tl;dr: Had a great time, actually managed to socialise more than last year where I was an awkward lump, saw creatures. It was good. I didn’t take as many photos this year, oops lol
IT WAS THAT TIME AGAIN. Two weeks ago. I was ill okay?
Day -1 (we had a whole discussion about this) – Thursday, 23rd of May
Train was a nightmare there, it was full and I ended up sending the entire trip of Stockport to Birmingham International stood up with two suitcases in a vestibule. That was FUN. But I did get chance to actually chat with Ocio, who’d I’ve not seen in like, 10 years, because I became a recluse who never goes to the Manchester Furmeets anymore since I stepped down from running them :V
This year Nuggette and I were in the opposite end of the hotel to last year and we had a view! Thank GOD. I don’t think the nightclub unces were why I struggled so much with sleep last year but they certainly didn’t help!
It’s always nice to get the front side of the hotel, even if it was very cloudy most the weekend, ‘cus you get to look at all the cute furs!
Anyway, went and sorted registration and it was still crazy efficient. Again my metaphorical hat is off to the registration team, I say it regularly but I remember one year spending literal hours in the registration queue as opposed to the like, 20 to 30 minutes maximum in this year.
I remembered to make my badge fangy! I thought I forgot given the whole vampire thing happed after registration lol
Spent a lot of the rest of the day though sitting in place to get people their conbadges from me, Ash, Taylor and Russet were the ones I got sorted there. Then before Brightsmith’s considered the concept of food moot, managed to get a curry there! Tbh I forgot just how much they gave you (which for the price, good)
Spent the rest of night chatting with peeps, a lot of it honestly, but I did get to see birdocracy in action.
Day 0 – Friday, 24th of May
Started the first day with something that wouldn’t be continued, getting breakfast :V
Once again plonked myself down in a set location and chatted with more peeps such as Allison (Towers), Teddy and Zoro, as well as getting chance to chat to Benji for more than just swirly social. Managed to get Zenbas and Markus their badges too!
After grabbing some food, and at the insistence of Shiro I watched the stream of the opening ceremony and aaaaaaaaaaaa Dylan (and Mel) got suits aaaaaaaaaaa Dylan is so friend shaped.
After that we did the pub quiz with Alison and Zoro, we didn’t do great but we also didn’t come last, so I’m happy with that!
Day 1 – Saturday, 25th of May
I got breakfast again :O This won’t last.
After that we went to dealers den. Though I didn’t pick up as much this year, a mix of not as much I was interested in but also wow it was busy in there. It didn’t help that they’d set up the den like it was one way, but it wasn’t so you just had random people who were going the other way and kind of disrupted the flow of the den. I think if they wanna do that setup again they’ve gotta reinstate the one way system, even if you let people do multiple loops, you’ve gotta have ’em consistently flowing one direction… BUT I did get a mystery gift off Miles/Blacksmoke1033! Now I have two head empty
I later did the rubber social and I have thoughts about it that I’ll share in CFz’s feedback but mostly I was bummed out by putting my thumb through my tee >_>
Day 2 – Sunday, 26th of May
THE BREAKFAST STREAK ENDED, it was two more days than I expected as normally it doesn’t go that long. Did another loop of the den, didn’t get anything but I got to have a longer chat with Miles/Blacksmoke1033 at least c:
I was mostly energy low today, so I spent a lot of it in my room lol. BUT my energy improved once I got to do Swirly Social, like extremely! Great chatting to peeps and flitting around everyone and just in general @u@ (but not actual we could not do actual hypnosis due to UK laws). We also assembled Jakey
Afterwards was the Sonic meet and just had fun vibing with artists while Regdeh and Damian were playing music on an acoustic guitar and a bass. I even DREW
Wasn’t sleepy yet so got to chat more with Vidi, as well as Orin and Greenfox c:
Day 3 – Monday, 27th of May
Monday I absolutely was low energy, both on getting up late and in general, so me and the bun just chilled in millers, I didn’t really draw but they did and it was neat to watch. Though I did go to the “How to Take Commissions” panel, mostly things I knew beforehand but I did pick up some new things, though I really gotta get over the idea of not reposting my old art.
