Furstock

Furstock is a yearly event for furries in Poland. It is not a convention in the classical sense of the term, however due to the number of attendees (more than 35 in 2008) and length (3 - 7 days) it is closer in form to a convention than a Furmeet. Furstock occurs every year during the weekend dividing July and August, at Kostrzyn nad Odrą during the largest open-air music festival in Europe named Przystanek Woodstock.

Form

Furstock escapes from the classical nature of conventions with its laid back, unorganised character. It is a meeting in the form of a campsite, without registration, fees, a programme of events or defined organisers. The convention takes place on the terrain of the music festival and its participants are also participants of the music festival itself, and take advantage of its facilities such as running water, medical huts, 'woodstock trains' and fast-food stands – and also take part in the parties and attractions taking place as part of the music festival.

Traditionally, Furstock takes place under the Polfurs flag. The tents of the participants are arranged in a circle, creating a mini colony in the centre of which which the tenants take part in various invented 'ad-hoc' attractions and games. Despite the lack of an official events programme, many events typical of conventions take place - drawing workshops, RPG game sessions, themed group discussions, shows - such as poi-poi juggling and use of nunchuks, but also some completely spontaneous things such as group howling to the moon, 1001 jokes in the manner of "Your mom so...", or a discussion on the topic of "Religion and Anthropomorphism" with a Catholic priest invited from the Przystanek Jezus group.

Editions

Title	Date	Number of attendees	Localization	More information
Furstock 2005	5 and 6 August 2005	ca. 6	Kostrzyn nad Odrą
Furstock 2006	28 and 29 July 2006	ca. 12	Kostrzyn nad Odrą	The idea of naming the congregation of furries at the festival began to circulate.
Furstock 2007	3 and 4 August 2007	ca. 26	Kostrzyn nad Odrą	The largest Furry meeting in Poland at the time.
Furstock 2008	1 – 3 August 2008	ca. 40	Kostrzyn nad Odrą	Another record (though it was soon beaten by Futrzakon 2008), the more persistent attendees stayed for 5 days.
Furstock 2009	31 July – 2 August 2009	ca. 45	Kostrzyn nad Odrą	The camp, unlike the years before, wasn't placed on the Woodstock field near the water taps, but moved near the Krishna's Peace Village after original location was claimed for motorists camp.
Furstock 2010	30 July – 1 August 2010	ca. 40	Kostrzyn nad Odrą
Furstock 2011	4 – 6 August 2011	ca. 40	Kostrzyn nad Odrą
Furstock 2012	2 – 4 August 2012	ca. 40	Kostrzyn nad Odrą	Fandom MLP, which had ca. 30 people, joined the camp.
Furstock 2013	1 – 3 August 2013	ca. 45	Kostrzyn nad Odrą
Furstock 2014	31 July – 2 August 2014	ca. 45	Kostrzyn nad Odrą
Furstock 2015	30 July – 1 August 2015	ca. 45	Kostrzyn nad Odrą

The provided attendance counts are approximate, because nobody makes an official headcount, and many furries arrive with Mundane friends, whom it is difficult to determine as either actual Furstock attendees or just Woodstock attendees resident at the Furstock camp.

Interesting facts

• Thanks to the technical interests of the attendees, the Furstock camp is one of the best technically equipped camps at the festival. The campers have power generators, several laptops and cellphones with internet access, palmtops, halogen floodlighting, a cooker, refrigerator and other equipment not usually available in primitive campsite conditions.
• Since there is always someone at camp, no reported incidents of theft have occurred, that usually plague the Przystanek Woodstock music festival.
• The traditional identifying symbol of the Furstock campsite is the large yellow inflatable advertisement balloon located at the centre of the site, that shelters the attendees from severe sunshine or drizzle.
• The Polfurs flag that flies at the campsite is 'nomadic', in that it is entrusted to a different attendee each year to take care of it until the next year's Furstock.

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  Furstock 2006

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  Furstock 2007

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  Furstock 2008

External links

• Polfurs at DeviantART (in Polish) – the Polish furry community on DeviantART, where the majority of historical information about Furstock is available.