Hi all and welcome to this year's edition of the Anthrocon 2008 Masquerade Followup!

This was yet another well-executed show, demonstrating that Anthrocon is the place to be for costume performance.

I'd like to thank everyone who participated for making this event as easy for me as it was for you. Every performer was on their mark and attentive, resulting in a show that ran well and was enjoyed. I'd like to also thank John "KuddlePup" Cole for lending us his expert skills as MC once again and for helping me coordinate the rehearsal and presentation.

Fursuits.
Thank All 453 of ya! We were exactly 100 more than last year! Parade route had some glitches, but we have laready planned and walked out next year's path. I will say we intend to get the Radio/route music fixed.. We will utilize more stairwells to get up to the roof quicker.. We will shorten the route by a football field length.. And we will use a semaphore flagging system so all on the deck can see when the photographer is ready and taking the pictures..

So in all, we learned from this year's mistakes, and will do better next year, where I'm sure we will break 553! :>

I have just learned from the Pittsburgh Convention and Visitor's Bureau that the official estimate of the economic impact of Anthrocon 2008 on the city was $3,082,000. That is due primarily to purchases of Fernando's Lasagna Wraps.

In 2007, Anthrocon was the 9th largest convention in the city in terms of direct spending.

They scritch our ears, we scritch theirs.

Anthrocon 2008 is almost here! For those of you who will be attending, here are a few last-minute helpful links:

• Our programming schedule and events, and Featured Performers
• Travel information and driving directions
• Hotel information (Overflow hotel info)
• Our hours
• Volunteer opportunities for Wednesday through Monday
• Registration prices, for those who were unable to pre-register

If you have any questions or concerns during the convention, The Operations Office, located on the Third Floor of the Westin will be happy to assist you. We will be unable to answer emails after Tuesday, June 24th!

After the convention, be sure to visit our Post-2008 forums and take our survey so we can make Anthrocon even better!

We'll see you there.

-- The Anthrocon Staff

If you are in the Philadelphia area and would like to help load art show panels between 6 and 8 PM on Tuesday (June 24), load the truck from 7-7:30 AM on Wednesday (June 25), or onload everything 8-11 PM on Monday (June 30), and still need directions to those locations, please contact volunteer-2008(at)anthrocon.org and let us know! Remember, we will feed you.

The con is almost here! Here is the schedule of DJs for each night. Remember that the dances take place in the Spirit of Pittsburgh ballroom, and run until 2am, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights!

On Sunday, June 29, Pittsburgh will be hosting the 2008 Tour of Pennsylvania Bike Race. This will lead to major street closures between 3:30 PM and 8:30 PM that day.

The race course will take place several blocks away from the Convention Center and will affect the Omni and Doubletree Hotels during those hours. The Omni has thoughtfully provided a note that explains how to get around the street closures. We are making that note available here in Word format and in PDF format.

Only those traveling on Sunday will be affected, and only between the hours of 3:30 PM and 8:30 PM.

I've been in communication with the lead for the Fursuit Games on Sunday, and I want to provide a bit of information on how things will work this year.

First thing, we do recognize that lots of fursuiters will want to participate in the games. However, we had over 350 fursuiters in the parade last year, and anticipate more than that for this year. That is far more people than we can reasonably accomodate in the games. So (unfortunately) the number of participants in the fursuit games will be restricted. Initially, the plan (as it's listed in the programming guide) indicated that up to 64 individuals can participate. However, the games lead has come up with a method for allowing more participants in the games. We will not be able to accommodate more than approxiamtely 96 people.

The Art Show Bidding Rules and signup form are now available for downloading on the Art Show page! Save yourself some time by printing and filling out the signup form (the last page of the file) and bringing it with you to the Art Show. More importantly, save yourself some grief by reading over the rules and learning how things work ahead of time!