In an open letter posted to their site
To our community,
We are pleased to inform everyone that we will proceed with an in-person event as scheduled from March 18 – 20, 2022.
We are aware that the Ontario government has recently announced changes to public health measures effective March 1st. As such, we want to affirm that Furnal Equinox will continue to require proof of vaccination and wearing of masks for admission to our event. We are updating our COVID policies to reflect up-to-date guidance. We will share this in the next few days and continue to update with any further changes.
We received over 1,200 responses to our survey over the last two weeks and sincerely appreciate all the feedback. In making our decision, there were three principles that guided us:
- Service to our community. Many stated they were comfortable with an in-person event. We have always recognized the impact that conventions like ours have in building community, and how difficult the pandemic has made the last couple of years. We also recognize that for our dealers, this decision impacts livelihoods.
- Risk mitigation. We can’t absolutely guarantee anyone’s safety at a convention. However, we recognize that public health measures — such as vaccinations, masking, hand hygiene, and physical distancing — do work. We are encouraged by other events that implemented these measures and ran safely. We are also strongly encouraged by public health trends here in Ontario, where cases and hospitalizations have decreased over the past several weeks.
- Looking to the future. Having an in-person event is the best way to ensure we can continue to serve the community and uphold our values of community, creativity, diversity, and charity, both now and for years to come.
We recognize that not everyone will feel comfortable attending a convention right now. To anyone who will not attend in person, we hope you will consider attending our Virtual Furnal Equinox, held at the same time as our in-person event. If you had previously registered for FE 2020 and rolled forward your registration, we are happy to honour that registration for FE 2023.
The furry fandom has a long history of celebrating our creativity and diversity, and providing support and aid to those who need it.
We do this not in private, but out in the open. Despite the progress we’ve made in fighting this pandemic, those values of diversity and mutual support have been visibly challenged. It’s all the more important for us to come together and show that our community may have been tested in fire over these years — but it is not broken.
We thank you all for the support, trust, and patience that you have given us on this challenging road since the last Furnal Equinox in March 2019. We have missed you all deeply, and look forward to seeing you in a matter of weeks.
Sincerely,
Furnal Equinox Leadership Team
(Aaeden, Eilowny, Iggly, Kootenay, Paro, Scani)
