Ahoy there, mateys! It’s high tide and high time this wolf regales you with this high seas tale of his time at Furcationland 2026 – Harbor Howl! Nestled in Portland, Maine, the con took place between April 10th-12th, 2026! A very apt theme for the location, the con was decorated in a way that makes you feel like you were taking a trip up along the coast! The last time I was at Furcationland was back in 2024, and I couldn’t be happier to be back! Batten down the hatches, because there’s a storm of a journal coming!

Ringgar’s FCL 2026 Photo Reel!
If you have or see any photos of me or with me in them on any social media site or Furtrack, please send me a message and let me know! Thank you!

Thursday, the 9th
Before the con even began this year, I was already up in Maine visiting family for a few days not too far away from Portland! I really enjoy the fact that Furcationland also occurs around the time of year before many of the port towns in Maine become crawling with summer tourists and vacationers, so the drive to and from was a breeze! I arrived at the hotel around noon, and once I had everything unpacked and set up, I went down to the lobby to see if there was any volunteering to be done for setting up the con. However, this year the majority of the convention space had been set up the day prior, which meant that beyond helping with a few odds and ends, I had a lot of free time for the day. The only events slated to happen at the convention on Thursday were registration and the nightly dances, but thanks to a new process FCL introduced this year, I was able to skip registration! This year, sponsors and up were allowed to pay a little extra to have their badges mailed to them in advance! I really, REALLY applaud the convention for doing this, as it saved a ton of time and standing around later in the evening! This is something that another convention I go to, Connecticon, does every year. Connecticon is several times the size of Furcationland, with more logistical bandwith, so I was pleasantly surprised at the mailed badge offering! Before registration even opened, however, I spent the time saying hello to friends as they arrived, then walking up and down the streets of the city!

Portland is one of the most walk-friendly cities, in my opinion, as just about everything you could ever want was within a mile and a half of the Holiday Inn! I first walked along the docks and had dinner at the Flatbread Company, a pizza joint that I loved the first time I was here in 2024, then took another mile walk uptown to visit Two Fat Cats bakery to grab a whoopie pie to take home! I returned to the hotel around 5, just before registration opened, said hello to more arriving friends, and then went upstairs to suit up for a little while for the first time at the convention! The con space itself, even after the renovations, is rather small, so there wasn’t too much walking around to be had, other than going back and forth a few times. I did so as fluffy circle wolf to say hello to the folks in the reg line! Due to the lack of events and space to wander that night, I actually de-suited about an hour after. Instead, I went to hang out with one of my friends, Carbon! Carbon is a local furry with whom I share of a love of Magic: The Gathering! Moreover, he is the cat that I was hosting a panel with this weekend (more on that in a moment!) We chatted and made plans for our Magic the Gathering panel for a little while, and when we were done, I took some of our panel flyers down to the game room! Surprisingly, the game room staff shared with me something very cool: custom MTG proxies made for Furcationland! This was a complete shock, and one I was so very, very enthused by! I was asked to come down to the casual commander tournament that would be happening tomorrow to promote our panel in person as well! After this wonderful surprise, I went to visit more friends of mine who had just finished registration, Rags, Celsic, Kinso, Magic, and Laz! We partied and chatted for a couple of hours, and the time of night simply flew by. While it wasn’t super late at night (by furry con standards anyway) by the time we finished, I wandered around the con space for only a little while more before heading to my captain’s quarters for a good night’s rest!

Friday, the 10th

Likely from the amount of partying that this wolf had done the night before, I woke up feeling a little ‘seasick’ in the morning. It took me a little longer than usual to get out of bed in the morning, but after a tepid shower I felt ready to roll! I grabbed a breakfast bagel at a joint near the hotel, which appeared to be a popular place for the locals considering the line! While eating, I also watched something new to FCL this year as well: The Daybreak Stream! This stream is a morning Twitch stream hosted by the convention which is a lot like Good Morning America: They introduce guests, talk about the weather for the day, events for that day of the convention, and more! Unfortunately, these were not saved as videos for posterity, but I enjoyed watching it all! Once I returned to the hotel, I still wasn’t feeling completely set to fullsuit, so instead I partialed down to Opening Ceremonies! With the con officially set in motion with the ring of a harbor bell, I went over to the game room to promote Carbon and I’s MTG panel: How to Turn your Fursona into a Magic: The Gathering Card! This is the same panel I hosted with Carbon back at Furpocalypse last year, and I was so excited to be able to host it with him again! After handing out my own new Raggnir card that I had made for this con and other future cons (feat. art by enkie, also in my gallery,) I had a little bit of time to wander and poke my head into other areas of the con space before heading up to host our panel! At this con, Carbon and I were given more time than we had at Furpocalypse to host, and I think that worked to our benefit! We filled most of the seats in the room, and were able to come up with designs on the spot for lucky raffle winners! Most folks left towards the end of the panel, but considering how long our panel went and the size of the con, I think it went over very well! I’m looking forward to hosting the panel with Carbon again in the future (If you attended this panel, please let me know what you thought!)

