Category: Annoucements

Last year, VancouFur, a convention for furries, donated the substantial amount of $20,000 to the 2SLGBTQIA+ charity, QMUNITY, and this year VancouFur has matched their previous donation, just in time for Qmunity’s 45th anniversary.  

QMUNITY provides support, connection, and leadership to 2SLGBTQIA+ members of all ages with events and programs such as art workshops, employment programs, counciling, and aid helping navigate the community whether it be for education or a sense of community.

It is thanks to the generous donations that helped QMUNITY do all of this and more, and VancouFur intends to extend this partnership through the 2025 convention year

VancouFur reached out to Micheal Robach, the Director of Development at QMUNITY, for an interview to ask about the impact of their contribution, as well as give more information about QMUNITY and who they are as a charity resource center and safe space for 2SLGBTQIA+ people.

“Thanks to the donations from VancouFur, we’ve been able to increase our capacity within the Youth Program. We’ve also been able to support a record number of queer, trans, and two spirited youth. We’ve had 3,100 youth in BC access programs within QMUNITY. We’ve gone from 380 to 522 free gender affirming garments that were mailed to trans youth across the province. QMUNITY has delivered over 1,000 hours of 1-on-1 support with youth and families to help them navigate sexual orientation and gender identity.”

While VancouFur was throwing its own community celebration, their partying has allowed for over 3050 queer, trans, and two spirited youth to come out to a special event hosted by QMUNITY; Queer prom.

“Part of VancouFur’s donation, about $5000, was used to help elevate our Queer Prom to help youth feel celebrated and find queer joy. We had over 3050 queer, trans, and two spirit youth come out to Queer Prom this past year.”  

Micheal expressed his profound gratitude to VancouFur and the furries that run it for all of the support that they’ve received now, and in the past from VancouFur’s events:

“Partnerships keep us afloat through and through. It’s one thing for an organization to make a one time donation and then disappear. This is our third year partnering with VancouFur and the donations have made such an impact on our work. It’s a completely different story when we are able to hold onto partnerships and see programming grow year over year.”

It was in this united partnership that QMUNITY has been able to do all of these great things. They’ve even helped members of the furry community in the past. Having reached out to  the furry community who’ve used QMUNITY’s services and even attended some of their events, had some amazing things to say;

One of the fandom members had this to say about Queer prom, sharing their story about attending a previous event, and how much it meant to them.

“We went to different schools in high school and couldn’t go to either of their proms because they had some ridiculous rule that you had to fill out a form for someone outside the school to attend, and both of our principals pretty much said you couldn’t bring another girl. This was back before either of us knew we were/came out as trans without outright saying it. So we thought we wouldn’t ever be able to have that experience. That’s why we ended up not going until we’d already graduated. It was the first place we were ever able to hold hands or hug each other and not worry about what the people around us were going to do or if they were staring at us. it felt really safe and like everyone there just kinda accepted everybody,  All the volunteers around were super welcoming and friendly. They had this little photo booth set up with a bunch of props, that was really fun. They rented out the rec hall of some building, but it was all decorated and had lights everywhere, it was a lot of fun”

They also shared one of their more special moments that happened at Prom, showing that some truly magical things can happen when given the space to do so.

“it’s super sappy but the thing that stands out most in my memory is that we had our first kiss with our partner there. The song that was playing when it kissed us is still ‘our song’, I’m pretty sure we want it to be our first dance song when/if we ever get married.”

The next fandom member who was reached out to, shared their personal experiences using QMUNITY’s resources to help them navigate the sometimes strange and confusing world of transitioning.

“They helped teach and guide me through changing my legal name during my outward facing gender transition, as well as provided safe spaces that I could simply be in, relax, ask questions, learn, figure myself out, and just be safe in without harm from people out to get me for being me.” 

They continued further to talk about their own personal experiences with the organization.

“When I was feeling suicidal, the few times I was back then. They helped talk me out of it and showed me how to look at things differently. Which overall improved my mental health. They were always a great knowledge base of resources, where to start, how to do certain things, taught me what to expect, and what I need to do to make it out the other end of my transition the best, and in one piece. They were my home away from home.”

