Midwest Furfest 2009

Midwest Furfest is an annual convention that takes place in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois. We come together to celebrate furry fandom, that is, art, literature, and performance based around anthropomorphic animals.

The roots of Midwest Furfest lie in the furry programming track of Duckon, an annual science fiction convention. Eventually, the furry track became large enough to support its own convention and in 1999 Midwest Furry Fandom, Inc., our parent 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation, was created. Midwest FurFest was born shortly thereafter, to take place in November of 2000, on the weekend before Thanksgiving (a date that was to become traditional).

Since then, the convention has grown from 388 attendees in 2000 to 1,992 in 2008, making it the third largest furry convention in the world. Midwest FurFest is proud that we have raised over $75,000 for various wildlife- and animal-related charities since our inception. Our Art Show, through silent and voice auctions, routinely generates over $20,000 each year for the talented artists of furry fandom.

2009 marks the tenth year of Midwest FurFest, and we're celebrating by inviting back guests of honor from the past nine years. We look forward to bringing you an exciting weekend spent with some of the best authors, costumers, and artists in furry fandom. We hope to see you there!

This essay is based on the article Midwest FurFest appearing on WikiFur, originally written by Thomas Brady. It is distributed under the GNU Free Documentation license.
"Midwest FurFest" and "FurFest" are registered service marks of Midwest Furry Fandom, Inc.