Lexington Furry Con: Be a part of the start!

Help us bring a furry convention back to Kentucky!

Orange and Minty of the Lex Furs have been looking into setting up a convention for years, and we finally found the space! The Clarion Hotel in Lexington (and attached Bluegrass Convention Center) have given us a pricing package for two years of convention space rental, and we believe it is a very achievable goal! We have created a goal amount of $4500 for the two years of venue rental, as well as some additional funding for Fundly fees, insurance costs, potential cleaning fees, and additional item rental/purchase (for things such as AV, merchandise, conbooks and paper collateral, etc). People have told us for quite some time that they think Lexington would be the ideal spot for a new con, and many have even told us that they thought we would be the right people to run it. We are delighted at the prospect of bringing a convention back to the bluegrass, and would love nothing more than a safe new space to be furry together and support local artists and the community! We think this is a very realistic goal to reach so please help us bring a new con to Lexington! Just like we wouldn't have this community without you we also won't have this con without you, so anything helps and we will be genuinely thankful for whatever you can give!

The convention is set for the tentative dates of September 26-27 2026 and September 25-26 2027. We have selected these dates for two reasons: to make sure we are able to fully fund it before the first con, and because there were no sooner dates available to rent. We have also chosen the month of September as the best possible time due to reasonable buffer between other cons in the time period. Regrettably we could not fully avoid overlap but we still believe this was the best option for our community! We would love to extend this into being a 3-day con in the future but for the first two years we will be thrilled to invite people for a weekend of fun, and we will include registration time and an opening dance on Friday as well! We will have a large main area for the Dealers' Den/Artists' Alley, 2 smaller rooms for panels, and another smaller room that will act as a game room/hangout space, in addition to various public spaces in the convention center that our group will be able to use. We will have nightly dances, a dance competition, fursuit games, official group photo, plenty of panels, and tons of other fun stuff! It will be a small con to start but we believe this awesome community will make it a very fun and memorable one, with room to grow in the future! We are very proud to say that the Bluegrass Convention Center is a lovely space, and the hotel looks awesome (especially for the estimated prices they gave us!) And how many times have you seen a furry hotel block that has free breakfast included? We thoroughly believe that the Clarion and attached BCC will be a lovely home for the first years of this convention, and we were wowed by their customer service and generosity to us as we toured.

"So how do I help?" you might be asking. Very simply put, you can donate to this Fundly and help us get this show on the road! If we are somehow unable to collect the amount needed to fund at least one year of the con, the money donated will still be GUARANTEED to go to hosting free local Lexington Furs-hosted events, but we hope it's a very slim chance that we won't be able to book!!! Despite the fact that this con has a first date of 2026, funding it sooner rather than later is ideal because we could lose our slot!!!

By donating to this Fundly you will be agreeing to a contract as stated hereby; that you agree the amount donated will be collected by the owners of the Lex Furs and used solely for the purposes of this convention, or if the event is not funded, solely for the purposes of local events. Orange and Minty of the Lex Furs with this Fundly guarantee 100% of the funds will go toward the community.

Donations will be allowed in all amounts and we mean it when we say, "anything helps!" However we will also be offering some structured contribution tiers with listed benefits! PLEASE NOTE that the convention registration tiers that you can purchase will receive ADDITIONAL BENEFITS versus what you'd receive if you registered at the exact same level once the con is funded and open for registration. Please note as well that the prices will differentiate between the fundraiser prices and the standard con registration prices. Since additional benefits are being given to donors the prices will be higher than registration prices if the con is funded. For example, we will not be putting all our Supersponsors on a banner/cutout unless they donate to that tier on this Fundly. So we will have exclusive benefits for people awesome enough to donate to help us bring this to life!

By donating to this Fundly you don't just help us to bring a convention back as a fun thing to do. You help bring back a true local event. How many times have you been to a regular comic convention and half of the merch was drop-shipped? We guarantee that we will have ONLY furry or furry-adjacent artists and dealers in the DD/AA and that we will vet for hand-made items. We will even be printing our con registration badges on the PVC badge printer of a local fur! We want this to be a local event for local furs, where fun times can be had with real friends, and where you'll know your money is supporting small business! It's only right after so many active years in this community, and after so many memories have been made and fun has been had, that we do something of this scale to give back. Furry is an insanely big part of who we are and it would mean a lot to us to bring this event into town for furs to have fun, and provide a convention experience close enough and inexpensive enough for area furs who might not be able to get the time off or funds saved to go to bigger cons. We'd love to invite all furs from Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee, and really anyone willing to come drive and check us out. Orange and Minty owe a lot to this community, that has brought us so many relationships, so many memories, so much support in our lives. So even if we end up working through most of it, it'll still be worth it. We are sincerely grateful for anyone who can contribute to this fundraiser, and we will be equally grateful when we (hopefully!) see folks come out to the convention and enjoy it. Thanks for making this a great community, and thanks for being awesome!

NOTICE: In addition to funding the con financially, we will also need hours! If this con gets funded one of the best ways you can help us out is by volunteering! We will need charity auction sitters, badge checkers, con store staff, registration table staff, trash collectors, ID checkers for 18+ areas and potentially more! We will not be able to hold this con without a reliable volunteer force and we plan to thank our volunteers accordingly, with goodies and discounts on future con registration. We are currently planning for this event to be 18+ only! If we receive enough interest in volunteering we will be able to accommodate more age groups, but we cannot do this without people to act as badge checkers. For at least the first year we will likely also be restricted to pre-registration with mailed badges, with the exception of at-the-door registration on Friday only. In the future, however, we hope to be able to do registration the whole event, and volunteers at the first year will be what helps it happen in future years! So we hope you know that if you choose to volunteer YOU are one of the backbones of the convention and we are truly thankful for you!

NOTICE: If you are a known "problematic fur" you may have your right to attend revoked and your donation will not be refunded. This does not mean you are a fur that people simply hate. This means if you have known history of involvement in zo*philia, p*dophilia, or hate groups you are banned from this event. The ban also extends to people that have had known unreformed history of criminal activity such as assault, s*xual assault, theft, etc. especially if any such things have happened in the furry space. We are here to create a safe space for furs of all kinds and will not tolerate these things at the con. Please be aware we are doing our best to create a positive, welcoming event.

If you have any questions for us regarding this event please reach out to your hosts (Orange on Discord @DennisTheDirewolf or Minty on Telegram @FinalMint) We are happy to help! Again we are grateful for any contributions to this fundraiser and sincerely hope we can bring a furry convention back to the bluegrass!