Furry, Fuzzy Math - Attendance
Over the past few weeks, my planned, brief sojourn to California for FC, became even further curtailed; and yet, I'm still going to make the cross-country flight to Nor-Cal. What form of insanity is responsible for these rash actions I'm commiting to, I do not know.
Further Confusion is, of course, the first major fur con of the year. And it will be interesting to see how many will show up for the weekend. Even if it's only one con, it could be enough to give us an indication what future convention attendance trends might be.
Whatever they might be, could they be more surprising than last year's figures?.....
2007-2008 Convention NumbersConvention 2007 2008 % Chg Anthrocon***2849***3390***15.6%Further Confusion***2062***2423***14.9% Midwest FurFest***1690 ***1992 ***15.2% Furry Weekend ATL*** 762 ***1046 ***27.2% FurFright *** 717 *** 873***17.9% EuroFurence*** 585 *** 782***25.2% Mephit Fur Meet *** 630*** 650*** 3.1% Rain Furrest *** 370*** 599***38.2% CaliFur*** 496*** 587***15.5% FA: United*** 310*** 381***18.6% Total Top 10***10471 ***12723 *** 17.7%
A notable increase, despite the inflated fuel prices encountered during last summer, which affected the cost of all means of getting to the con, regardless of what method that may be (besides a solar-powered car). And of course, rising oil would affect the price of practically everything else too. Couple that with less disposable income all-around thanks to the faltering economy, made worse by the fact that the key demographic that goes to these things are most susceptible to a downturn. Common sense would suggest a decrease in attendees overall given the situation.
But of course, it's furry so things are usually backward here, and attendance subsequently bucked expert opinion, that is if it was actually popular enough that experts would give a rat's bum in the first place. To rise in double digit figures on average is pretty amazing. One wonders if the fall in fuel costs might spur even more rapid growth at the cons . Then again, the general economic situation seems to be getting worse if anything, and that may check any further expansion that could potentially occur.
I guess we'll see, whatever may happen.