Scotiacon 2026 Review

Scotiacon this year was a bit of a blur! Unlike last year where I attended ALL THE PANELS this time I found myself barely climbing out of fursuit. Which stands to reason with it being my first time fursuiting at Scotiacon. Was quite special, having Kiki return to her home of Scotland. I arrived on the Thursday, which I always recommend, even if you don't end up doing much. It just makes for more relaxed time for travel and then lets you start early on Friday.

Since I was 🐐 CARRYING GOAT 🐐 I drove instead of taking the train, which was pretty class honestly. Haven't driven to Glasgow in years (insert video of me driving in the snow with Eurobeat on full volume across the border back to England circa 2016). Listened some Abroad in Japan Podcast and stopped at the Big ASDA in Carlisle for an ASDA Meal Deal (one of the best meal deals by the way).

Managed to get a parking space at the venue, which would become my personal fursuit lounge for the weekend (less cramped than the actual one!) Registered then grabbed a coffee to chill in the lobby and spot friends. As usual, loved the free sweets you get at Scotiacon, always a nice touch. Overheard some guys playing SMASH OR PASS with Digimon cards, certainly a trauma to my non-furry friends that play. I was then personally traumatised by some furs singing, not that they couldn't sing just that I am scared of a cappella. After a bit I took my luggage to the Premier Inn (the one at Glasgow Central Station, not the fun furry one across the river). I made the mistake of dragging my suitcase for a mile+ instead of taking the train, which in retrospect probably was a mistake. Drank some MILKUS to recover, showered then played some Kirby Air Riders before taking the train back to the con where I fursuited till late and got used to walking around the venue in suit.

Felt awful leaving Kiki in the car all alone all night, but Tim Hortons brekky made it mildly alright. Tim Hortons is odd, it's trash but good whilst also being overpriced (what isn't now-a-days 🥲). But hey, it's the only place in the UK you can get my favourite donuts (Crullers 🤤). Picked up the special cheap train ticket that gets you to expo centre unlimited times for like 4 days or something, pretty baller.

Managed to get to the purple meet, so many good purple furs, best colour for sure! Most importantly though, my fursuit maker Head of Medusa had one of the most chaotic meets ever, it was great, there's so many of us suit siblings now! 💜

Saturday evening all the restaurants on Argyle Street were fully booked apart from one, so managed to have burger with friends, though we did want Japanese.

🧀🍷WINE AND CHEESE WINE AND CHEESE. Forever and always the best event of any con. Something unique this year, the con had some space in the nearby Hilton as well, this was where wine and cheese was held. Sadly, as one of the most popular events (people always love free wine and cheese) the official wine and cheese was rammed full. So we were allowed to have a second wine and cheese in the Hilton bar. This did result in me mostly having BEER instead of wine, but hey one guy did have home brewed mead. Finally the legend himself, the keeper of the wine and cheese; Birdy came to visit us at the secondary wine and cheese, always a pleasure chatting to him.

Started Sunday having Nandos in bed whilst watching The Big Bang Theory 🤣 which is why I missed the hoofers meet, I am so sorry my fellow hoofed furs.

I'd say this was the moment it was really hitting me how, even though I wasn't staying too far away, not being in the con hotel whilst fursuiting can be exhausting. There's no escape really, other than a few moments in my car. I guess I could have drove between the venue and my hotel, but I was worried I'd never get parked again. It's why I ended up spending a bit too much time in the morning in my hotel, rather than going earlier then having a break during the day.

Whilst I was sat in fursuit, resting my achy legs suddenly the enormous inflatable mascot riding a humongous inflatable blue horse suddenly fell and crushed a guy. Several strong boys jumped up to the rescue, but there were no survivors. 

Anyway, lets talk about the dealers den, merch is what makes the world go round after all. Now, a common feature of furry cons is big ass queues. To try and mitigate this problem Scotiacon introduced a new app controlled queue system for the dealers den. Personally I think it worked quite well, I know others were a bit miffed though I didn't do the dealers den on the Saturday, only the Sunday.  I timed it poorly and missed my first slot (sorry ;-;) whilst I was getting onto the train. But managed to get another fairly soon after. Sadly a lot of what I wanted had already sold out! Picked up a few books though to keep me reading. The Book Badgers didn't break my teeth this time (don't bite Humbugs at Furcation).

Other things I got up to included playing some games in the game room (always a great spot to visit and I will forever believe it was inspired by our game room at BronyScot back in the horse days, Andrew would be so honoured). Also caught a bit of some kind of live action DnD session on stage or something which was cool. Unlike CFz I didn't end up dancing this time round, which is a shame, hopefully next year! Someone was running a contest where there were tiny bricks left around the con and you had to build a house then submit it to a Telegram channel for prizes. Me and a friend won a sheriff badge (joint effort, he built the house, I submitted it, he picked up the prized whilst I was in bed watching Fraiser the next day). 

Then the bittersweet end came, where you get to go home and finally ✨die✨ but also you miss being in a place full of people you can be yourself around. I always forget how big the Monday is at Scotiacon. Now there was nothing stopping me from staying till late, but I didn't feel right driving home in the dark, especially with how knackered my legs were. So I did miss a few cool events such as the fat fur meet which is a shame, not getting free Costco pizza is honestly a tragedy (though I am a member so it's not too bad for me, went later that week to Costco Leeds for a few slices!)

Overall, as usual Scotiacon was brilliant, though I certainly want to try and be in the main hotel for 2027. It was extremely packed, the attendee count has grown so high in recent times, which is both a blessing and a curse. One hand there's loads of people to meet and so much to do, on the other it can get a bit overwhelming at times especially when trying to get a few mins out of suit.

On my way home I once again stopped for a meal deal at Big ASDA Carlisle and was pleased to see there was lorne sausage, so I could take it home for my family and tell them I did in fact get them an

✨ Omiyage ✨