In this episode of Furry Voices, GFTV and FurTimes talk with Taiwanese furcon Furry Tea Party’s organiser and founder Haneneko.

As Furry Tea Party (FTP) held its seventh event in 2024, Haneneko gives his insight about the event’s history, its challenges, and what the future holds for the furcon.

Transcript

The original transcript is edited for grammar and clarity. If misalignments arise, refer to the video’s subtitles, which is the original transcript.

Blue Wendel: Why is Furry Tea Party 2024 held at Kaohsiung Public Main Library?

Haneneko: Last year, after Furry Tea Party 2023 concluded we signed contracts with Pier-2. We planned to hold Furry Tea Party 2024 at Pier-2. We signed up for two warehouses there: P2 and P3.The venue change is because we’ve been working with the City Suites Pier2 hotel.

Once Furry Tea Party 2023 was done, we hoped to sign for more hotel rooms in 2024. The hotel kept refusing to sign with us. They say they can discuss prices only six months before the event. We thought we’d worked with the hotel for 5-6 years and said we would wait until then.

Around September, we contacted City Suites Hotel. We said, let’s work together more this year because we feel there will be more attendees. So I said we hope to get more rooms. The quote they gave us is more expensive than that of TAI Urban Resort.

Then I thought, “Why do you charge more for a business hotel than a five-star hotel, especially for a contract?” I was quite angry at this and said, “We’ve worked with you for 6 years, and this is what we got?” Then I went back and forth with them on the hotel prices.

As of mid-November, they refused to quote us. Ultimately, I told them, “I would rather pay for breaking our contract with Pier-2 than to subject our attendees to exorbitant prices.”

It is November, so we urgently have to find a new venue. We looked at the Kaohsiung Public Main Library, the Kaohsiung Convention Centre (KCC), and the Kaohsiung NPAC (Weiwuying). After considering these 3 places, we finally chose the Kaohsiung Public Main Library because Weiwuying has no nearby hotel, and so does the KCC.

Thus, we were left with the library. Many asked why there were no main hotels this year. We were negotiating clearances with the library, which took almost a month. By the time they gave approval, it was already December.

I’m not going to discuss it with the hotel first! If I did that before the library approved us, hotel negotiations would go to waste, and we’d look dumb in front of them. If I had discussed with the hotel after that time, it would’ve been January.

We got a hotel but could not get rooms because we couldn’t get a contract. So people may ask why the staff has rooms. The reason is I paid with my own money.

To be blunt, Furry Tea Party 2024 only had 3 months to prepare. So our team was all racing against time. We even had no time for the details. We did what we could to do our best lest the event would fall.

Blue Wendel: This is Taiwan’s first furcon in a library. What do you look forward to for this venue?

Haneneko: It’s tiring enough to look for the venue in the first place. We chose the library because of its large space available. For Taiwan, Furry Tea Party is the only “fursuit” convention, the rest being “furry” conventions.

We distinguish “furry cons” and “fursuit cons”. “Furry cons” and “fursuit cons” have different goals. “Furry cons” focus on interactions between furries, whereas “fursuit cons” focus on meetups between fursuiters and the general public.

Because you’re already in a fursuit, you’d wish to take good photos and interact with more people instead of being confined, where furries around look at each other.

So we chose the library because the human traffic at the library is, although less than Pier-2’s, readers would feel happy seeing the fursuiters.

Blue Wendel: Furry Tea Party 2024 has no official hotel. Will this affect the event attendance?

Haneneko: Even if you insist, Furry Tea Party has never been held at a hotel. We were in a warehouse last year but not at the City Suites Hotel.

If you insist, you could stay at the 85 Sky Tower, at the InterContinental, or at the Silks Club. Because not everyone in this fandom can afford such an expensive hotel.

If I’m a student, I can stay at 86 Sky Tower and reach the Kaohsiung Public Main Library in 3 minutes. And if I get more income today, I can stay at the TAI Urban Resort.

