WikiFur:This week's featured article/Week 29, 2007

Califur is a convention that succeeded the long-running ConFurence as the annual furry event of Southern California. Califur is organized by FENEC Adventures. Related events include Califur Train, and Califur Diego. Attendance has grown from 328 in 2004 to 496 as of 2007.

FENEC ("Furries Enjoying the Natural Environments of California") was conceived by Alohawolf, Dawn Britt, and Dennis Carr with the initial idea of having a furry-themed campout. While riding home from the southern California FurBQ, Dawn commented to Dennis and his wife, Karmin, about the lack of other camping events such as Feral! in Southern California. Dennis pointed this out while chatting on the Furnet IRC Network, and Robert took charge from there.

As the campout was being planned, additional staffers including Glen Wooten, Zsanene "Zee" Stevens, Tank "Trapa" Winters, "Drew kitty" along with ConFurence co-founders Mark Merlino and Rod O'Riley were brought on board. With the demise of ConFurence in 2003, Mark and Robert expressed a desire to see a regional convention maintained in Southern California. The decision was made in early autumn of 2003 to plan a traditional hotel-based convention to succeed ConFurence 2003 with Califur 0 the following year. (more...)