Back in Millers and then… THE EVENT. The fire alarm went off, which isn’t anything unusual, like I don’t think I’ve been to a single CFz where it didn’t briefly go off… except it wasn’t brief… it continued.. and suddenly we were all evacuating the hotel. Amusingly I was extremely close to a fire exit so hey, I was safe. Though I was slightly worried ‘cus Nuggette had gone to get a drink and was at the bar at the time, granted that meant their nearest exit was the literal hotel entrance so I knew they’d be safe.
I won’t repeat rumours as to why it happened but I will repeat that there was a little conflicting advice given about the evacuation. We correctly moved off to the carpark, and were repeatedly advised to move back but keep off an access road which fair enough, that’s going to be where Fire Engines will show up if they did (thankfully they didn’t have to), so a lot of us moved over to some grass, and then told to get off it, and move back forward in to the (mostly packed) VIP car park. I suspect I get why (if people had an accident from slipping etc. I guess the hotel could be liable) but it was a little frustrating. However I do suspect in the end that CFz staff ended up filling a gap that hotel fire marshals should have been and where running on what rudimentary training as events staff would get on it, so I don’t blame them.
Though it was funny hearing, I assume the hotel manager on shift at the time announcing over the tanoy getting more and more frustrated
Can the staff please return to the hotel
… … …Can the staff please return to the hotel
… … …Can HILTON staff please return to the hotel
… … …Can HILTON staff please return to the hotel
Anyway, got back in and managed to get a doodle out about it
From here though I do want to praise the Confuzzled welfare team. I’m going to grab what I said on the night via social media:
That said I really do want to extend thanks to the con staff and volunteers, especially welfare and first aid peeps as I saw a lot of the last night running around helping out a lot of especially panicked people or sudden bad mental health bouts brought on by just the evacuation or that plus being intoxicated.
It’s traumatic for some people, especially if they were on higher floors and you have the sudden rush of people “calmly” taking fire exits. I was lucky in that I was literally ten paces from the Miller’s Bar fire exit but I guarantee I’d have been way more jumpy otherwise.
Especially clear to me as some poor peep was having a particularly bad one (attended by welfare and first aid, don’t worry we didn’t just ignore them) by our room, we dropped our stuff off, realised it wasn’t really gonna be a great sleep environment and dashed back down to the bar afterwards.
Which is ANOTHER reason I’m thankful to con staff for managing to get the Hilton to allow us all extended check out cus let me tell you, getting up at 9am after going to bed about 6am wasn’t fun :’D
Given the circumstances I also do wanna thank the comms team for trying their best to keep people informed during the evac too, and passing on all the relevant updates from directors etc.
The weekend was good but I wanted to get that off my mind before sleepy me forgets and gets bothered they forgot something.
Evacuations are messy, even if you’re doing it in a workplace and have been trained to do so properly, but honestly Confuzzled as a convention did the best they could given the situation in my opinion. Meanwhile I suspect that the shift manager, and the general manager, of the Hilton Birmingham Metropole are likely to have some stern words with their staff.
Eventually, as the sun rose, we went to bed.
Day 4 – Tuesday, 28th of May
Frankly, as of that morning, I think that was the sexiest thing Confuzzled ever said
Trip back was a nightmare but hey, that’s public transport for you :B
This year I don’t really have many public comments that aren’t dissimilar to last year, I’ll at least do some
- KEEP THE FOOD TRUCKS (again) <3
- Welfare team deserve free meals at CFz2025 tbh
- Event planning was good for me, but I know for others there was overlap
- I’m glad Millers became a new artists corner, KEEP THIS. Even if I didn’t do much, it was fantastic being around artists again <3
- I still don’t know what the quiet room is for.
Cool, anything else I have is private feedback for CFz! This post would’ve been bigger if I felt well enough a week ago but I wasn’t OOPS!