So doesn’t this mean our culture can be more accepting of differences instead of going, “We can only focus on this hotel” or “If you want to attend, pay this much money”?

Blue Wendel: So it becomes a financial barrier demanding a minimum spend for attendance?

Haneneko: Yeah, I organised Furry Tea Party as a common interest meetup and we do not plan to earn from this, so we can do what we can.

Blue Wendel: Why is this year’s theme “Adventure Feast”?

Haneneko: I hope everyone can venture outdoors and take public transport to explore Kaohsiung. We had a treasure-hunting game last year, but we could expand upon that material, so we have an adventure theme for this year. 

Blue Wendel: This year, Furry Tea Party is working with 2 partners. One is with a local LARP (live-action roleplay) group, and the other is an archery space some distance away. What gave you the chance to work with them?

Haneneko: A few of us went to do archery together, and we talked a lot with their boss. Because they’re hard at work running their business, we wanted to help them promote archery, and we thus collaborated with them. We hope it can increase their traffic.

Blue Wendel: Can you share the details of Furry Tea Party’s story read-aloud collaboration with the library?

Haneneko: We were hosting the furcon at the library and talked a lot with them. I hope to promote furry culture more widely. World Readers’ Day was approaching, so I asked, “Do you want to collaborate with us?”

In this digital age today, people are going to the library less. People are using their phones and the internet instead. We hope that kids will revisit the library during our event. The books have these animal friends that bring them to read books together.

Through our fursuiters’ lively skits, the readers learn to care for animals and become more interested in reading. This is our grand plan for World Readers’ Day.

Blue Wendel: Will there be a next time for read-along events like this?

Haneneko: There will be a next time but we will see how the library plans because we work with them, but we will see how the library plans then they went, “Haneneko, we actually got no budget.”

“What, you expect us to do this without budget!?”

They wanted some advertising, and we told them, “Yeah, we’ll look into it.” So, if you look at that big wall poster to the bottom right, there were quite a few sponsors. I also took cash out of my pocket to look for companies willing to help with this initiative.

We visited them to devise a plan together and said, “Excuse me, we got this event, and we hope to bring kids back to the library.” We also donated some stuff to the library so they can give them to the kids.

Blue Wendel: This year, the mayor visited the furcon.

Haneneko: He gave notice 3 days before, and we were notified, “Do you know who Chen Chi-Mai is?”

“Wait, wait, wait, what?”

The library got the news first, and they were very nervous. They asked me for much information, and we finished things at 11pm.

They called me again the next day at 7am, “Can we verify more details because the mayor is coming?” “Oh yeah, sure, we’ll give you what you need … if you come, we welcome you.”

Blue Wendel: Is the local mayor’s arrival a validation of furry culture?

Haneneko: If it’s not, they wouldn’t have come, they came because they do! He’d be like, how interesting, it’s a new subculture of young people, so they go and give support.

Although the news script reads that we must prepare a fursuit for him if he comes next year. I said, “No, not for now, not for now.”

Blue Wendel: Is the politicians’ presence good or bad for the furcon?

Haneneko: I feel anything can be a double-edged sword. Like, someone told me, “Why are you touching politics?” I told them I never wanted to. You already are in politics by living on this land.

If a government official wants to attend your event, we welcome them. How could we reject it if the mayor is coming? Wouldn’t it make us look weird?

Some people don’t understand.

Pawsry: How did Furry Tea Party start; why hold an event like this?

Haneneko: I commissioned a fursuit from Atelier Amanojaku. As a student, I didn’t have much cash back then, so I bought the fursuit under a 12-month instalment.

After getting the fursuit, I wanted to use it to interact with more people, so I went home to Taiwan. At that time, Taiwan only had events up north: “Furries Only” and Infurnity.

So why not a furry event in Taiwan’s south? People were pessimistic, and they went, “It can’t succeed in the South,” I said, “God damn it, I’ll hella show you how it’s done.” Thus, Furry Tea Party is born.

Our initial idea was a tea party where people chat over their drinks. So we’re like, only a few people, just 50 will do. The first event was capped at 50 people.