Once we had cleaned up our space in the panel room, I went to go find some dinner at Shay’s, a bar in Monument Square that I went to back at FCL 2024, and I quite enjoyed! I would recommend going there if you need an option for a restaurant; they have a good menu and some very reasonably priced mocktails! It was around 3:30 when I returned to the hotel, and after some food and time, I felt ready to get into fullsuit again! I transformed into a giant circle wolf and headed downstairs to cause some mischief (if bucket brigading for charity counts as mischief :P.) An hour later, I had a full bucket to turn in, and I headed over to the last major panel I had planned for the day: The Fursuit Games! A staple panel for this circle wolf, I joined the red team, along with a lot of my local friends! This year, the games were a game of “Lighthouse Tag”, “Scooter Fishing”, and my favorite, Ring Toss! Unfortunately, I had an accident during the games this year, as during the lighthouse tag, I wasn’t able to see Mosey, a wheelchair-bound furry, and tripped over them. I was very distraught about hurting them for most of the panel, but I was able to apologize to them and they forgave me (sorry again, Mosey.) In the end, our team got second place!

After the Fursuit Games, I went to the headless lounge to take a break and figure out what I wanted to do for the rest of the evening. I wasn’t quite sure what else I felt like doing, but there was one clear thing I could do: watch the dancers at the Battle of BBQ and Mayo! This is an informal-ish 1-on-1 dance battle panel hosted by my pals Lucid and  KittyBean! The panel happened very soon after the Fursuit Games wrapped up, so I decided to watch it in Fursuit! I’m always thrilled to see dancing talent and skills on display, but above all, the vibes were immaculate! I went up to my room to give Ringgar a rest after the conclusion of the panel, but I, personally, wasn’t ready to head to bed just yet! I met up to chat with a few friends who were walking around the lobby, and I tried to figure out what else I wanted to do before the night came to an end. I decided to see if I can squeeze in a song at Karaoke, and while the queue was, as always, fairly long, I did hang around long enough to sing some R.E.M! I hung around the rest of the night at the karaoke panel in case I had a chance to sing another song, but I was unable to, so I’ll save it for another time! During that time, I had the opportunity to chat with one of the lead musicians behind the furry band “I’ve Made Too Much Pasta,”  Scurrow! As it turns out, they love R.E.M as well! We yapped for awhile about the group while listening and vibing to others sing, and not soon after, the end of the night had rolled around, and it was time for bed.
Saturday, the 11th

