Yesterday I went to my first ever furmeet. Its something I have been wanting to do for years now but never have been able to get the courage. Even then, I did not even know of any furmeets in the UK a few months ago. I always thought it was mainly an online community with one or two conventions every so often which are normally miles away from where I live.

Then a few months ago I found out about MancFurs (http://www.furaffinity.net/user/mancfurs) I knew there was some kind of furry things which happened in Manchester, due to in the summer when I was walking through Manchester, I saw some fursuiters in the center next to the old ruins but I was too nervous at the time to go up and talk to them. I looked into it and discovered about the MancFurs mini-meets. Which happen on the second saturday of every month. So I finally decided to get out of my shell and meet some real furries and not just ones online.

I was wanting to go with a mate of mine who is also a furry. But yet unfortunately they decided to not go. So it was just me in the end meeting up with some random people I have never met before In a fandom I have never had any proper interaction with apart from seeing a few during MCM comic con and that's about it, so yeah, I was pretty nervous.

I met with them at the train station at 11.30am, before that though I spent quite awhile just trying to build up the courage to go up and speak with them. They seemed pretty friendly, Just a couple of big old nerds like myself. So I stayed around and went with them to the meet at Bar Pop on Canal Street. Canal street is the Gay Village of Manchester. I have been there a few times in the past but normally with people I know.

I must be honest, I spent the first hour or two too nervous to really talk to people, I was just trying to take it all in. But then finally the Fur walk happened, Where all the fur suiters and other furs go to the local Alan Turing park to take pictures and have a laugh. This was the best part of the day for me and where I finally came out of my shell properly and talked to some people.

When I was on my way to the meet I did tweet to MancFurs that I was pretty nervous, But one of the staff called "Alexx" (http://www.furaffinity.net/user/alexxthetiger) sent me a message back and basically just reassured me about it all, And during the Fur walk I was actually able to find them and talk to them. It was quite nice, he just basically told me that its not uncommon to be nervous for the first time during these meets and to just basically go and have some fun.

It was nice talking to the other people, I did not talk to too many, but the ones I did talk to where just basically normal guys with normal lives and normal jobs, everyone seemed pretty open about talking about themselves. I went around and took alot of pictures of the fursuiters, They are currently up on my twitter and I will be posting them on here and elsewhere within the next few days. My favorite fursuiter of the day was one known as "Cosmo" a nice playful Snow Leopard like myself, So I think you can guess why I where drawn to them.

After all the fun at the park we all went back to the bar. The furSuiters stayed in their costumes for abit longer and danced at the bar. I will say though this is where my worst part of the day happened though. A random guy from the street came up to me and said "Hey, whats happening here" whilst pointing at the fursuiters. I basically told him it was a furry community gathering, In which he replied "Oh... so its some kind of fetish thing then?". I tried to explain to him its not about that at all but he just seemd to pretend to lissen to me and say "I guess I will have to do some research into it then" and walked away. You cant win them all I guess.

After that I just spent some more time, Talking to the other furs and having a drink before leaving just before 5pm. Overall though it was a very nice day out and has made me feel quite liberated and proud with myself for fighting my nerves and going through with it.

Still now I feel very happy, That I finally met people just like me rather then just lurking online on the edge of the fandom. If I was to give some tips to other people who would like to go to one of the furry meetups but are not too sure how to approach it, here are some simple tips...

• Be yourself, Yes I know it sounds very cliche but yet the people you are going to go and meet probably will have alot in common with you.

• Force yourself to get involved. Yes, Nerves can be a real issue with your first ever meet, but try and get out of your safe zone and jump in, you will most certainly feel better about yourself afterwards.

• Wear a name tag with your fursona on if you have one. It helps people know your name and your fursona. You don't need a fursuit of any kind (Accessories, partial or full) but if you do have something like a furry themed T-Shirt or something it can help.

• Bring with you equipment with what you use to interact with the fandom. This can be anything like a camera if you are a photographer, some Pencils and paper if you draw and so on. It can be a good conversation starter. Like I just used the camera on my phone to take some pictures but it still helped alot.

• Have plenty of furry social accounts. Alot of the furs at the meetup I went to had alot of accounts on different websites, but yet not on all of them. Some are on twitter only, some are on sites such as these, and others are on websites such as Facebook or furry amino. Twitter is a must have to keep in contact with the group you are with and it was the most widely used one for the ones at the meet I went to. Seeing you can have it on your mobile as well makes it very useful.

It most certainly was a good day out and I will most certainly will be going to the next one on the 8th of April, Hopefully with my friend this time, So I hope to see some of you there in the near future!