This year for their 2025 convention, VancouFur is extending their partnership with QMUNITY. If you want to make an art donation for their auction please follow this link here. At the convention you will also be able to participate in a 50/50 draw, and bid on the pieces of art and other services like commission slots that were created and donated by members of the furry fandom at their auction. This is all in support and solidarity with QMUNITY and all 2SLGBTQIA+ persons. With your help, QMUNITY and VancouFur can continue to make the lives of so many people that much brighter. 

 

Attention: Hotel Booking for General Attendees is Being Pushed Back!

With Vancoufur fast approaching, we understand that making sure your hotel room is secured is especially important. Because of this and because we have so many of you who have already pre-registered and are waiting patiently for your booking window, we’ve pushed the date back a bit to give us time to negotiate for more rooms in our hotel block!

The date and time we’ve pushed back to will be November 5th at noon pacific. 

With this new date our hope is to give as many people as we can a chance to book for this upcoming con, and for those of you who haven’t yet registered and paid are given a wider window to get their registration completed and still have a chance at a room. Our hotel team is currently working their tails off to make sure we can get as many attendees to a room as possible, and at the con rate as well! 

We appreciate everyone who has been patiently waiting for their window to open up, and even with this small delay your wait will not be much longer. We’re looking forward to seeing all of your smiling (and excited) faces for VF2025!

We have more information on the hotels, as well as how to book on our hotel page. 

If you have any concerns, comments or questions, please forward them to our hotel team at [email protected]

Starting on August 18th and ending on September 8th, Vancoufur: Tails and Treasures will be accepting applications for our Dealers Den. We’re calling for any artists, makers, and furry merch stores to put their best paw forward and submit an application to vend at next year’s convention!

Some friendly reminders and additional information for any prospective vendor applicants. When submitting your materials in a portfolio, please have your works in a single easily accessible place, like a Google Drive, Dropbox, or Portfolio Website. We will not be accepting portfolios that are hosted on social media, or require a login to get access to. We know that all of you amazing creators are looking forward to vending at Vancoufur, and to make sure you have the best shot at being accepted, some of the few things you can do to stand out are; 

• Include recent, and even ongoing works in your portfolio, strive to include your very best examples!
• Provide some placeholder examples of merchandise and pricing.
• Table setup pictures are GREAT but not a requirement so long as we have some idea of how your store layout will be. (Price Boards, graphics, etc.)
• Make sure to follow the full rules and guidelines located on the submission page and adjust your portfolio accordingly.

Once applications close, we will be reviewing your work and reaching out to the vendors who’ve been selected for next year’s convention. Any and all additional information regarding rules in terms of setup and content will be provided to you. When applying you’re allowed to use adult content within your portfolio, it is however, recommended that if you intend to vend mostly adult content that you apply for our After Dark Bazaar.

Full rules and FAQ are here.

What happens after all of the dealers are selected and contacted?

We’ll be opening up applications for our Artist Alley and After Dark Bazaar. There will be more info posted once we get closer to opening up applications for those, but for right now we do have some updates on our schedule that have changed since VF2024, which includes a whole second night for the After Dark Bazaar!

This year, we will be adding an additional night of the After Dark Bazaar, where we let vendors who wish to sell adult content to con guests will be allowed to sell their art, apparel and other 18+ merchandise.

What’s happening to the Night Market?

To add some clarity between the Night Market and the After Dark Bazaar we’ve decided to remove the Night Market from our programming.. While we understand this may be sad for some to hear, we hope our added amenities from our new location will help enhance the Dealers Den and Artist Alley experience, for both vendors and attendees alike. As always,We look forward to seeing all of your wonderful amazing artwork and magical merchandise. With this year amping up to be one of our biggest yet, so keep your peepers glued to our website for updates on upcoming event applications as well as news on charity, Guests of Hhonour, and so much more.

Let’s set sail for Tails and Treasures!

Some people may have recieved emails regarding their hotel booking at the main hotel for VF2024.

For those who may have not recieved the letter directly, here is the situation.

The booking software that was used for handling our reservations was discovered to have a bug that allowed the overbooking of our room block, particularly double queens. This bug was discovered due to the intensity of the traffic against the booking site, but the damage was not fully realized until we did a manual audit of the bookings.

This has resulted in the need to shift people to different room types or an overflow hotel. This is not a situation we take lightly, the Chair themselves is handling the logistics around this, and will be taking steps in the future to avoid this situation repeating.