Saturday was, as it has been at many a con before, by far the busiest day of the convention. A large portion of the major events of the con were all set to happen that day, including all of the outdoor events, and thankfully the weather cooperated! I wanted to stick by close to the hotel as the first event I planned on doing would involve fursuiting, so I had breakfast in the hotel restaurant. During that time, I had breakfast with my pal Artimio, and watched the FCL daybreak stream! During the stream that morning, the ad for my Smashbooking panel that would be happening tomorrow played! Seeing it on the big screen for everyone to see REALLY made my morning, and I am very thankful to the Daybreak team for including it! If you want to see it, you can see it here! I suited up for the first time that day fairly early in the morning after having breakfast, and since I had some time, I decided to head up to the photo room to have some nice professional photos taken by Sven Fennec! I arrived at a good time, and the line was short! A photographer named Jim from one of the local new outlets, MaineBiz, was also present and took photos of me at the same time! After a brief photo session with some very silly poses, I decided to spend the remaining time between then and the Fursuit photo lineup by doing another round of bucket brigading! An hour went by before I had to turn in my bucket to ensure I could make it into the photo and parade lineup in time. I made it in, looked up at the camera (though I was unfortunately very obscured), and headed out the door in a shuffle for the parade! Furcationland is a little bit different when it comes to their fursuit parade. Rather than terminating back in the ballroom where the photo was taken, the parade actually goes outdoors and into the streets of Portland, before winding up at Monument Square in the center of the city! From there, us suiters spend a few hours waving, cheering, and being silly for the general populace, and above all, having the most wonderful time! The weather wasn’t too warm for suiting, so it wound up being an absolutely perfect day for public fursuiting! The Menagerie at Monument Square is one of the reasons I believe Furcationland’s fursuit parade is one of the best Fursuit parades in the U.S! Public fursuiting is one of the greatest joys in my life, and the con facilitating that for all attendees is something I cherish and appreciate! The Menagerie isn’t the only outdoor event the convention was hosting that day, however, as immediately afterwards, in a parking lot across from the hotel, the convention was also hosting a block party! It featured outdoor activities, food trucks, live music, a beer garden, and was also the location for the car show this year! Everything you could ever want out of a neighborhood meetup was there, but with a lot more fuzz! The block party was actually meant to happen for the first time at Furctionland 2025, but due to the weather at the time, it had to be cancelled. As a result, this year was their first year doing the block party! I walked over to the block party in suit once the Menagerie had ended, and listened to Cinna Skunk perform folk music for a little while before heading back to the hotel to give Ringgar a break. I wore a new outfit down to the block party and brought my beyblades in case I could drum up interest for anyone to play with! However, when I went down there, no one (except for my pal Rowan, who was visiting for just the day) even recognized me. I wasn’t surprised by this at all however, as I was wearing a new (boat-themed) outfit and there was nothing about it that screams ‘furry.’ In general, I don’t really wear any furry attire, outside of a convention t-shirt from time to time, and that is just my taste. I did find some of my friends at the beer garden after having some food, and while I was waiting for my drink, I had a chat with Vyle, who commented on my Beyblade arena! As it turns out, they have an appreciation for Hot Wheels to this, which I geeked out a little over as Hot Wheels was a big part of my childhood growing up!

I had to skedaddle shortly thereafter however, as it was soon time for the Fursuit Dance Competition to begin! I stayed for the majority of the competition, cheering on my friends as they performed, marveling at the motions and movements of all of the performers, and felt the electric energy in the room! I had to step out for the last 20 minutes of the event to get back into fursuit for Improv, but I was able to watch the last performance and the winners being crowned (congrats Cait!) As people left the room, I met up with Ryoko, and because we were both heading to  Heathclaw’s Improv panel next, we decided to wait around outside the main ballroom waiting to ‘ambush’ him with silliness as he had just performed in the dance comp! Little did we know that he had slipped out of the room from the door behind us! It took us 10 minutes to realize he had left, and went up to his panel to see if he was there. Sure enough, he was, and we had thought he had teleported! At improv, I participated in games of ‘Excuses Excuses’, ‘Questions Only,’ and ‘Freeze!’ I was particularly proud of finally, FINALLY completing a round of Questions Only, and as for the rest of the games, absolutely nothing went as you would expect. Chaos, randomness, bizzare interactions, and a healthy dose of giggles: That is what I love about doing improv! If you are interested in watching this panel, it was recorded here! Shortly after the panel finished up, Heath invited me up to his room to party! I took Ringgar off for the rest of the night before heading up (with beyblades in tow) to party until midnight! At that point, I was beat from all of the marching and activities of the day, and decided it was time to count sheep for the night.

Sunday, the 12th

In a stark contrast to Saturday, Sunday at Furcationland was mostly a vibes-based day: I went with things as they rolled along. However, I did have one important thing I had to do that day: my Furry Con Smashbooking panel! I began my day similarly to every other day this weekend, breakfast at a nearby coffee joint, Daybreak stream, and a run back to the hotel to get prepped for my panel! At this con, I was given an hour and a half overall, which I am grateful for, as it gave more people plenty of time to work on their own smashbook pages right then and there! As a result, I had quite a few more attendees than normal stay to work on a page. Most folks walk out at the conclusion of the presentation, which I have come to expect as not everyone is interested in doing a D.I.Y, and that’s fine and dandy by me! With my panel wrapped up, I grabbed my things and brought them up to my room before heading down to the Dealer’s Den to do some shopping for smashbook materials of my own! I’ve found that, as I plan things out for conventions, I rarely ever get the time to go to the Dealer’s Den, except for once a con, as I am too busy having fun with friends, fursuiting, and at events! I then brought my haul of stickers and prints to my room before returning to the Dealer’s Den again, not to shop, but as a fluffy wolf, in order to bucket brigade one last time at the con! This outing wound up being my most successful of the con, and I want to dearly thank the people who donated anything at all (including the RAM!) While I was bucket brigading, I stopped into the Freestyle dance competition to collect from the audience, and one of the programming staff, Sol, was kind enough to make me a paper boat hat for Ringgar! I also stopped by Heathclaw’s other panel at the con, Impossible Fursuit Charades, and teamed up with someone else for a round! My teammate did most of the work, as I was in fursuit and the folks doing the charades were somewhat in my blind spot, but we were able to successfully guess that the group was miming ‘food exploding in the microwave!’ That is a panel I will have to attend again, hopefully as one of the suiters doing the charades!

