out and such. Elektrofuzz also runs the dances annual at Howloween and VancouFUR.

As far as DJ's goes, the big four I can think of that we have in town are Akonite (House, Electro), Ember (Electro, Dubstep), P-Dawg (Electro, Glitch-Hop) and myself, Digi-Fox (House, Jacking, Disco). There may be more but those are the ones I can think of. There would certainly be enough on hand to carry a show.

The big problem here is the actual interest in this kind of night is not what it is in other cities like San Fran and Seattle, but we're slowly working on it and turning people on to the idea of a furry club night.

If you'd like to try your hand in running this kinda thing, there are tons of DJ's, lighting and sound guys and PR people that would gladly help out.   

[Silvermink]

I'd definitely be interested in an opportunity to DJ.

[Dervacor]

Yeah, I'd like to help build up a bit more interest in this.  I'm glad to see a few more posts in this thread, and I'm happy about a few PM's I've received.  I'll be investigating this in the new year in a more serious organizational way and just having a few of you I can contact and some names helps immensely.  I can help front a bit of a bill if it costs a bit to book a good place and get things running as well.  I'll be heading to Calgary for a week around christmas and I'm getting back after new years, I'll probably begin trying to plan something solid as soon as I get back and aim for an event in March.

[Digipig]

VancouFUR is happening in early March so I'd advise planning it for late March for this thing. (of course it's your call)

[Dervacor]

Yeah, I absolutely would not want to conflict in any way with the con.  I will make sure it's at least 2 weeks off to give people a chance to rest (I want to do it after the con for sure, before hand will be too busy.)