If you recieved a letter asking if you would shift room types, from a queen to a king, it is important that you RESPOND AS SOON A POSSIBLE to [email protected] regarding your decision.

Approximately 12 bookings will be required to be moved to an overflow. 

In compensation, the con will offer a free sponsorship upgrade to the person who made the reservation and their listed guests. We will also offer priorty booking for 2025 to guaruntee you get a room in the 2025 hotel.  If you did not get the email, but have a room in the main hotel and are willing to voluntarily shift to an overflow, please email [email protected].

If no one comes forward to voluntarily move, we will have to move the individuals who booked after the room block was full.

Please understand we do not want to have to do this, but the reality is, there’s simply not enough rooms. We will make sure everyone who booked HAS a room, but it just may not be in the main hotel. It’s the best we can do under the circumstances. If you do have a room, and want to help, you can voluntarily move to an overflow and recieve the above compensation. Note that it will not cost you anything to move due to the issue. We will assist with the rebooking/moving of reservations.

If you are willing to move, please send an email with your room booking # to [email protected] as soon as possible. 

If you have questions, also send them to the email above, or join our discord or telegram for live assistance.

Our hotel block and overflow will be open Oct 15th at 1pm. Overflows will also be open at the same time through the same booking link that will be posted on our website.

Please note that cancelation policies have changed and there are now fees for cancelation and transfers! See our hotel page for full information.

If you are disabled with a moderate to severe mobility issue, please contact [email protected] BEFORE the Oct 15th opening to speak with us about your needs. This is not a guarantee of a room, but we will try our best to work with you. 

Be sure to coordinate well in advance with your friend groups so people do not double book and have to cancel rooms to avoid fees. After Oct 15th, and rooms are sold out, there is likely nothing we can do. Standard Queens and kings are $155 CAD + tax per night base rate. Queen rates vary based on occupancy, kings do not. There are also club rooms as well.

Please note that if you intend to apply for party block, you will need to have an existing reservation! Volunteers from last year who want access to staff block must be hired and onboarded before this date, so if you are previous staff who have not yet signed up, make sure you fill out the volunteer form so we can get you on board!

Vancoufur takes the safety of our attendees and event volunteers very seriously. Covid-19 has severely impacted all of our lives, and continues to impact our lives. We will not be running an in person event until it is safe for us to do so.

We have been monitoring the situation carefully and following all the recommendations of the BC government, Health Canada, and the BC center for disease control, as well as working closely with our partners in the event industry.

The Government of BC, Canada will not be allowing conventions until “phase 4” of the BC Restart plan, which will not occur until a vaccine for Covid-19 is widely available. Current projections for the vaccine to be widely distributed are currently late 2021.

However, we still want to make sure that you get a chance to have some VF fun and for us to see you all at last virtually, so for 2021 we will be hosting a virtual convention event, featuring a ‘beta’ version of our announced theme ‘Evfurquest Online’ as a preview for when we get to once again see everyone in person (currently projected to be March 2022). The Vancoufur Evfurquest Online “Beta” will be held on March 6-7th.

COVID FAQ

Q. Why did you wait so long to announce you’d be doing a virtual event?

We can all agree that 2020 has been something of a gong show in general. Its been hard on our organization, but its also been hard personally on our volunteers that run this event. We’ve had a lot of unprecedented challenges, unexpected departures of key staff, and  lots of uncertainty. Not only that, but we had to wait in order to sort things out with our existing hotel contract to avoid penalties and reschedule our physical event to 2022.

Q. Why are you charging some fees for your virtual event?

Running even virtual events is not entirely without costs. Vancoufur and our parent organization, the BCAEA has some significant costs associated with running events that go on through the year. Costs include web hosting, licensing (software fees, etc), storage fees, equipment rental, merch, etc). Our events is our main and only revenue source for the most part for these expenses and even virtual events aren’t free to run. (software and music licensing fees anyone?) Normally running our event will sustain us through a year, to the next event, but we do need to try to bring in some revenue in 2021 to sustain us through to 2022. We really appreciate everyone who helps us out by purchasing an sponsorship tier, purchasing a registration add-on, shopping at the constore, or any other money donated to help keep us going until we can see everyone in person again. Every little bit helps and we hope to bring some fun surprises for those who do support us this year at our next in person event in 2022.