Health & Safety
Below you’ll find answers to the questions about our safety operations for this event. The well-being of attendees and staff is always our highest priority. We ask that you carefully read through the information given here.
COVID Safety
We continue to recognize that COVID-19 impacts the community to this day. We encourage all attendees to participate in practicing COVID safety such as: staying up to date with vaccinations, wearing high quality masks, testing for COVID before and after event(s) and staying home when feeling ill. We strive to create a community safe for all furries, including those who are high risk and/or immunocompromised.
MASKing
We encourage all those who can mask to do so to create a more accessible environment for community members who are disabled and/or immunocompromised. For those who wish to mask at our events we encourage you to wear a high quality mask. The best masks for the COVID-19 variants we face today are N95, KN94 and KN94. While surgical and fabric masks are better than no mask, they do not provide great protection from airborne diseases such as COVID-19, the flu and colds. When masking make sure to adequately bend the nose bridge wire around your nose to form a better seal. We also recognize that not all people are physically capable of masking due to medical conditions and/or disability. Bullying for wearing or not wearing masks will not be tolerated.
CDC Guidelines for mask wearing
Testing
We highly recommend testing for COVID-19 before and after our events. For information about testing please refer to the CDC's guidance.
Symptoms of COVID-19 continue to evolve and change as time goes on and different variants pop up. Please refer to the most updated list of symptoms from the CDC.
If you test positive we ask that you do not attend any of our events until you are consistently testing negative. This helps us keep our attendees, volunteers, and high risk communities safe.
Vaccinations
Staying updated on COVID-19 and flu vaccinations are a great way to protect yourself and the community. For information about updated vaccines follow the link below.
I’M NOT FEELING WELL, BUT I REALLY, REALLY WANT TO ATTEND!
For the safety of everyone, we would request if you are feeling ill before New Years Furry Ball 2025 to please consider not attending for your safety and the safety of others. We want to limit the spread of Covid-19 and other illnesses to our attendees, staff and other communities both near and far.
For those who pre-registered and become ill 5 days before the convention we can provide a refund for NYFB 2025. If you fall ill after the 5 day refund period we can roll your registration to NYFB 2026. If you do fall ill, please contact the registration department at registration@thefurststate.com for refund procedures, and please get better soon!
If you fall ill at the convention we ask you to notify your roommates and isolate from others. Please be a good neighbor to those in your room and at the convention.
Food Allergy
As of this year we will be providing accommodations for those with food allergies at our provided dinner. We cannot guarantee the food will not be cross contaminated or use shared equipment with allergens. The kitchens menu changes frequently and may not be able to make all necessary changes. If you have a deadly food allergy we strong advise avoiding eating at the shared dinner for your own safety.
If you wish to make a request of accommodation please fill out this form.
Accessibility
For any questions about accessibility at New Years Furry Ball please contact our Accessibility person, Bee (they/them), on Telegram or Instagram @canibeabee and by email tfscanibeabee@gmail.com.
FUTURE UPDATES
We will continue to do our best to assure the safety of all who attend New Years Furry Ball. Please do your best to be safe, we look forward to seeing you at our event!
Last updated : 07/30/2024