The first furry camping-style event in Brazil, held near São Paulo, SP since 2008, sees a new high in attendance this year, almost reaching the local infrastructure limits, one month before the event.

Considering the pending subscriptions just awaiting payments, 46 furs will get together for a big camping time, with outdoor activities (such lake swimming, melee, water balloon football), fire camp, party and sleep in tents.

While this number seems small, getting all these furries together is a big step for such a young and still sparse fandom that we see in Brazil.

Abando brought new activities inspired on furry camping on North America such as Camp Feral!, and for the first time a conbook will be distributed to all campers, along with t-shirt and mug. Also, Abando starts to attract the international attention; Among this 46, one Canadian is joining the party, becoming the first camper from abroad attending a Brazilian con.

The numbers are exciting, but at this March 5th, the organization will be challenged at the highest level to provide a smooth and breathtaking event to all campers, to forge the “Brazilian Experience” (as they call on their website), an unforgettable “badge” that furs in the world want to have in the near future.

Fursuiters playing with Luciano (in the light brown costume). Photo by Lucas.

This morning, Brazilian fandom members received breaking news from Fauna Urbana (written by Zutharr) about a TV show to be broadcast on April 17th.

In January, a famous Brazilian news channel (Fantástico) did a short feature on furries. Two months later, a popular TV show called Caldeirão do Huck decided to use a furry theme in the their first prank of the year. This TV show is broadcast every Saturday on Globo (which also shows Fantástico).

There is a segment of the program called “Lata Velha” (“Beater [cars]“) in which they pull a prank on a car’s owner — sometimes using the car owner’s family as accomplices — confounding him until the big revelation: the appearance of the presenter Luciano Huck with the message that he will fix their car completely after an outlandish challenge is accomplished, such as finding homes for thirty abandoned dogs.

For the year’s first “Lata Velha”, the production team decided to use fursuits and contacted Zutharr and his friends, who helped them understand how furry fandom works, how to act in fursuit and, of course, how to perform with Huck during the prank.

The team also used this time to learn more about the furry subculture. However, unlike Fantástico, only fursuiters were interviewed, neglecting the other areas of the fandom.

Some in the community are concerned with how the prank Caldeirão do Huck intends to perform will reflect on the furry fandom’s karma. Globo is the fourth-largest TV network in the world, and Caldeirão do Huck is a primetime TV show watched by millions of Brazilians. Others see this as a great opportunity to spread the Furry concept, even if it is mostly about fursuiters.

Zutharr recorded a video during the making of the episode, in which several fursuiters explain their concept of the fandom.

Furs in attendance: Zutharr – Black Wolf; Guil Wolf – Blue wolf; Kouta – B&W Wolf; Zanaffer – Dragon head; Lupi – Brown fox; Ravyn – White fox; Ronan – Kigurumi Tiger; Red Panda – Grey Wolf; Lucas – Kigurumi dinosaur.

Article by Tanuki Gokuhi

Furry Stand in 2009 (photo: Reyres)

Zutharr ST (as know as Ceruno Wolf) is relinquishing his “Furry Stand” contract rights at Anime Friends to the community.

Anime Friends is an annual anime convention held in São Paulo, Brazil during July which attracted 120,000 attendees in 2009

Since 2007, Zutharr has been responsible for the Furry booth at Anime Friends by contract with its organizer, Yamato. Now he has decided to pass the booth along to any parties interested in continuing his work.

In Brazil, furry conventions are not yet common, and furs keep in touch via anime conventions. The Stand serves as a meeting point for the furries in attendance, and — more importantly — as an means to display furry philosophy and lifestyle to the public.

History

The Furry Stand has been the target of criticism, causing much discussion and dissent among furs who feel it features non-representative works or covers distasteful topics. Some have called it an “misrepresentation of the word ‘furry’.”

Members of Fauna Urbana have been there since the beginning to watch and observe. In 2007, most furs in attendance felt the booth gave a bad impression of furry fandom.

But Tanuki Gokuhi, who interviewed guests visiting the booth (including members of the police) as a member of the Anime Friends press team, said:

“The criticisms are unfounded – the Stand made mistakes as anyone would make, and those who repudiate the Stand just gave importance to what the Anime Friends’ trolls said; it is a battle of egos.”

Zutharr demonstrates his Guilmon fursuit at the 2007 Furry Stand (photo: Tanuki Gokuhi)

In later years, Zutharr lent the room to KoutaOni, who was banned from deviantART in 2008 for selling traced works of XianJaguar and other artists, raising further controversy.

Future

Now that Zutharr has relinquished the contract, it is open to the first person to claim it from Yamato. Fauna Urbana just hopes whoever does so is mindful of the responsibility they owe to the fandom in maintaining this public venue in São Paulo.

Revised by GreenReaper

FurryBrasil (wiki), a well-known Brazilian furry discussion forum, took their initial steps outside the box and launched their first podcast, “Focinho a Focinho” (Snout to Snout).

Hwei Chow interviewed two lead members of Abando: Aniki Geelong and Ekevoo Guepardo on the topics of how Abando is planned, organized and performed, as well as problems and misunderstandings that used to haunt the team. The interview was made during Abando.

The podcast can be heard in MP3 format at the following link: http://www.furrybrasil.com.br/podcast
(website and podcast audio only available in Portuguese)

Revised by GreenReaper

Abando 2010 attendees

Each year the Abando family grows, and this year was no exception. They say “he who misses Abando, misses more every year.” This year Abando attracted 37 attendees (15 more then last year) leaving the staff surprised — and a little worried, as the current site can only hold 40 people.

With the Hawaiian theme of “Aloha Abando!”, the site boasted beautiful ambient lighting, an outdoor projector screen, music and tiki torches, and was adorned with flowers and tiki masks.

Activities

Indoor or outdoor, there were games for all tastes! For the first time the staff ran the “Predator and Prey” game, very traditional at Camp Feral! (a Canadian con), as well as water balloon rugby. For those who were tired, board and card games (like Munchkin) entertained everybody. But this year, for those who weren’t tired but wanted to escape the strong sun, Abando had a “Pump it Up” video-game.

Talking of the sun, the greatest hero of this year was the lake. Swimming in the fresh water made everybody happy in the hot weather (almost 40ºC/104ºF).

Luau

Each year, Abando features a “campfire moment”, and this year was no different – I mean, YES! it was quite different: A Luau!

There was food, ambient lighting, a campfire, and music, as well as a limbo contest. Even the fursuiters took part in the contest!

Speaking of fursuits…

Ryan Wolf and Dusky

This year, two fursuiters attended the con: Ryan Wolf and Dusky. Their paws got a little dirty on the grass, but who said they cared about that? :)

They came from everywhere!

The campers came from all parts of Brazil: São Paulo, Pernambuco, Paraná, Goiás, Minas Gerais, Rio Grande do Sul, Rio de Janeiro and Sergipe; some even came from Canada. Also, Hwei Chow hung a flag of Argentina during the event to honor our neighbors.

Final words

The first Brazilian furry con is proud to reach this level, and invites Furs from everywhere to attend the 2011 con. If you don’t speak Portuguese, don’t worry! Brazilians know English, and those who don’t know it are very good at miming :). Brazilians love to receive friends from abroad and are sure to make them welcome.

The 2011 edition of the website will contain more information for furries who live abroad and want to attend the con, like hotels, flights and passport requirements. If you already have questions, just email “tanuki-raccoon@hotmail.com”.

Thanks to all attendees and the staff who worked hard for this con!

Aloha Abando, and see you in 2011!