I had to turn in my bucket around 4PM as the Dealer’s Den (and the charity table by extension) was closing early on Sunday for teardown. With the spare time I had between then and closing ceremonies, I said goodbye to the folks and friends of mine who were leaving that day, and also caught the tail end of a Taskmaster panel! When 6PM came around, it was time for Closing Ceremonies. Closing took quite some time as they went over the results and wrap-ups from several mainstay and new staff departments, as well as giving out thank-yous to everyone who put the con together and kept it running smoothly! Of course, they also revealed everyone’s favorite part of the end of a con: statistics! The con had a grand total of 1,903 attendees, 523 of which were fursuiters, and raised a total of $10,584.81 for charity! As closing ceremonies, well, came to a close, I was actually informed by one of the charity staff, C0mplex, of my own statistic: through bucket brigading, I raised $611 for the charity total! I’m rather happy I was able to drum up that contribution for the con charity, Short Folks for Hope! Here’s to you, Kristen! Keep fighting the good fight!

Just because the con was closing up, doesn’t mean that that was the end of the festivities for the night! I stopped by the feedback panel for an hour before taking Ringgar off for the last time of the convention. The night was still young (and I was still starving), so I had a takeout dinner before moseying around the lobby for the last few hours of the night. I stopped in with my beyblades at in the lobby, and at Ryoko’s dead dog dance set as well, because I am completely predictable, and I will not apologize for my spinning tops obsession! I also dropped by a pick-up game of Cards Against Humanity before wandering the lobby and talking with some of my friends for the last few hours of the night! At 2AM, thoroughly satisfied with everything I did and with the con itself, I went to bed to get ready for the long drive home.

Off to the Blue Horizon

Furcationland is a convention that I was absolutely blown away by back when I first attended in 2024. It was the smallest convention I had attended at that time, and it felt like a second home. Though it had only been two years since I last attended, never once did I wonder if anything would be different from that last time I went to Portland. I was simply too excited for all of the new events, meeting friends, and little bits and pieces of improvements the con had made for the year! I’m happy to say that my hopes were not dashed, and once again, this con exceeded them!

One thing you may have noticed about this journal is that I frequently mention meeting up with, crossing paths with, or finding friends around seemingly every corner. This is true, both literally and figuratively. Furcationland’s con space itself is very small, consisting of not much more than a few hallways and meeting rooms, plus the two ballrooms for dealers and main(e) events! As a result, I wound up seeing the same folks over and over, several times across every day of the convention; folks I know well, and others I do not. To me, Furcationland feels like it’s in a very special place. This is one of those types of conventions where you can really connect with people, learn from them, and share your own experiences and interests! You might be surprised by what you learn about that total stranger who you met at that one panel, or someone you never thought you would have anything in common with! Of course, just being in a smaller space with a lot of people all doing the same thing isn’t the only thing that could cause that to happen. I give a lot credit to the staff and volunteers of Furcationland who help facilitate these kinds of interactions, providing the space and the means for all of this to happen. It’s a con that, in my opinion, proves that furry isn’t just a ‘fandom,’ it’s a community! If you are a newer furry in New England who is looking to step out into that wide, fluffy world for the first time, and your nerves are getting the better of you, I’d like to offer you this: “If you’re shy, give Furcationland a try!”

As for myself, I will definitely be back to Friend-cationland in the future!

This wolf would like to offer his deepest Harbor Howl to the staff and volunteers who make this amazing convention what it is today! His deepest gratitude also to all the attendees for Carbon and Ringgar’s panels! We hope you were entertained!
Next up, you can spot this wolf in the battle of Mech and Kaijus at the Great Salt Lake at Anthro Weekend Utah! Hope to see you there!