Furries freak over Renaissance festival ban: 'We're not a LARP or Cosplay event'

A recent ban announcement from a half-century-old celebration has some furries reeling, despite admitting that their scene is rooted in obscure sexual themes.

While ComicCon and FanExpo are seemingly thriving environments for furries, there's one place where they might be scaring the families away.

'I think the biggest impact is losing this lovely place that I had kind of considered home.'

Furget it

A 33-year-old costume wearer going by the alias Aston Hawthorne — his "fursona," if you will — spoke out about the heartbreak he went through after learning that his ilk had been banned from an event not normally associated with adults who sexualize sports mascots.

The Maryland Renaissance Festival.

Now 50 years old, the festival is reportedly the second-most attended in the country with 368,000 attendees expected this year.

It seems festival officials have simply had enough of seeing costumes that have nothing to do with the actual Renaissance. This, on top of complaints, led to the recent ban.

Some visitors reported "feeling uncomfortable by those wearing fursuits," the festival's general manager, Julius Smith, told City Cast DC in a statement.

The widely circulated announcement is explained on the festival's website, stating multiple times that certain costumes are not welcomed.

Under its regulations about headwear, the festival says it must be "thematic to the event and appropriate for a family-friendly venue."

"Non-thematic headwear will not be permitted through the festival gates. Examples of noncompliant headgear/face coverings include inappropriate face paint, offensive prosthetics, makeup or masks intended to frighten, and fursuits," the website reads.

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Giving paws

The company page reiterates that costumes cannot be "inappropriate for a family environment," and that includes scantily clad or scary attire.

Straightforwardly, the company writes: "We're not a LARP or Cosplay event."

City Cast reported that the announcement actually sent shockwaves through the costume-wearing community, with 15-year-furry Hawthorne saying that he's been wearing his costume to Renaissance fairs for three years now and was "shocked" to hear about the ban.

"Everyone was pretty shocked, especially since there [has] never really been an issue before," the furry said.

Festival officials' indirect retort was that they have heard support from customers over the ban and that festival-goers have felt furries "detract from the Renaissance theme."

"We want our customers to embrace the story we're telling and the themes we're promoting," Smith said.

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Nathan Howard/The Washington Post/Getty Images

Queer as folk

Event officials said furries tend to give "unauthorized performances" and sometimes pose as cast members while posing for pictures.

At the same time, the furry in question said the news made him go through "all the stages of grief."

"It was really, really heartbreaking," he added.

Hawthorne did admit that while the subculture he claims is indeed largely based in sexual deviancy and sexual identity, he wasn't sure if that was the reason for the ban.

“The media does love to portray the furry community as very sexually enthusiastic, if you will, and it's a group of adults being together. It's also a very queer-oriented community, and a lot of that community involves very radical self-expression, and within that radical self-expression, sexual themes can make an appearance."

However, he said he hasn't seen those themes in "most of the outfits" at the fair.

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