I studied architecture, so I will calculate how many furries can fit in this area when I look for venues. I hope the attendees don’t feel squeezed.

So our first event had 50 people, and we got a space of 100 ping (~331 sqm). Our 2nd event had 150 people, we got a space of 300 ping (~992 sqm), and we have held it ever since until today.

Pawsry: Compared to other furcons, what makes Furry Tea Party special?

Haneneko: The first point for Furry Tea Party is that we have a furry cafe space or the “Adventurers’ Cafe” this year, which is helmed by our F&B side. They put effort into decorating and choosing food to fit the theme and let attendees see different offerings yearly.

“Oh, last year’s was like that, this year’s is like this, and every year will be like this”; “When I come next year, I must go give the food a try. I must have a meal at the furry cafe.”.

We do this yearly to build excitement for the event among attendees.

Pawsry: You have been gamifying the event, too, like with a points reward system, which is interesting to see!

Haneneko: I just wanted to make some changes so our attendees can find the little things we organisers put around the spaces

Because there was a city treasure hunt game at last year’s event. And I found there were so many people we thought the game would take a day to finish, but people finished it in half a day. We organisers ought to raise the bar and not let it clear too easily, so we prepared a hundred quests for people to clear this year.

If you want to rush through the game, there is too much in the world for you to rush for already. But something that lets you savour the game on a day off after busy work and leisurely experience an event well, is that better?

Pawsry: What special things do you think attracts overseas furries to Furry Tea Party?

Haneneko: It’s getting more and more overseas attendees, the most this year. Coming to a place like Kaohsiung is already fresh to overseas visitors. Think about being able to fursuit on the trains and light rails. Furry Tea Party might be the world’s first event to work with metro authorities.

Other countries can’t do this usually because these services move many people, and they are not fond of head coverings. The fursuiters cover their heads. It counts. That brings about safety concerns.

But at Furry Tea Party, at the Taiwan Furry Interaction Association (TFIA), we used ourselves as a guarantee to assure them that our attendees were safe. So not only do we organisers have to plan the event, but we must also put ourselves in charge of everything and anything that may happen.

It is very stressful.

Today, if you mention the TFIA and furries in Kaohsiung, people would be really fine with it, so if we say, “Oh, furries are going there”, they would go, “Oh sure, no problem!” Our relations with Kaohsiung’s authorities have progressed at this pace. We deepen impressions like that for the authorities and the city so our attendees feel more free.

Pawsry: You are saying that the special thing is being able to freely interact with locals experiencing not just furry but also local culture which feels more real, instead of closing doors and being limited to yourselves?

Haneneko: Yeah.

Pawsry: We heard about your event’s unique expectations and goals from this interview. What would you suggest to someone who wants to hold a furcon like Furry Tea Party?

Haneneko: If you were to hold a fursuit convention, start with small events. In Japan, there’s a fursuit meet every week, perhaps one event every 2 weeks, and these events would slowly expand.

Aim for a manageable size for your first event; that would be very stressful. That corner became a warehouse for us, you see. Don’t expect 300 or 500 people now; next, your event will burn out fast; it’s impossible. You could pull it off, but there are more things to handle. 

Pawsry: What do you think the future holds for Furry Tea Party?

Haneneko: The future will be big. It will keep growing. We had more than a thousand people last year but to be blunt, Furry Tea Party had more than 20k people, not a thousand!

For Asia, Furry Tea Party should be massive. For last year, the people outside the Pier-2 Arts Centre also count as attendees. This year, all passersby inside and outside the library count as attendees, too.

Pawsry: So they count as a part of the event’s storyline?

Haneneko: Yes

Pawsry and Blue Wendel: Could you say something to our audiences before we conclude this interview?

Haneneko: I hope everyone can come and hang out at Furry Tea Party next year. I believe it can offer a different experience.

And because I often travel to furcons globally, I will bring the best of their experiences to improve our event and give attendees a fresh experience.

To all overseas furries: Come have fun at Furry Tea Party!